NC State focused on ‘responding’ to Tennessee loss with Louisiana Tech up next

NC State has touted its off-field chemistry all preseason, and in its first experience with adversity, the Wolfpack appeared to have handled it in stride. The Pack, which lost by 41 to Tennessee in the Duke’s Mayo Classic, returned to Raleigh with a mission: Not to let that turn into two or three losses. 

And in order to hold each other accountable, the Wolfpack held a players-only meeting to talk about what went wrong against the Volunteers and how that can change moving forward. Senior defensive end Davin Vann approached coach Dave Doeren with the idea of the meeting, and the 12th-year man was on board.

“Heck yeah,” Doeren told Vann. 

The meeting happened Sunday night and the Wolfpack’s captains — graduate quarterback Grayson McCall, graduate center Zeke Correll, redshirt junior linebacker Sean Brown and Vann — all spoke up. 

For Doeren, that is exactly what he wants to see within his team, which is still learning how to play with one another on the field through the first two weeks of the season. He noted it is a captain’s responsibility to know when to use his platform and thought this was a perfect time to do so.

“Sometimes it’s something that needs to be said with just those guys in the room so they can go into certain things, maybe, that they don’t want to say in front of the staff,” Doeren said. “That’s healthy, that’s really healthy.”

NC State has experienced slow starts on offense in each of the past two weeks, scoring just 14 points in the first half against Western Carolina in the opener and a lone field goal in the loss to Tennessee. The Pack’s goal this week is to flip that script. The meeting was step one, while an energetic week of practice appeared to be the second stage of the process. 

Doeren mentioned execution on the field being a big piece to the Wolfpack’s ability to bounce back against Louisiana Tech this weekend at Carter-Finley Stadium. And he is not alone in that thinking. 

Redshirt freshman wide receiver Noah Rogers echoed that sentiment earlier this week. 

“It’s just execution,” Rogers said earlier this week. “Starting out fast, being exact, making sure everybody’s communicating properly. And was that the best you could have done on that play? It’s just all the small things that lead to big things. We’re trying to eliminate every negative in the offense that we can.”

While NC State’s off-field chemistry is at a point that Doeren and his staff like, the on-field connection is not at the same level. That has led to some of the miscues through the first two weeks, especially in run blocking as the team is averaging 4.0 yards per carry. If the Wolfpack’s fourth quarter against Western Carolina is removed from that, NC State’s total drops to 2.6 yards per attempt. 

Doeren hoped that another week of practice would help a team that is littered with more than 40 new faces between transfers and true freshmen. 

“It’s a work in progress,” Doeren said of the on-field chemistry. “When you have 41, 42 new players, it’s not just something you snap your fingers and fix. You gotta have reps and game reps are most important when it comes to that. That’s when you really see what’s going on when the bullets are flying, per say.”

“It’s going to get better and better,” Doeren continued. “This is a team that has to improve each week and that’s what this week’s about. It’s about responding.”

NC State’s leadership appeared adamant to provide a good response to the meltdown in Charlotte to reset before the ACC opener at Clemson next weekend. Now, it is up to the Wolfpack’s players to show it in between the white-painted lines on the team’s natural grass home field in front of a sold-out 56,919-person crowd.  

“I like the resiliency of the team,” Doeren said. “Now, it’s time to prove it.”