Skip to main content
nc-state logo

NC State’s Payton Wilson challenged the team to be tougher; Clemson is the first test

image_6483441 (3)by:Noah Fleischman•10/26/23•

fleischman_noah

Dave Doeren
Oct 14, 2023; Durham, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina State Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren on the sideline during the second half of the game against Duke Blue Devils at Wallace Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jaylynn Nash-USA TODAY Sports

Shortly after NC State’s 24-3 loss at Duke in its last time on the field, graduate linebacker Payton Wilson had a diagnosis of the team’s effort. The Wolfpack’s loss was not because it needed to improve skill-wise — that was there already, but the team’s _ was challenged. 

“Honestly, we don’t need to get better; we need to get tougher,” Wilson said postgame. “This whole team needs to get tougher from offense, defense to special teams.”

Wilson did not stop there sitting in Durham. He continued. 

“People in the stands can probably see it,” Wilson said. “There are some times it feels like there are only three people on the field at once. I just think that, at certain times, we don’t have people running to the ball all the time, we don’t have everybody playing as hard as they possibly could, and Duke does.”

It will have been two weeks since NC State’s veteran leader publicly challenged his teammates after the Pack’s third loss of the season when the red and white host Clemson on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium. While Wilson opened that can of worms, Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren used that same message with the team. 

Doeren’s teams are built with toughness as one of the pillars of the program, and he was not happy with the Wolfpack’s display of that at Duke.

“Win or lose, I want to see elite toughness,” Doeren said. “That’s the thing that this team has always been under me — physical and tough. … That was my biggest takeaway from the game, and why I felt so bad coming off the field. I did not feel like that was the DNA that we have in our program. Win or lose, we need to go out there and fight and be physical.”

NC State went through its bye week and a full week of practices with that in mind: they need to be tougher. 

And the message was heard loud and clear.

“We’re ready to play,” NC State redshirt sophomore safety Sean Brown said this week. “It sucks going into a bye week with a loss, but we’re just ready to get back on the field and express our anger.”

As Doeren was told about Brown’s reference to playing with anger, he agreed. The 11th-year coach said that most people play football for the contact portion of it. He welcomed his players using that to their advantage — but in the correct way. 

“For those guys that do have anger, then yeah, it’s a great place to use that and vent,” Doeren said. “Obviously within the rules, and you’re doing your job. As a former player, that was my safe place to be fun and be physical.”

Doeren did not just want Brown to play that way. He wished that the entire team had that mentality against the Tigers. 

“I hope all our players do that, I do,” Doeren said. “The biggest thing for us, we want to be physical, we want to be tough. It was something that I don’t think we were enough in the last game, so this will be a great game to go out there and play that way.”

While toughness has been the theme of the week, Doeren has also mentioned he wants his players to play without hesitation. He saw home of that against Duke, which is likely a byproudct of not wanting to make a mistake. 

Doeren does not mind if a player makes a mistake at full speed — they will learn from it and hopefully not do it again — but the errors from being too careful are what he wants to see change. 

Playing fast is in Doeren-coached teams’ DNA, and he hopes that the Pack rechannel that as Clemson visits Raleigh for a matinee this weekend.

“Sometimes I think guys try to be perfect, and playing football that was is cautious,” Doeren said. “That’s not the type of football team I want to coach. … Fast and physical, that’s what we’re trying to get. Can we play that way in the stadium on Saturday? That’s the big challenge right now.”

You may also like