How NC State’s Week Off Set Up a Strong Push
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RALEIGH — When the click showed zeroes in South Bend two weeks ago, NC State walked off the field losers of three of the last four games. The exciting 3-0 start looked like a mirage, a false promise to a fan base increasingly hungry for a winner.
With every loss comes reflection. The Wolfpack's schedule made it so the team had a full week off to reflect on the loss and the others that came before it.
Like many teams, NC State conducted a significant self-scout during the bye, identifying points of strength and weakness. The Wolfpack, in need of two wins in five games to reach bowl eligibility, turned its collective gaze inward and is banking on growth in Saturday's game against a red-hot Pitt Panthers squad.
Doeren on the Self-Scout
After playing seven straight games, it became evident the battered Wolfpack needed some time away from the pressures of Saturdays. With several critical injuries on the defense, the bye allowed the team to heal and get fill-in options up to speed without throwing them into the fires of the game.
It also allowed head coach Dave Doeren to try to diagnose what caused NC State's inability to play complementary football each game.
"Obviously it's always a head-scratcher for me, because you're always talking about it, you're always emphasizing it," Doeren said. "But when you watch our games, and particularly the ones people focus on are the ones we lose, that's what shows up."
In each loss, a different phase let the Wolfpack down. Against Notre Dame, the offense failed to string together drives and turned the ball over. Against Virginia Tech, the defense collapsed against the run. Even in wins, different units have suffered in different ways.
Doeren remains adamant that the group is very coachable and passionate about the season. What he came away from the bye was not a lack of effort or talent on his roster.
"When you look at us, the two games that we came up short where we felt like we gave away football games. It's execution," he said Monday. "And it's not one player, it's not one side of the ball, it's all three phases, taking turns at not executing well enough. And so these are fixable things."
Doeren was asked if the different issues from each game made it more difficult to correct during the bye week. He thought for a moment and agreed. It's clear the veteran coach spent the time away grappling with what's gone wrong for his team. But he hasn't lost hope.
"You're asking each one of those players to just do one percent one more thing in their game with these bye weeks. And if you can get that at 100% rate, you have a dramatic amount of improvement in a game. And that's what we need...," Doeren said.
The Players' Perspective
Wolfpack star tight end Justin Joly is admittedly a film junkie. He spent the weekend away from the field watching NC State's next opponent, Pitt, and other games like Stanford's massive upset over Florida State, which ended around 2 A.M. Sunday.
"I don't really do much to be honest with you guys," Joly said.
When he wasn't tinkering and watching his own games, Joly thought about his team. With just five and perhaps six games left in his college career, the tight end wants to go down swinging with the Wolfpack.
"Our team, we're resilient. We're not going to give up. We all fight for each other. We're all brothers and we all got a lot of love, so it's like you know the person next to you is giving their 100% 100% of the time," he said.
Sophomore wideout Terrell Anderson checked out of the Notre Dame game early after suffering an injury. He caught the only touchdown in the loss. The confident young receiver spent the week off in the training room getting his body back to normal. With his shoulder healed, Anderson feels the team is ready for one final push after some soul-searching.
"I was really focusing on just getting my body back together. My shoulder. Doing a lot of rehab and just learning," Anderson said. "Watching film. Getting new installs. But just focused on getting my body together first."
The bye and self-scout opportunity couldn't have come at a better time for the Wolfpack's ailing secondary, led by senior cornerback Devon Marshall. With a number of redshirt freshmen filling in at key roles in the back of the defense, the group met over the bye week to get every player on the same page.
"It's just looking at film, looking at practice ... It's really just looking at the mistakes that we made," Marshall said. "Not really the good, but all the bad and just trying to correct those."
The veteran corner said the players met on their own in addition to their normal film sessions and practices with the coaching staff.
While there wasn't one unifying trend the members of the Wolfpack who spoke early in the week pointed to, it's clear the team made great strides during the bye week to improve as a unit. Doeren's players will get their first chance to prove it against Pitt on Saturday.
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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