How NC State is looking to move past its 0-3 start to ACC play

After its 24-17 loss to Syracuse on Saturday night at Carter-Finley Stadium, NC State is 0-3 to open its ACC slate this season — its worst start since it began 0-4 in the league during the 2014 campaign.

The Pack has yet to earn a win over a power conference opponent this fall with victories over Southern Conference, Mid-America Conference and Conference USA opponents through the first seven weeks. NC State has also lost back-to-back games for the first time this season and it marked the first time the Wolfpack has recorded two straight defeats at home since 2019. 

So where does the Pack go from here?

For graduate linebacker Devon Betty, it’s all about sticking together inside the Murphy Center. 

“The key to it is to keep everybody glued together,” Betty said. “It’s tough. When things like this happen for most teams, the teams start to break up and separate, go their own way. I feel like here, we’ve been through enough stuff together to know that we’re all we’ve got, we’re all we need.”

The Wolfpack was in a similar situation a year ago where the team was 4-3 going into its Week 8 bye. NC State, which had a turbulent start to the 2023 campaign, used a 24-3 loss at Duke to reset itself. The result was a five-game winning streak to close the regular season. 

While this fall’s Wolfpack has a taller mountain to climb over the last five games than last year’s squad, that experience could serve useful for those that were on the team for it. 

And those that weren’t? They seem to be in a mindset to keep progressing through the season as the offense looked to take a step forward in the 7-point loss to Syracuse this past Saturday. 

“It’s either we’re going to bend or break,” said redshirt freshman wide receiver Noah Rogers, who transferred in from Ohio State in the offseason. “There’s a lot of guys in the locker room that are not going for that. I’m definitely not going for that. I’m going to keep playing. It’s a blessing to play this game, so why would we stop here? There’s still a lot of football ahead.”

NC State still has another game to play at California before its first of two open weeks. The Pack utilized the week off a year ago to right the ship, but now it has to do it before embarking on a cross-country flight to Berkeley. 

Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren, who is in his 12th season at the helm, had a simple explanation for the message moving forward. 

“You just tell them the truth,” Doeren said. “We fought hard, I told them I was proud of their fight and told them we can’t turn the ball over … and expect to win. It’s honest.”

The fight Doeren referred to was a field goal with just under two minutes left, which cut the deficit to a touchdown, but the Wolfpack was unable to recover the onside kick at the end of the fourth quarter. 

NC State was in a hole since it turned the ball over three times inside the Syracuse 30-yard line, which led to three Orange touchdowns. Freshman quarterback CJ Bailey, who committed two of the turnovers with a fumble and an interception, admitted the giveaways haven’t been helpful as the Pack looks to go in the right direction. 

“As the game goes on, I’ve gotta be able to take care of the ball more,” Bailey said. “That’s the main thing. That’s what’s killing us. We’re playing so well. We’re flipping the field, we just keep turning the ball over. … We can’t keep turning the ball over. I can’t keep turning the ball over.”

Now, as the Wolfpack looks down the stretch to close the regular season on a high note, the team knows it has to finish drives. 

“This is just the turning point of the season where we go into the second half and change things around, get things going,” Rogers said. “The main message is to finish. Second half of the season, we’ve just gotta finish and keep playing hard. We haven’t been playing our Wolfpack football.”

In the meantime, NC State will look to keep the team morale together. The Pack is well aware that is key in getting the results it wants on the field and the leaders in the locker room are tasked with keeping the roster together. 

And Doeren, who has weathered the storm before, wants his squad to continue to play for one another for the remaining five games to lead to positive results. 

“I care a lot about these players,” Doeren said. “I just want them to play hard for each other, keep getting better, and eventually the tide’s going to turn if you do it that way.”