NC State locker room notes from Louisville loss
Shortly before NC State kicked off against Louisville, the team announced a group of impact players would miss the road matchup against the Cardinals. On the field, their absence was noticeable, as the defense eventually wore down in the second half, and the offense could not turn the occasional flash into sustained success during the the 25-10 loss.
The Wolfpack fell to 7-4 on the season with only a rivalry matchup in Chapel Hill with North Carolina remaining before bowl season. After the game, head coach Dave Doeren, quarterback Ben Finley and safety Tanner Ingle spoke to the media.
It was not a normal week of game prep for Dave Doeren
Doeren mentioned Monday during his press conference that it felt wrong to focus on football following the tragic shooting on UVA’s campus. Then, Joseph Boletepeli, a former NC State defensive lineman, was arrested for threatening and stalking Doeren. The head coach could not talk about that situation.
“I can’t comment on it,” Doeren said. “As far as me personally, obviously, it’s something I’ve never had to deal with. It was a difficult week with the UVA situation on top of that. I thought it was just a lot of things away from football. It wasn’t a normal Sunday, Monday or Tuesday for really the country that pays attention to college football, and then I had a few more things going on than others so, just take it one day at a time and go from there.”
On top of everything going on off of the field, NC State’s roster is dealing with a myriad of injuries right now, including freshman quarterback MJ Morris, sixth-year center Grant Gibson and star linebacker Payton Wilson, who all missed the game.
Doeren discussed how those injuries impact the program as it tries to finish the season strong.
“It’s very overwhelming, what the season started with,” he said. “It’s turned into a lot of guys being injured, and it’s unfortunate, particularly when we were still sitting there with 7 wins and had a chance to get to 10.
“Now, that’s out of reach, so we’ve got a chance to play six more days with a bunch of good guys, and the kids that are hurt will try to fight and get back and, if they’re healthy enough, they’ll play. If they’re not, we’ll roll with who we have.”
NC State is ready for its chance against North Carolina
The Wolfpack now faces a short week of game prep as it refocusses for its rivalry week showdown with UNC. Doeren said there is a chance Morris could return from the injury that kept him out Saturday. If the true freshman remains sidelined, Ben Finley will likely get another shot after going 16 for 35 with 201 yards and a touchdown.
Prior to his 34-yard wheel route touchdown pass to freshman running back Michael Allen, his only other TD throw came during a 2020 road game in Chapel Hill. He will be prepared for the moment if his name gets called.
“That’s going to be a huge game for us,” Finley said. “You always want to win that, and I think we are going to prepare, and we’re going to recover from this game.”
Even though many of the goals that NC State set out to accomplish before the season are now out of reach, Ingle said the matchup with UNC is always exciting for the team.
“Going forward, obviously, it sucks that this season didn’t go how we expected it to or how we wanted it to,” Ingle said. “But, moving forward, we’ve got to continue to play football. We’ve got one more game left, we’ve got a bowl game so, moving forward, we’ve just got to go in Sunday, fix our mistakes that we made today and then move forward to UNC after this.”
