With a 23-13 victory over Georgia Tech, NC State improved to 8-3 overall and 7-3 in the ACC. That’s not bad, especially for a team picked in the preseason to finish in the bottom third of the ACC.
A little over a year ago, NC State ended a nightmare season with a drubbing at home against UNC, a 41-10 blowout that dropped the Wolfpack to 4-8 overall and 1-7 in conference play. Afterward, the mood was dour. From the players to the coaches, everyone seemed done with the year and ready to put it behind them — everyone except Tabari Hines, a grad transfer receiver from Oregon, who was strikingly optimistic.
“I’ve been on a 3-9 team before,” Hines said after the UNC game. “I know how the offseason is [afterward], how seriously the coaches take it, and next year is a better year. I just keep telling the guys, ‘Regardless of how this season ends, next year is going to be way better. You’re going to feel how you felt last year and play with that passion every game.’”
Hines was right. Though a bunch of players entered the transfer portal and a bunch of coaches were fired, head coach Dave Doeren led this program to the second-biggest single-season improvement in conference win percentage the ACC has seen in the past three years.
“[I’m] just proud to be a part of this football team and these young men and this coaching staff,” Doeren said. “Looking at where we came from, a year ago, we had one ACC win, and now we have seven. That’s quite a year when you talk about improvement.”
With a new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, as well as an entirely renovated defensive staff, the Wolfpack went from a minus-96 scoring margin to plus-15, winning four of its five one-possession games. While it lost some games big, particularly at Virginia Tech and UNC, it never quit the way it appeared to in 2019.
For Doeren, the biggest drive behind his changes over the summer was to ensure the people around the program were adding, not taking away. He’s repeatedly talked about the power of positivity this year, the biggest argument for its beneficial effects is the performance of redshirt junior quarterback Bailey Hockman to end the season.
Hockman played badly last year and looked like the same error-prone player this year, but Doeren stuck with him, even when true freshman quarterback Ben Finley shined. Hockman made good on that faith, passing for 1,289 yards and accounting for 10 touchdowns against four interceptions in NC State’s final five games. His completion percentage in those games was 66%.
“There’s been so many ups and downs, and we’ve just learned to stay extremely consistent through all of that,” Hockman said. “‘If we can just keep our heads on straight and keep playing our game, good things are going to happen. That’s the story of this year.”
Ups and downs doesn’t even begin to describe it. The team turned in this improved performance despite spring camp being cut short, despite all the issues that come with attempting a season in the midst of a pandemic, despite last year’s injury bug rearing its head and being forced to start a backup QB for more than half the season. It took on a schedule harder than it would have to face in a regular season, 10 ACC games and a nonconference game against a ranked Liberty team, and kept finding ways to stay out of the loss column.
Doeren got his players and his staff to buy in completely, and the results speak for themselves. They trust each other, they have fun together, and they’re winning together.
“This is what we do for a living, and I wanted to have fun doing it every day,” Doeren said. “And I wanted our players to have fun. Doesn’t mean we don’t work hard here; we do, but at the end of the day, it’s because we love the game and we love being around each other. I think that made this year really special.”
N.C. State linebacker Payton Wilson (11) tackles Georgia Tech running back Jordan Mason (27) for a loss during the first half of N.C. State’s game against Georgia Tech at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020.
