One last ride. One last chance. One last dance.
That’s what this season feels like for NC State football.
With an all-star cast of returning starters, many of whom are seniors, this may very well be the last great chance NC State has of winning a championship in what is one of the most highly anticipated seasons in school history.
The hype is real. Everyone saw what the Pack did last season, going undefeated at home, winning two epic games against Clemson and UNC-Chapel Hill and very nearly winning 10 games for just the second time in school history.
But there’s one more feat the Pack has yet to accomplish, one reason why so many have chosen to “run it back” one more time: to win a championship. Despite such an exciting season in 2021, the Pack fell just short of its ultimate goal of reaching the ACC Championship game and taking the crown, something it hasn’t done since 1979.
Fans say it every year, but this time it may finally be true: this could be the Pack’s year.
All the pieces are there. Redshirt junior quarterback Devin Leary returns after setting the school record for most passing touchdowns in a season and was picked as the ACC Preseason Player of the Year. Graduate student Thayer Thomas and redshirt junior Devin Carter make up an experienced receiving corps. Junior Drake Thomas, redshirt junior Payton Wilson and graduate student Isaiah Moore make up one of the best linebacking units in the country, and senior safety Tanner Ingle rounds out the secondary.
In the words of former NC State offensive coordinator Dana Bible, it’s “the perfect storm” for NC State this season. But if history has been any indication, high expectations don’t always translate into success for the Pack.
In 2002, Philip Rivers and the Wolfpack won a school record 11 games but weren’t able to reach the ACC Championship. In Rivers’ last season in 2003, the Pack went a mediocre 8-5.
In 2010, Russell Wilson and the Wolfpack went into the final game of the season needing a win over Maryland to make it to the championship game. Torrey Smith and the Terrapins made sure that didn’t happen.
In 2012, Mike Glennon and the Wolfpack were supposed to be dark horses to win the ACC, and they showed their potential with an upset over No. 3 Florida State, but it all fell apart with a heartbreaking loss at UNC and an inexplicable home blowout loss to Virginia.
In 2015, Jacoby Brissett and the Wolfpack once again had high hopes but finished a mediocre 7-5, punctuated with double-digit losses against UNC and Mississippi State to end the season.
In 2018, a promising season led by Ryan Finley was foiled with a shocking upset against Wake Forest and ended unceremoniously with a blowout loss to Texas A&M in the Gator Bowl.
Some of the best quarterbacks NC State has ever had were never able to win the ACC Championship. In their defense, it’s a hard thing to do. With that being said, how fitting would it be for Leary, whose college career couldn’t have gotten off to a more tumultuous start, to do something these NFL quarterbacks never could?
One season ago, UNC was in the same position NC State is in now. Top-10 hype, a quarterback named ACC Preseason Player of the Year, and a number of returning starters made it one of the most highly-anticipated seasons in school history.
Everyone knows how that all ended up, with the Heels finishing the season with a losing record. The expectations proved to be too much for the Heels last season, and they lacked both the preparation and the maturity to meet them.
When NC State started to get that kind of buzz at the end of last season, many fans immediately thought about what happened to UNC. Head coach Dave Doeren is going to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to his team.
Entering his 10th season as head coach, Doeren is now facing the moment he’s been waiting for. He took this job to make NC State relevant again, to put NC State on a national stage and give fans something they’ve been craving for decades. Doeren has been through the fire, and now has a chance to take the Pack to the promised land.
A lot of questions will be answered this season: Can NC State handle the expectations? Can Doeren deliver an ACC Championship to Raleigh? Is Leary overhyped, or is he the man?
Only time will tell. There’s a lot of pressure for the Pack this season. A lot of people want to see NC State do something it hasn’t in a long time, and there are a lot of teams who are putting a target on NC State’s back. But if NC State is as good as advertised, the ACC Championship isn’t the biggest prize the Pack will be playing for this season.
