NC State Midseason Checkup: Progress, Problems & What’s Ahead
RALEIGH — NC State completed the first half of the 2025 season with an emphatic 56-10 win over Campbell, an FCS opponent, Saturday in front of the Carter-Finley Stadium crowd. The win moved the Wolfpack to 4-2 on the season, with both losses coming in ACC play.
The start to the season has been adventurous, to say the least, filled with significant ups and downs in all phases of the games for the Wolfpack. The team looked to be full of promise after a 3-0 start with a win over a talented Virginia team, but back-to-back losses to Duke and Virginia Tech lowered the confidence of the fan base significantly.
However, many members of the team and head coach Dave Doeren still believe the season can be turned around. Saturday's dominant win has the Pack pointed in the right direction heading into a matchup with Notre Dame. Before the Wolfpack enters the second half, where does the team stand?
An Improved Offense
Led by sophomore quarterback CJ Bailey, the Wolfpack's offense was a unit that needed to improve massively for the team to be competitive in the 2025 season. Under first-year offensive coordinator Kurt Roper, Bailey looks to have taken a nice step up in his second season with the Pack. Through six games, the sophomore is second in the ACC in passing yards, passing touchdowns and first in completion percentage amongst true starters in the conference.
The offense averaged 29.4 points through the first half of the season, slightly below Doeren and Roper's goal of 31 points per game. The team can move the ball down the field well when it needs to, averaging 416 yards of total offense in each game. Inconsistency and an inability to put everything together plagued the Wolfpack in the two losses, but the Campbell game was a perfect merger of the two offensive phases.
Sophomore running back Hollywood Smothers was expected to be a core part of the offense, but he's been much more than that. In his second year with the Wolfpack, Smothers is emerging as not just one of the best running backs in the ACC, but as one of top rushers in the country. His 693 rushing yards are the second most in the country, trailing only Missouri's Ahmad Hardy.
Defensive Shortcomings
In its first year under coordinator DJ Eliot, the NC State defense has been a little bit of a disappointment as a whole. The unit allowed 28 points per game in the first half of the season, a number improved by the blowout win over Campbell. Opponents are converting a ridiculous 48.05% of their third downs against the Wolfpack, ranking 119th in the nation. Missed tackles plagued the unit in its losses, with no worse showing than the 14 misses against Virginia Tech.
However, Eliot proved to be talented at identifying undervalued talent in the transfer portal. A transfer class led by defensive end Sabastian Harsh and linebacker Cian Slone performed very weel through the first six weeks. That duo in particularly emerged as one of the most reliable tandems on the roster, frustrating opposing offenses in several critical moments.
Some of the issues stemmed from the plethora of injuries building up for the defense. The nickel and safety positions has been decimated in the first six weeks, with players now working out of their normal positions to fill those holes.
Overall Assessment
NC State survived a pair of one score games against East Carolina and Virginia, so things could very easily be worse. However, it's easy to see a world where the Wolfpack entered the Notre Dame matchup with a perfect record. Poor tackling likely cost the team a pair of wins against Duke and Virginia Tech, as two explosive runs doomed the Pack in both of those losses.
The leader of the Pack, Doeren, is doing his best to fend off an increasingly frustrated fan base, but wins are all that matter the rest of the way. Unfortunately for NC State, wins might be hard to come by. Four of the final six opponents are ranked in the AP top 25: No. 16 Notre Dame, No. 13 Georgia Tech, No. 2 Miami and No. 25 Florida State. If the Wolfpack can't shock one of those teams, it will need to win a tough road game against Pitt and the rivalry matchup against North Carolina to play in a Bowl game.
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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.