Locker room report: NC State recaps its joyful win over UNC
NC State traveled the 22.6 miles to Kenan Memorial Stadium Friday night and ended the regular season on perhaps the highest possible note— defeating UNC 30-27 in a hard-fought, dramatic, double-overtime thriller that ended with a Tar Heel missed field goal.
After the game, head coach Dave Doeren, wide receiver Devin Carter, quarterback Ben Finley and safety Tanner Ingle all spoke with the media with big smiles on their faces, recounting the win.
Dave Doeren discusses resilient group
“Sorry, I’m not going have much of a voice in here.”
That’s how Doeren started his postgame press conference. The celebration in the moments following the game was full of elation, big hugs and ended with an NC State flag planted in the middle of the UNC logo.
Doeren shared his thoughts on the character of the Wolfpack afterwards.
“I think it just proves the staying power that our guys have,” Doeren said. “The resiliency, the toughness, the grit, the love, and I told him all week ‘Nobody’s going to care about anything other than this win when we win this game. This will make a lot of things feel better.’ It’s a 365 day you-know-what sandwich that the other school gets to eat, and we didn’t want to eat it. We wanted to have that, and we wanted to finish with that pride.”
After the game, Doeren saw the ecstatic group of NC State fans cheering the team into the locker room and showed off his “Light it Red” shirt.
Doeren made sure to praise graduate student cornerback Derrek Pitts Jr., who played nickel Friday night despite not playing the position since his time in West Virginia with current NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson. He said Pitts, who helped hold star UNC receiver Josh Downs without a touchdown, put together an extremely impressive performance.
“I don’t think people understand what Derrek Pitts had to do today,” Doeren said. “They casted him up. He’s got a bad wrist sprain, and he’s going to play.
“All three nickels were out, so it was pretty impressive that Derrek could go in there and have the recall he did. He was the nickel for Tony at West Virginia back in the day. That was a long time ago. I gave everybody a game ball but, had I not, he would have been one of the guys, probably, who got singled out today.”
He also shouted out Jalen Frazier, who stepped up and played well when Pitts was out of the game.
As far as the offense goes, Doeren applauded Carter for stepping up out wide and also acknowledged what Finley accomplished Friday night after starting the year on the scout team.
“I think it’s a great lesson for people out there that you don’t give up,” Doeren said. “You keep working. Ben could have easily been one of these quarterbacks that jumped in the portal when he didn’t get what he thought he was going to get. Instead, he was a great teammate. He went down and serviced the defense, and I bet that that 10 weeks down there made him the player that you’re looking at right now.”
Devin Carter shares the details of the postgame celebration
When UNC attempted the potential game-tying field goal in double overtime, Carter was not surprised when the field goal drifted wide left. He had a feeling things would work out for the Wolfpack.
“He’s going to miss, that’s the first thing on my mind,” Carter said.
“It’s just an NC State thing. I really can’t explain it. Good things happen to the good guys.”
He was right. The Wolfpack battled to the win, and the emotions poured out afterwards.
“It’s joy,” Carter said. “That’s really how I can describe it.”
After the game went final, Carter decided to grab the flag and plant it at the 50-yard line for a spur of the moment celebration.
“We’re just a tight-knit team,” Carter said. “We know how to stay together and finish.”
Ben Finley continues a family legacy at ‘Carter-Finley West’
Ben Finley’s older brother, Ryan Finley, never lost at Kenan Stadium. After the dramatic overtime victory led by the former fourth-string signal caller, who finished the game with more passing yards than UNC star Drake Maye, he picked up his first personal win under center and over the Tar Heels.
“I think he went 2-0 here in Carter-Finley West but, just having my first start and being able to go out there with the guys and get that W, it’s the greatest feeling ever,” Finley said.
“Five weeks ago, being fourth string quarterback, just kind of messing around on scout team, still getting better and then having those guys just still trust me when I came back up to the starting roster, it just means the world to have the support from the entire team.”
Finley also got in on the flag-planting fun.
“I was just running around trying to hug everyone,” he said. “I think I grabbed the NC State Flag and planted it on the field or something— as I should have.”
The redshirt-freshman signal caller connected with Carter 6 times for 130 yards an a touchdown. While the quarterback and receivers looked in-sync Friday night, this was not a bond that had an entire regular season to grow. They all got on the same page fast.
“To be honest, I haven’t thrown a pass to Devin Carter in probably over a year-and-a-half,” Finley said. “It’s like that with Thayer [Thomas], Darryl [Jones]. I’ve never thrown a pass to Darryl until last last week in Louisville. And so it’s just kind of weird. It’s like I’m playing on an all-star team or something. It’s got ballers everywhere.”
Tanner Ingle wraps up rivalry career with another win
Ingle made it clear from the start of his press conference— NC State takes this rivalry extremely seriously, and this win meant a lot to him. He finished the matchup with 9 tackles and a game-changing interception.
“It’s always good to come over here and beat the blue people,” Ingle said. “We don’t like them at all, so coming over here and getting that win, it’s a good win for us. It’s always exciting, beating Carolina.”
The senior defensive back spent most of the year going against Finley in practice, saying the two often traded trash talk, so he was not surprised to see him play well against the Tar Heels.
“It is what we expected,” Ingle said. “He was doing that to us all year on scout team, so him going out there and having the opportunities he did and making the plays that he did, we’re just excited for him. It’s fun. It’s nice to go out there and see Ben have a lot of success, especially considering how long he’s been here.”
In the moments following the victory, Ingle said Friday night shows the strength of the Wolfpack culture.
“We went out there, and we played hard,” Ingle said. “We did what we were supposed to do. We didn’t put our heads down, we didn’t go out there and play soft. We played like we wanted to win, and that’s what we did.”
