Player-led approach to snapping NC State's four-game skid against FBS competition

By Noah Fleischman

Just hours after NC State arrived back in Raleigh off a late-night flight home from a 53-34 loss at Pitt inside Acrisure Stadium, the Wolfpack’s players called a team meeting Sunday at the Murphy Center. It was an opportunity for the group to hash out what’s led to losing four of their last five before the program prepares for the final four games of the regular season. 

A 4-4 record through eight games wasn’t the expectation for this group, especially after opening the season with three straight wins (including a victory over current No. 15 Virginia), but inconsistent play and a lack of sustained execution from all three phases of the team led to this seminal moment. 

The meeting, which didn’t include the coaching staff, was a chance for the Wolfpack’s leaders to step up . The leadership council organized the group to come together, and by all accounts, it appears that the opportunity to hold each other accountable helped set the tone for NC State’s last third of the season, beginning this Saturday against No. 8 Georgia Tech. 

Graduate defensive end Sabastian Harsh, one of the team’s most veteran players in his sixth season of college football, believed the Sunday gathering was a step in the right direction for a team looking to get back in the win column.

“That’s one of the first times I’ve had to go through something like that — having guys on the team stepping up and taking charge,” Harsh said Wednesday. “I thought it was really good. I think it’s a great thing that when coaches don’t have to harp on it so much anymore. When guys on the team start stepping up, you start making improvements a lot quicker. It was a really good thing to see.”

For redshirt junior nickel Jackson Vick, the biggest takeaway from the meeting was refining each position group’s execution on a drive-by-drive sequence. 

“The coaches can’t go out there and play for us,” Vick said. “It’s really up to us what we want to do with the season. Taking ownership as players, that’s the biggest thing in the program right now.”

Senior wideout Wesley Grimes, who has caught 18 passes for 288 yards and a touchdown this season, seemed to agree. 

“When players step up, it’s contagious,” Grimes said. “Everybody feels that, even the freshmen. Being a player-led program is bigger than the coaches leading everything.”

NC State’s players-only assembly appears to embody the mindset that Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren is looking for from his team. He’s mentioned how much he will continue to fight for his team each and every day this fall. He looks to right the ship, and it seems that his squad has bought into that same approach. 

It’s not just those within the Murphy Center walls that notice it either. Wolfpack Athletic Director Boo Corrigan has witnessed it too, most recently in the postgame locker room at Pitt. 

“You’ve got to stick together, that’s what it is. In this case, the guys in the locker room are sticking together,”  Corrigan told TheWolfpacker.com on Wednesday morning. “No one can ever say that our teams don’t play hard. If you watch us play,. We play hard every single play. That’s part of the indicators of what’s going on with the communication with the coaches to the team, to the team within the team, to the position groups. I think that’s a tribute to Coach Doeren and the job that he’s done to keep these guys together, to keep them working hard and working forward.”

Despite NC State’s struggles over its last four losses, which include allowing 36 or more points in three of them with just one trip to the red zone over the past two games, the Wolfpack is still trying to succeed rather than giving up on the campaign. The locker room seems to remain intact, focused on what’s ahead with a pair of top-10 programs await when the Yellow Jackets visit this weekend before a trip to No. 10 Miami two weeks later. 

Instead of a defeated and dejected bunch, NC State appears to be a team that is looking to boost its confidence moving forward. 

“The attitude in the locker room between all the guys talking to each other, everybody’s super juiced. Nobody’s heads are down, nobody’s tucking their tails,” Harsh said. “At the end of the day, we’re going to have to line up and play football. It’s a ‘Got to be ready’ mindset. You have no other option. You have to have a high spirit, be ready for what’s to come and keep facing it.”

NC State has four games left in the regular season. It needs just two wins to qualify for a bowl for the 11th time in the last 12 years, which would also provide an opportunity for the Wolfpack to avoid back-to-back losing seasons for the first time in Doeren’s tenure. 

While the scoreboard will be the official judge of that, it seems the team has the mentality of finishing the season strongly.

“The season’s not over, at all. We’re a program that never gives up,” Vick said. “We’re a hard-fighting program. Hard, tough, together — that’s what we’re going to live and die by, no matter what happens.”