Wolfpack Finally Gets to 'Play Some Football'

NC State's players were excited to be back in pads and hitting one another again for the first time since spring practice was prematurely halted in March

The NC State football team has been back on the practice field for two weeks now. But for the first time since returning from a four-month long coronavirus exile, the Wolfpack actually got to play a little football Wednesday.

For veterans such as senior offensive lineman Joe Sculthorpe, the first day of full pad contact was a welcome return to normalcy.

Or at least something close to it.

"During the offseason football was a real question mark and as we got closer and closer to the season we didn't know if we were going to have contact during practice," Sculthorpe said. "But being able to get back to actually playing football as opposed to spreading out, doing walk-throughs and talking through things is a lot more fun than sitting around and questioning if we were going to be able to hit at practice. I had a lot of fun."

There are still a lot of non-football related questions to be answered before the Wolfpack is able to begin its 2020 season as scheduled on Saturday, Sept. 12 at Virginia Tech because of COVID-19.

It's been a frustrating situation for everybody involved.

But as junior nickel Tyler Baker-Williams said, the ability to suit up and initiate some contact has given him and his teammates a way to release some of that frustration in a positive way.

"It really felt good, because we haven't had contact in awhile, for three or four months," he said. "It felt good to step back, put some pads back on and put some contact on somebody else."

The players weren't the only ones fired up about all the hitting that was going on Wednesday. 

Coach Dave Doeren said he was just as as excited to see it as well. And for the first day in pads, he liked what he saw.

"The guys had great energy," Doeren said. "That's the thing that's fun about this group, they're really enjoying practice and bringing a lot of enthusiasm. There's a lot of mistakes we've got to fix, a lot of fundamental things. 

"But we went through a lot of different things today -- first down, second down, third down, moved the ball quite a bit, got into some good situational football. We had two live segments during our individuals just to get guys accustomed to the thud and what we need to get done in some blocking situations."

Although there's still a long way to go to be ready to actually play a game, Doeren said Wednedsay's practice was a good place to start.

"There's some consistency you're starting to see, less mental mistakes" he said. "Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the day." 

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