The NC State football team ended its season with a 7-6 record, and despite reaching a bowl game for the second consecutive season, the swelling optimism about the program’s direction has been tempered.
The Wolfpack turned in another 3-5 record in ACC play, sending head coach Dave Doeren’s three-year mark in conference play to 6-18. While the team does reside in the ACC’s tougher Atlantic division, such poor play against conference rivals has understandably become a sticking point for Doeren critics — perhaps more so than the 1-2 record against UNC-Chapel Hill.
However, there is little doubt from those who kept a close eye on the team that, putting the final record aside, this was an improved product from the previous season and the program is in better shape now than it was under the previous staff headed by Tom O’Brien, when the team’s record was aggrandized by the far weaker state of the ACC.
In 2015, the Wolfpack played all three ACC teams that finished the season ranked in the media poll’s top 10 (No. 1 Clemson, No. 9 Florida State, No. 10 North Carolina). Its bowl-game opponent, Mississippi State (9-4, 4-4 SEC), didn’t lose a game to an unranked opponent all season and is ranked as the country’s 16th best team by Football Outsiders’ computer ratings. Obviously, Doeren will have to start engendering wins against teams of this caliber if he’s to remain the coach at NC State in the long-term, but this year’s team simply didn’t have the firepower.
Through four games, it appeared that a two-headed monster composed of running backs Matt Dayes and Shadrach Thornton would give ACC defenses fits, but Thornton was removed from the team, and questions rose about whether or not the more slender-framed Dayes could handle the increased workload.
After a 4-0 start, the Wolfpack hosted Louisville in the wake of Thornton’s dismissal and struggled mightily to move the ball on the ground, averaging 1.5 yards on 30 carries on a very sloppy field at Carter-Finley Stadium, where heavy rain fell intermittently throughout the game. The weather clearly threw off senior quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who struggled with accuracy all game, causing the Wolfpack offense to stall on two potentially game-tying drives late in the fourth quarter.
The 20-13 loss exposed a leaky NC State front seven, as the Cardinals ran free for 203 yards. Virginia Tech stuck to the same strategy the following week, rushing for 200 yards on just 36 attempts en route to a 28-13 home win over the Wolfpack. Brissett’s struggles continued, as he completed less than half of his attempts while gaining just 113 yards and throwing his first interception of the season.
Despite losing its identity on both sides of the ball, the Pack had a chance to find themselves and hush the doubters as they hosted No. 3 Clemson. A win would have catapulted them to a 6-2 record and put the team on the brink of the Top 25 poll. NC State traded scores back and forth during the first half, but a two-play, 73-yard Clemson drive in the waning seconds of the second quarter gave the Tigers the lead and momentum heading into halftime. The Wolfpack was unable to cut the lead closer than six points from then on, and to add injury to insult, the emerging star running back Dayes was lost for the remainder of the season due to a foot injury.
Now 5-3, NC State responded with a pass-heavy, running-back-by-committee approach moving forward. However, Brissett, now touting a 13-to-1 TD-to-INT ratio, was unable to maintain his efficiency as he carried an increased workload, with just a 7-to-5 ratio over the final five games.
The Wolfpack’s problem continued to be inconsistency on both sides of the ball, as it allowed 27 unanswered points after getting out to a 17-7 lead over Florida State and gave up 35 points to North Carolina in the first quarter of their final regular season game. Its response was too little, too late, as it eventually fell 45-34.
Backing into a bowl game at 7-5, the Wolfpack allowed Mississippi State to get out to a 21-point lead to start the game and was unable to slow down quarterback Dak Prescott, who totaled more than 400 yards of total offense and four touchdowns.
The final record of 7-6 is disappointing to be sure, but there is reason to be optimistic heading forward. The Wolfpack returns 15 of 22 starters on offense and defense, and although one of the players lost to graduation is Brissett, the team appears confident that redshirt freshman Jalan McClendon, who is currently the frontrunner for the job, will step up next season.
“Each year, a quarterback has to learn more and he has been willing to learn,” Brissett told the News & Observer before the season. “Jalan wants to learn.”
McClendon was a four-star recruit coming out of high school and will start his first game for the Wolfpack under a new offensive coordinator after the recent firing of Matt Canada, who had been with the team since Doeren was hired three years ago. The firing was a bit of a head-scratcher because the team’s improvement since a 3-9 season in 2013 has largely been due to better offense while the defense has remained mediocre, ranking 86th and 78th in the country by Football Outsiders in the years since.
With the progression of seven freshmen and sophomore starters, however, the Wolfpack defense should be far more formidable next season. The outcome of the season will largely depend on if McClendon is prepared to lead an offense that has been carried by Brissett over the previous two years.
