NC State football focused on turning page ahead of final two games of campaign

By Noah Fleischman

Coming off a 34-point loss at No. 15 Miami, which featured moving the ball past midfield just once the entire game (the final drive), NC State is focused on looking forward. There’s nothing the Wolfpack can do to change that result, and as it looks to obtain bowl eligibility with two games to play, the team doesn’t want that loss to linger.

After all, NC State is set to clash with Florida State on Friday night (8 p.m., ESPN), providing an opportunity to move on in a hurry with a shortened week of game preparation. Instead of dwelling on every little thing that went wrong in South Florida, Pack coach Dave Doeren said the team focused on the major deficiencies before flushing that loss to get ready for the Seminoles.

“It was more about, ‘Hey, we have to get back to what we know we have left.’ … There’s a lot on the table in a short period of time, and dwelling on what just happened doesn’t help us get to what’s next,” Doeren said Monday evening. “As the leader of these men, you’ve got to steer them. We get to choose our attitude and our effort. It’s going to be chosen wisely and we’ve got to do it the right way. It’s my responsibility and privilege to help these guys do that.”

While NC State has two chances to win at least one game to earn its sixth win to earn a postseason berth for the 11th time in the last 12 seasons under Doeren, there was a somber tone in Tuesday’s post-practice press conferences with select players. Usually some jokes are tossed around the room from the players to the assembled media, but after the third loss by 19-plus points this season, none of that existed.

It almost seemed like a sense of frustration sat in the room as the Wolfpack players feel like they’re a better team than what they’ve shown for most of the season to this point. 

“It’s simple, either you like losing or winning,” redshirt sophomore wide receiver Noah Rogers said. “It’s just coming out here with that mindset. We’re guaranteed two games, we can make it three, but how do you want to finish the chapter of your season? The way I look at it is to continue to fight for your brothers.”

As Rogers stressed the importance of playing well to earn the team’s seniors an extra game via a bowl, tight end Justin Joly made it clear that the team hasn’t lost its hunger to win games even though NC State has lost five of its last seven after starting the year 3-0. 

“We still want to win games, it’s football. Nothing’s really changed,” Joly said. “We love the game, we love the sport. We just want to win. Obviously, it was a very disappointing loss and not what we thought it was [going to be]. But we flushed it, and I hope everyone else flushes it.”

That’s the only way forward from Doeren’s point of view. He wasn’t happy with how the team played at Miami, which he noted reflected on his coaching after the open date. The Wolfpack came off a marquee win over then-No. 8 Georgia Tech, but was unable to even play a competitive game against the Hurricanes, a team vying for a spot in the College Football Playoff. 

Doeren seemed irked by that, but at the same time, was quick to turn the page to an athletic Florida State team that is in a similar position as NC State. Both teams are 5-5 after hot starts to the season, and this game could be a critical hinge point for the squad that ends up on the losing side of the contest. 

NC State doesn’t want that to be it. Doeren said the Wolfpack needs to learn from its blowout losses at Notre Dame, Pitt and Miami before facing off with the Seminoles. And, in a way, it’s turned his job into an even more critical assignment of keeping the Pack focused amid the disappointing middle stretch of the campaign.

“Football is a real laboratory of life,” Doeren said. “You have so many guys from so many places with so many things going on, it’s not just the players, it’s the staff and the coaches. You have to manage it all and try to get them to block anything that can distract them, including fear of failure, atta boys from a big win, criticism from a loss. 

“It’s about the game plan, it’s about the brotherhood, it’s about getting better, it’s about executing plays, making plays that are there to make and having fun.”

NC State has dealt with an injury list longer than a CVS receipt this season, testing the team’s depth for much of the year, and the last two games will be another challenge. The Wolfpack knows it’s capable of beating both Florida State and North Carolina in a pair of night home games by banding together as one unit to close the season, but it will have to prove it on the field. 

And that’s what the team is looking forward to the most as it moves past its most-lopsided defeat of the season.

“It’s just having the mindset that we’re the best football team out here,” Rogers said. “It’s just kill or be killed. And we are the ones that want to do the killing.”