Fresh off a 48-14 season-opening win against William & Mary, the NC State football team travels to Greenville to take on the East Carolina Pirates Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
“With the crowd noise and obviously the in-state part of it, it’s going to be a great game, and we look forward to playing in it,” NC State head coach Dave Doeren said. “Being as close as we are to their school, and we’re the biggest school in the state, they’re the second biggest. There’s a lot of fans from both schools, I know, that are excited about the game, and that’s why we play it.”
In what will be the first real test of the season for both teams, the Wolfpack will be tasked with stopping an explosive Pirate offense, which put up 688 total yards (413 passing and 275 rushing) in the team’s opener against Western Carolina.
The ECU offense is led by senior quarterback Philip Nelson, a transfer from Rutgers and former walk-on, who went 28-for-32 passing for 398 yards and five touchdowns against Western Carolina. Nelson is a solid quarterback, but the real strength of the Pirate offense is in the talented players surrounding him.
“[Nelson] has good weapons,” Doeren said. “No. 7, Jones, is one of the best receivers that we’ll play [this season]. Their tailback, No. 3, is a really good player — Anthony Scott. Not just as a runner, but he was their second leading receiver in the [first] game, as well.”
Senior wide receiver Zay Jones, a First-Team Preseason All-American Athletic Conference selection by both Athlon Sports and Phil Steele Magazine, is perhaps the team’s best player, as evidenced by his 180 yards and one touchdown on 10 catches in the opener. Jones possesses soft hands and can stretch the field on the long ball, as well as catch it short and create big plays himself.
Scott is a versatile running back whose speed makes him just as dangerous catching the ball as he is rushing. Against Western Carolina, Scott ran 11 times for 120 yards and one touchdown with a long rush of 48 yards. Additionally, he was the team’s second-leading receiver with nine catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns.
Senior James Summers is similar to Wolfpack tight end Jaylen Samuels in that he lines up at multiple positions and his combination of strength and agility can be a nightmare for a defense to stop. Expect to see Summers line up at running back, wide receiver and even quarterback.
With the multitude of weapons the Pirates have on offense, it will be important for the Wolfpack defense to tackle well, as any missed tackle can end up with an ECU player in the end zone.
The Pack will look to load the box up and prevent ECU from getting a run game going in hopes of then releasing its talented group of pass rushers on Nelson in obvious passing situations.
“Stop the run, first, because they’ve got a really good running back and quarterback that can run too,” junior defensive tackle B.J. Hill said. “If we stop the run, then have some fun on third down and rush the passer.”
Offensively, NC State will look to continue the success it found against William & Mary, where the Pack was extremely balanced, passing for 262 yards and rushing for 259.
It appears the Wolfpack has settled the quarterback competition, at least somewhat, as redshirt sophomore Ryan Finley is listed as the lone starting quarterback on this week’s depth chart. Despite Finley being the announced starter, don’t be surprised to see redshirt sophomore Jalan McClendon get a few series, just as he did in the opener.
In a hostile environment, combined with the fact NC State is still breaking in new quarterbacks, ECU will likely blitz and put pressure on the Wolfpack quarterbacks to see how they handle it. Both Finley and McClendon will need to be smart with the football and avoid panicking when pressure comes in order to come out with a victory.
“We expect to see a lot more pressure than we saw last week,” Doeren said. “Still a young offensive line playing together; this is a good test for them, obviously — being on the road and handling crowd noise.”
The Pirates boost one of the best cornerback tandems in the AAC in senior DaShaun Amos and sophomore Corey Seargent. With the secondary being solid, a lot will depend on how effective ECU is at rushing the passer and stopping the run.
Considering the hostile environment in Greenville, the NC State offense is likely to rely on its running game and reliable players such as Samuels to take some weight off the shoulders of Finley and McClendon.
