Notebook: NC State football bounces back vs. Louisville
After a grueling, hard-fought 60-minute battle, NC State football claimed bowl eligibility and retained control of its own destiny in the hunt for the ACC Atlantic Division title Saturday night.
The Wolfpack advanced to 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the ACC with a 28-13 win over Louisville in Carter-Finley Stadium.
Following a disappointing road loss to Miami last weekend along with the loss of redshirt junior linebacker and team captain Isaiah Moore due to season-ending knee surgery, the Pack desperately needed a home win to regain its conference before the final third stretch of its regular season.
Despite trailing a talented Cardinals squad in the second half, NC State football stepped up when it needed to in the fourth quarter and handled business for Homecoming.
“We’re bowl-eligible now coming off of another tough loss with a great win,” head coach Dave Doeren said. “ It just says a lot about the resiliency of this group. Very proud of them and love the way we finished the game.”
The Wolfpack was outgained in total yardage, producing 361 compared to Louisville’s 434 yards for the game.
But after the Cardinals took the lead with a field goal on the opening possession of the second half, the Pack defense clamped down and allowed its offense to go take the game.
NC State outscored Louisville 21-3 and outgained the Cardinals 156 to 55 yards in the fourth quarter.
During that stretch, the Pack was a perfect 2-of-2 on third-down conversions. The Wolfpack defense also stopped Louisville on all three of its third-down attempts and both of its attempts on fourth down.
Devin Leary delivers vintage performance for NC State football
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary’s breakout game was in last season’s road win over Pittsburgh in which he threw for over 300 yards, four touchdowns and led the Pack on a game-winning touchdown drive.
Fast forward one year, and 2021 may be Leary’s breakout season for NC State football.
On Saturday night, Leary put the rest of the ACC on notice.
The Wolfpack quarterback completed 69 percent of his passes for 317 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. He also completed at least one pass to 10 different receivers.
“He’s just playing smart,” Doeren said. “There’s times where he’s trying to be a little bit too perfect. But man, he’s gutsy. He stands in there when they’re blitzing, he’s taking hits and throwing good passes and taking care of the football.
“He gave guys chances to make plays and they did. That’s the bottom line. In this league, you’re going to have tight coverage and you’re going to have to make contact-type catches. You’re going to have to, as a quarterback, read different things and react. Devin did that. And multiple guys stepped up to make plays for him.”
Leary was also the reason the Pack was able to cruise to victory in the fourth quarter.
After the defense kept NC State football’s team within striking distance for three quarters, Leary and the offense was finally able to crack the Louisville scheme and find its rhythm.
Three of Leary’s four touchdown passes came in the fourth quarter. He also completed 7 of 8 passes and produced nearly half of his passing yards in the final 15 minutes.
“He was clutch,” Doeren said. “Coach Beck did some nice things formationally and got us into some better looks and called some timely plays. They were bringing a lot of pressure to stop our run game tonight. They did some nice thing with the blitzes. Devin, as the game went on, started to identify what was happening.”
Drake Thomas steps up big in Isaiah Moore’s absence
One of the tightest bonds in the NC State football locker room is that between sophomore linebacker Drake Thomas and redshirt junior linebacker Isaiah Moore.
Thomas refers to Moore as his brother.
On Monday, Doeren announced that Moore would undergo season-ending injury. That left what was considered the ACC’s top linebacker corps without the preseason ACC Defensive Player of the Year (redshirt sophomore linebacker Payton Wilson) and who many consider the midseason ACC Defensive Player of the Year (Moore).
That also left Thomas as the lone opening day starting linebacker left on the NC State football depth chart with five games remaining.
Thomas has already been among the most productive players on the Wolfpack defense this season, but he was undoubtedly the best on the field Saturday night.
He produced a game-high 15 tackles, 2.5 for loss and two sacks.
“Drake’s a great leader,” Doeren said. “He’s been a great leader. He’s a guy that we named a captain immediately when he lost Payton. He’s been playing well all season.”
He also took over Moore’s role at middle linebacker, allowing redshirt junior reserve Vi Jones to take on Thomas’s normal outside backer duties.
“You saw him at Mike linebacker tonight,” Doeren said. “[Thomas played all three spots this season. He’s graded outs as well as any guy on our football team in every game.
“He’s a warrior. I love having a guy like that in the middle of our defense. Losing Isaiah is a huge loss. To be able to put a guy like Drake in the middle is a nice luxury to have.
“To have a guy that hasn’t played that position all season, never, actually, since he’s been here, to step in and play like that says a ton about that young man.”