(Aaron Torres is a writer who's work has been published by Sports Illustrated, USA Today and AOL.com.  To see the rest of his college football previews, where he has NC State's ACC Atlantic rival Florida State, please click here or visit him at www.aarontorres-sports.com)

NC State (6-7, 4-4 ACC):
Returning Starters: Offense 7, Defense 6

Every year I rant on and on about how much I hate preseason polls.  They remind me of when I was young, and I’d try to convince my grandma that my sister was smoking in the bathroom: fun at first, but ultimately everyone just gets worked up over nothing. 

Because what are preseason polls anyways?  Basically, a measurement of how well a team finished last year, whether or not you can name their starting quarterback and how much swagger their coach had at Media Day.  Never are the rankings based on how many seniors a team starts, what their schedule looks like, or how often their players are arrested outside campus bars, all of which are better indications of how the season will go than the first reasons mentioned.

Which again, is why I hate preseason polls.

Just look at last year’s.  It saw Auburn (5-7 final record) ranked No. 11 in the country, while their SEC West rival Ole Miss (9-4) didn’t receive a single vote from the coaches.  Not one.  I think even Boston University got a vote, and they cancelled their football program years ago.

Alabama wasn’t in the preseason top 25, and they were one game away from playing for a National Championship.  The Tide’s Sugar Bowl opponent, Utah, wasn’t ranked, but ended 2008 as college football’s only undefeated team.  Boise State went 12-1 but apparently wasn’t one of the best 25 teams in August.  The same with Oregon State, a team that was this close to winning the Pac-10.

Yet somehow Tennessee (5-7), Arizona State (5-7) and Michigan (3-9) found themselves ranked before the season started.

So with those facts, I present to you NC State.  Sure, right now they’re getting about as much attention as the chubby kid with a lisp on prom night (ranked No. 38 in Rivals.com poll, got just seven votes in the Coaches Poll).  But when the final polls are released in January, the Wolfpack will be the one’s getting the last laugh.  To channel my inner George Foreman: “I guarenteeeeee it.”

Let’s start at the most important position on the field, where Russell Wilson was an All-ACC quarterback a year ago, throwing just one interception (to 17 touchdowns) in 285 attempts. 

Let me repeat.  He threw one interception in 285 pass attempts in a sport where some guys can’t get through the pregame meal without getting picked off twice.  You take your quarterback that throws the ball 70 yards on the fly, I’m taking Wilson.  Let’s see whose coach gets fired first.

The Wolfpack will control the line of scrimmage, as they return three starters, and are expected to start four seniors on each side of line. 

Which should play well into Tom O’Brien’s boring, cliché, but tried and true game plan of controlling the clock on offense, and putting his opponents in third and long situations on defense.  Again, it may not be as fun as scoring 51 points a game, but I’ll take the O’Brien methodology.  The guy is 7-2 lifetime in bowl games…if you’re impressed by that sorts of thing.

And the Wolfpack have a schedule that sees them play eight times at home, including four of the first five.  They shouldn’t be anything worse than a pick ‘em against any of their first seven opponents.  So what’s not to love?

Well, like so many teams that aren’t named Florida and USC, NC State is incredibly thin all over the field, and unfortunately in their case, injury prone.  Their biggest challenge in 2009 won’t be Florida State or Virginia Tech, but simply keeping their players off the training table.

There was Wilson a season ago, who missed parts of a handful of games with injuries; none bigger than the PapaJohns.com Bowl, when he sprained his knee with the Wolfpack up 17-6.  They ended up losing the game.

And running back Toney Baker, who came to Raleigh in 2005 as a mega-recruit, only to miss essentially all of the last two seasons with injuries.

But the biggest and most recent injury news came just a short time ago, when it was announced that starting linebacker Nate Irving - who had 84 tackles and four interceptions last year - will miss the entire 2009 season after an offseason car accident.  There’s no way around it, this guy was NC State’s physical and emotional leader on defense, and he will be missed. 

So like every other team, the bad is side by side with the good as we head into the season. 

But when it’s time to gamble on someone coming into 2009, I’ll do so with the one who’s got experience and toughness in the trenches, an (almost literal) mistake-free quarterback, and a proven winner for a coach.

You can keep your preseason polls, and I’ll keep my common sense poll.  We’ll see who’s on top come January.

(Agree with Aaron? Disagree? Let him at www.aarontorres-sports.com.  Also, be sure to click here for all of Aaron's college football previews.  More to come Wednesday, including NC State's blueblooded rival, North Carolina)