Pack taking expectations in stride

NC State has high hopes for 2022, but the Wolfpack is holding itself accountable and not getting distracted by outside expectations.

There is another level that the NC State football team can reach. They know it. Others know it. Many seem to believe this can be the season it happens. 

For the Wolfpack, their expectations for 2022 are the only noise that they are hearing.

The starters played well recently in the spring game, with the Red Team smashing the White Team, 50-7, but there were plenty of good vibes afterward. 

Despite the dominance of the starters, NC State head coach Dave Doeren mentioned that his team is steadily building from within.

"We have improved our depth this spring," Doeren said. "Getting the long-term injured guys from the fall out of the mix and allowing these younger players to get reps this spring helps to create some competitive depth for fall camp." 

The Pack benefitted from added and unexpected boosts in the spring game. Anthony Smith, a freshman wideout from Huntingtown, Maryland, was an offensive delight for NCSU, as he often used speed to get over the top of defenders and create separation. 

"It is kind of what we were hoping to see," Doeren said.

Perhaps the most important player NC State must replace is Ickey Ekwonu, with the All-American being projected as an early first-round pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. That is a job assignment that is still up in the air, with Bryson Speas, Tim McKay, and Anthony Belton all in the mix. 

"There are positions, left tackle being one of them, where we have got a lot of things to figure out from a depth standpoint," Doeren said. "As a roster, I like the growth we have had from the threes and the twos (on the depth chart)."

Tanner Ingle agrees with Doeren. 

"Having these younger guys out there getting reps they need, getting the experience and the live reps they need, it allows them to get better and actually get those real game reps they need to go into the fall season," Ingle said. 

The difference between many top teams in the college football rankings and those in the next group of programs that fill out the top-25 often boils down to depth. National champion-caliber schools often do not lose as much when the players at the bottom of the two or three-deep get game action.

NC State has seldom had the type of depth that can counter that, despite often sending players into the NFL. The Wolfpack can hang with the better teams, but fatigue among the ones or being forced to tap into the reserves due to injury can make it tough. 

NCSU finally broke through and beat Clemson for the first time in eight tries since Doeren was hired prior to the 2013 campaign, but the Pack came up just short in its attempt to reach the conference title game for the first time in program history. 

Hence the hope that 2022 is the season for a breakthrough. NC State wants it bad but is not prepared to put the horse before the cart. 

"In this building, we are just focused on what we are focused on," Ingle said. "We are worried about getting one percent better every day at a time. We don't worry about the expectations the media has for us."

Smith might be newer to the program than Ingle, who enters his fifth year at NC State, but the young wideout also knows where the Pack likes its attention to be in the spring. 

"We all just kind of lean on each other," Smith said. "Nothing gets over our head. Nobody gets too big-headed when they hear the good talk about how we are doing this spring and how good players are doing. We all just lean on each other and help motivate each other. We do not really listen to outside sources. We just kind of stay within us."

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