For NC State football, the ACC title remains the goal

NC State head coach Dave Doeren enjoys and looks forward to the journey, but he does not shy away from the destination either. He began stressing ACC Championship and College Football Playoff aspirations early this year when the team resumed workouts in January.

For years, the Wolfpack sat within reach of the conference title game just to be reigned in by the Atlantic Division’s constraints. Even if NC State did make it to Charlotte one of those seasons and finished the year with a playoff-caliber record, Florida State showed last year there was no guarantee of a berth into the top four.

Doeren, along with the rest of the Pack and the country as a whole, sees a defined path now. NC State locks in an automatic playoff spot if it wins the ACC. The head coach made the program’s goal for the year clear during Thursday’s ACC Kickoff.

“What does greatness look like for NC State?” Doeren said. “We want to hold that trophy up at the end of the year.”

He met with the team in January and laid down the red brick road to his team. This is how you make it to the playoff, Doeren said. He outlined a clear path for NC State to take itself to the next level after rattling off three-consecutive seasons of eight wins or more.

Graduate running back Jordan Waters transferred from NC State to Duke last season after playing a key role in the Blue Devils winning 17 games over the past couple of years— the program’s best two-year win total since 2013-14.

The experienced rusher is ready to bring newfound success to another program. He said NC State talks about its playoff aspirations every week.

“We all want to get to the playoffs, and I think we can and we will,” Waters said.

Doeren and the rest of the Pack is locked in on the process to reach that point. They might have the end goal on their minds, but that does not mean the program is looking past the path to get there. Waters deflected a question about the nationally hyped matchup against Tennessee, pointing to the season-opening matchup with Western Carolina.

Championship expectations are not new to the Pack. The program fully expected to reach those heights in 2022 before a barrage of quarterback injuries derailed the season. Doeren acknowledged the return of that high bar of preseason hope publicly during ACC Kickoff, and senior defensive lineman Davin Vann said he talks about that plenty behind the scenes.

“I think it’s just more prevalent this year, and we’ve kind of focused on the details of what it looks like,” Vann said.

NC State’s head coach hesitated to answer too many questions about the outlook for certain position groups or players Thursday. The Wolfpack needs to hit the field for fall camp first. He still “absolutely” believes this team has what it takes to compete for the ACC crown.

While the team is not perfect, Doeren stressed, the Pack does understand the program’s goal. Staff, player and overall culture continuity helped NC State clearly communicate its standard to new and returning members of the team.

It’s Doeren’s job to maintain that expectation. He’s not going to ignore problems or coddle players when things go sideways. NC State wants to make a leap, and a group commitment to the Pack’s ‘Hard, Tough, Together’ mantra is an important part of that.

“I’m not going to be a feel-good coach when things aren’t good,” Doeren said. “We’ve got to make sure that we point out things and, on a great football team, the players are doing that too. They’re holding each other up to the standard and making sure that everybody’s doing the right things.”

The College Football Playoff’s expansion to 12 teams, a field that includes a maximum of 11 Power Four programs, created new opportunities NC State— a team that has ranked as high as No. 10 in the Associated Press poll over the past couple of years.

Doeren knows the path to the postseason. He has been communicating that to the players for months, and now it’s all about execution and mutual buy-in from all parties involved.

Opportunity awaits for NC State.

“I think they’ve opened the doors to a lot of programs like ours— the ones that have hovered in the 15 to 25 range,” Doeren said. “You know that one more win can catapult you into another seat. It’s definitely fun being in a situation where you know that this is real.”