Wolfpack hoping road won't be so rocky this time

Lessons learned from loss at West Virginia would help Saturday at Florida State

Ben Queen/USAToday sports

The NC State football team is taking its show on the road for the second time this season on Saturday. Coach Dave Doeren can only hope that his team handles itself better in its ACC opener at Florida State than it did at West Virginia on its first trip into hostile territory.

 "It was a great experience in a bad way for our guys. We learned a lot from that trip," Doeren said of the 44-27 loss in Morgantown on Sept. 14. "Not that I’m glad that we lost that game. I’m not. But I’m glad we had the opportunity to go on the road before we start conference play and play in a place like that.”

Doeren said he tried to prepare his players about the perils of playing on the road before the West Virginia game, but that they didn't heed the warning.

He said that there wasn't enough energy on the sideline and it carried over to the field, especially in the second half when things started going bad and the Mountaineers began pulling away after being tied at halftime.

The Wolfpack coach is banking that the lessons learned from that experience -- combined with the return of senior captain and steadying influence James Smith-Williams -- will make a difference when the lights come on and the crowd gets loud at Doak Campbell Stadium.

The Wolfpack hurt itself against the Mountaineers by committing a series of mental mistakes -- ranging in severity from presnap procedure penalties to a major special teams breakdown that led to a game-changing blocked punt.

Quarterback Matthew McKay said that the biggest takeaway from experience at West Virginia was learning to tune out the noise, literally, and not letting it affect his team's execution.

"It's just situational football," McKay said. "Just converting on third downs, stopping drives from being drive stoppers, executing, taking the layups, taking what they give you and not forcing anything."

Sophomore nickel Tyler Baker-Williams said that he and his teammates need to do a better job of staying focused against the Seminoles, especially when the inevitable adversity hits and the partisan crowd turns up the volume.

"Just staying poised," Baker-Williams said. "All the fans against us, all the players, all the noise ... we just have to stay together and play with confidence."

It should help that, unlike West Virginia, the Wolfpack won't be traveling into unfamiliar territory this time. Even with so many first-time starters, many of its current players were on the team when it made its most recent trip to Tallahassee in 2017, a game State won 27-21.