NC State's new season approach has worked so far; Wake Forest is next

Coming out of NC State’s bye week, off a 24-3 loss at Duke, Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren equated the final five games on the schedule akin to a new season. NC State wanted to put its 4-3 start in the past, and focus on what it could control: winning down the stretch. 

The 11th-year coach said he took the off week to sit down and look at how NC State needed to play on offense, defense and special teams to close the season. After that, he took it to his coaches and players, and it appears they were on board with it. 

Doeren’s philosophical approach to the end of the season is off to a hot start. NC State downed Clemson 24-17 in its first game removed from the open week before it outlasted Miami 20-6 this past weekend in Raleigh. 

“I think sometimes we all get hung up in the past,” Doeren said Monday afternoon. “Not that the past doesn’t matter, it does, but being more in the moment and understanding what you still have left to play for, to me, was the right thing to do at that time.”

So far, it has been successful, and Doeren is looking forward to utilizing the same mindset as the Wolfpack embarks on its final two road games — at Wake Forest and Virginia Tech — before it concludes its regular season against North Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium.

“They’ve done a good job,” Doeren said of his squad. “Everything we can do to win the next game, that’s it. Forget about the past. Don’t think about the end, think about today. And I know that’s easier said than done, but our guys bought into that.”

The next game is against the Demon Deacons, one of the Wolfpack’s longest-running rivals on the gridiron. The two teams first met in 1895, and have played 116 times since that date. 

Wake Forest is 4-5 this season, including 1-5 in ACC play, but Doeren was quick to note the Demon Deacons are a better squad than that.

“Just an old rivalry game, one of the oldest out there,” Doeren said. “We’ve had a lot of close ones with them, a lot of nail-biters, one-possession games. They play hard, and they’re better than their record.”

The Demon Deacons present an interesting challenge for the Wolfpack this week. They use a slow mesh offense to keep defenses on their toes, and Wake Forest is tough to beat in Winston-Salem. 

In the past four contests between the two teams, the home team has won. But NC State has dropped its last three games at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium. 

Wake Forest edged NC State 45-42 in 2021, raced past the Wolfpack 44-10 in 2019 and beat the red and white 30-24 in 2017. NC State’s most recent win at Wake Forest was a 35-17 victory in 2015, which is also Doeren’s lone triumph in Winston-Salem. 

“Understand, they’re not easy to beat in their stadium,” Doeren said. “That’s a place a lot of people fail at. A lot of focus is going to be how do we go down there and be the best team that we can be.”

Being the best team NC State can be has not been an issue over the past two weeks with the Wolfpack’s defense standing tall, and its offense managing enough points to edge Clemson and Miami. The Pack is focused on taking that success and using it against Wake Forest. 

But Doeren is well aware the Demon Deacons, who are hosting senior day on Saturday, are capable of winning in ACC play — they have just been on the wrong side of close contests. 

“You’ve got to go earn this one,” Doeren said. “And I think that’s one thing our team has figured out. If you don’t beat yourself, and you play really, really hard longer than the guy across from you, then you’re going to win. We have to keep doing it.”

NC State has been able to strain longer than its opponents with Doeren’s approach of a new season. With Wake Forest being the next opponent, the Demon Deacons are on NC State’s mind. 

That perspective has proven fruitful, and Doeren said it was what the team needed to be able to refocus itself for a strong finish. 

“I thought that was our best approach: focus on what we can do,” Doeren said, “not what we haven’t done.”

That mindset has worked through two games against legacy programs in college football. Now, the Pack has a trio of games to continue that success with, and it starts at Wake Forest.