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Former Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson bullish on NC State in 2025

Jacey Zembalby: Jacey Zembal08/25/25JaceyZembal
CJ Bailey
NCState quarterback C.J. Bailey ranked seventh among all FBS freshmen in passing yards last season with 2,413 despite making only nine starts. (USA Today Sports photos)

NC State went 6-7 overall and 3-5 in the ACC ending in the Military Bowl loss against East Carolina to cap the 2025 campaign.

Now, the Wolfpack open up the season Thursday against the same Pirates squad looking for revenge. The urgency is also higher in the program, and NC State has a favorable schedule. NC State doesn’t have games against some of the projected top teams in the ACC — Clemson, SMU, Louisville or Syracuse — who went a combined 25-7 in league games last year.

The College GameDay podcast with Rece Davis did a deep dive previewing the ACC, and had journalist Dan Wetzel and former Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson as the experts. Both Wetzel and Clawson see reasons for why NC State could have a good season.

“I would be careful to sleep on NC State as well,” Clawson said. “I’ve always found that [coach] Dave Doeren, whenever he has a bad year, he has always responded.

“They have a returning starter quarterback [sophomore C.J. Bailey] and now that kid is getting all the reps in preseason camp. He took over last year after the starter from Coastal [Carolina] got hurt [senior Grayson McCall against Wake Forest]. Dave always seems to do a great job coming off a bad year. They’ve always had talent. He recruits well and those kids play hard. There’s another group I wouldn’t look past.”

Davis, who anchors the weekly College GameDay show on ESPN, pointed out that Doeren doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with North Carolina, who has gotten the majority of the preseason attention due to the hiring of coach Bill Belichick.

“Speaking of guys who might have a little stuff in their neck every now and then if they feel slighted in any any way, particularly if it’s the people in baby blue who are slight them,” Davis said. “Also keep a really close eye on NC State’s opener because they’ll reunite with East Carolina. That turned into a real Donnybrook [in bowl game]  So that might be testy.”

Clawson sees reason for optimism in Raleigh this fall and thinks the changers to Kurt Roper at offensive coordinator and D.J. Eliot at defensive coordinator will be seamless. Clawson also thinks redshirt sophomore wide receiver Noah Rogers could break out after transferring in from Ohio State a year ago.

“They lose Tony Gibson who gets the head job at Marshall, but they replaced him with a guy that runs a similar system,” Clawson said. “They have a new offensive coordinator, but it’s Kurt Roper who’s been on the staff for many years. And Dave has always wanted to win on defense, in the kicking game and run the football. Kurt comes from the David Cutcliffe school of being more balanced on offense.

“If they can run the football better and now they have a returning starter at quarterback. I just think Dave is a really good coach. If you look at him, any time he comes off a bad year like 2019 that they were 3-9, boy they always respond the next year.”

Clawson recalled that the expectations for NC State were much different at this time last year.

“If we did this podcast a year ago, they would have been everybody’s surprise team to make the playoffs,” Clawson said. “They were a year ago, they had everybody back. They got the quarterback from Coastal Carolina. They had all their starters back and they were kind of a preseason playoff pick and it just went wrong.

“I just think that was a team that underachieved a year ago. I would bet for them to overachieve this year. Wetzel foreshadows a big season from Bailey, who had to replace the injured McCall.

“I’m excited about CJ Bailey, their quarterback,” Wetzel said. “Dual threat, had kind of a maybe under the radar, really nice first year as a starter. If he continues to make gains, I think he’s going to be one of the most exciting players in the league. He can become a guy everybody knows his name by the end of the season.”

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