The Monday after NC State football’s 59-35 loss to Clemson, head coach Dave Doeren did something he hadn’t done all season. Doeren chose not to release a depth chart before the game, making a statement to the media and his team that every player on the roster had to compete for a starting spot.

In film, he saw some players not giving it their all against the Tigers and had to reevaluate who he would put on the field against Northern Illinois. Players said this week of practice reminded them of fall camp with everyone competing for a starting role.

Doeren called the first two days of practice “Bloody Tuesday” and “Bloody Wednesday” because it was starters versus starters going at it.

“Ultimately it comes down to one man’s effort on a play to do his job and do it physically,” Doeren said. “And we haven’t done that well enough this year, and that’s not what I stand for. And I told them, ‘I know who I am. I know what I’m about.’ And I challenged them in that team room to live up to what it means to wear that jersey, and it’s a privilege. It’s an honor to wear the red and white, to walk around with ‘Wolfpack’ on your chest and your family’s name on your back.”

After an intense week of practice and a thorough review of the game against the Tigers, there were changes made to the depth chart.

On defense, redshirt freshman nickel Tamarcus Cooley started over senior safety Ja’Had Carter, graduate safety KJ Martin started over senior Bishop Fitzgerald and redshirt freshman defensive end Isiah Shirley started over redshirt junior Travali Price.

Offensively, there wasn’t much change with freshman wide receivers Keenan Jackson and Terrell Anderson seeing more time at the outside spot than redshirt junior Dacari Collins. The competition in practice and personnel change seemed to light a fire under the Wolfpack as it bounced back with a 24-17 win over Northern Illinois Saturday afternoon at Carter-Finley Stadium.

NC State’s focus and intensity were evident from the first play of the game when graduate defensive end Davin Vann and graduate linebacker Devon Betty combined for a four-yard tackle for loss. A few plays later in his first start, Shirley helped stuff the Huskies for a five-yard loss.

The players that kept their starting jobs in practice played with a newfound effort and energy with senior safety DK Kaufman being the prime example of that. After the Huskies tied the game and NC State punted the ball back, Kaufman strip-sacked Northern Illinois quarterback Ethan Hampton and recovered it in the endzone for his second touchdown of the season.

“Last week, it was embarrassing,” Kaufman said. “It’s really no other way to put it, and it’s sad that it had to be that way for me and others to come out with that fire in us. You don’t ever really want to get hit in the mouth first and then you don’t fight back. But last week definitely proved pivotal for us.”

Kaufman wasn’t the only defensive player who played like their starting job depended on it. Vann was a force in the backfield all game long, racking up 10 tackles with 3.5 coming for loss, one sack and two forced fumbles. Redshirt junior linebackers Caden Fordham and Sean Brown took a lot of the criticism last week for Clemson’s 269 rushing yards but flipped the script against Northern Illinois.

Fordham and Brown both set career-highs in tackles with 13 apiece while combining for three tackles for loss and two sacks. This was the high standard of play expected from defensive coordinator Tony Gibson’s linebackers, who have exhibited elite play at the position since he was hired at NC State.

When asked about what changed, Fordham referenced the week of practice the team had and, instead of giving up on their season after two demoralizing losses to Tennessee and Clemson, the Pack practiced like it was a new season.

“It all started in practice,” Fordham said. “We felt like we weren’t practicing the way we know how to practice, and we turned that up this week. And we’re going to have to continue to do that to get to where we want to go but we never like getting our pride tested. And that’s a big thing we stand by here at NC State is playing tough football, and I felt like we came out and did that today.”

In total, the Wolfpack racked up a season-high four sacks against an offensive line that hadn’t allowed one entering the game. NC State recorded 12 tackles for loss when it had just 15 combined coming into the contest. All the while allowing 120 rushing yards, well below Northern Illinois’ average of over 200 per game and holding the Huskies to just 2.7 yards per carry.

For the new starters, Martin was the leading tackler in the secondary with seven stops and a pass breakup. Shirley produced three tackles with 0.5 for loss while also recording a quarterback hit. Cooley held his own in coverage with three pass breakups and the game-sealing interception.

It was a step in the right direction for NC State, but Doeren and the defense acknowledged after the game this has to continue and not just be a one-time thing after an intense week on the practice field.

“We have to come back and really do the same thing, but amplify it by 10 next week,” Kaufman said. “We got a little momentum — we gotta keep it. That could be hard sometimes. People like to relax, but we can’t relax. Coach said that today we can’t relax. It’s not time to relax. We’re not nowhere near done for what we’re trying to go get, so we just can’t relax. We gotta do the same thing next week in practice.”

Sometimes life is simple. Just have your job threatened to be taken away from you and all of a sudden you work harder to keep it. That’s what happened with NC State leading up to and against Northern Illinois and Doeren saw his team return to the identity his teams are known for.

“We got to play harder than teams across the sidelines — we have to,” Doeren said. “That gives us an opportunity to be in the game every week. Not everybody’s wired that way. Football is just not what it used to be when it comes to tough guys and at NC State, we have to be tough. That’s our edge, and we were in that game.”