CHAPEL HILL — Last season after NC State football beat UNC-Chapel Hill 39-20 to end its regular season on a five-game winning streak and finish 9-4, head coach Dave Doeren made a plea to the Wolfpack fans.
“For all you folks that want us to keep winning, I would tell you to get on Savage Wolves, find that link,” Doeren said. “I’d love to see 5,000 people donate $1,000 to our NIL and get us to a point where we can recruit, retain and develop and have a program in the NIL world where the guys on our roster are able to benefit from that.”
Wolfpack fans answered the call.
NC State spent untold sums of money in the offseason from the donations it received to bring in talents like graduate quarterback Grayson McCall, redshirt freshman receiver Noah Rogers and redshirt freshman running back Hollywood Smothers, just to name a few.
It was considered to be one of the best transfer classes in the country that could push NC State from good to great. From eight wins to 10-plus. From a third or fourth-place finish in the ACC to a spot in the championship game.
Instead of securing that coveted 10-win season at Chapel Hill, the Wolfpack entered the game against its bitter rival needing a win to secure bowl eligibility. That was a failure in itself considering the preseason expectations. A lot of blame was put on Doeren for how he built his roster around transfers.
It seemed like Doeren swung and missed on most of the players he got from the portal and those misses felt like the reason why the Wolfpack took two steps back instead of one forward. Now the question would be: How would Wolfpack fans react?
The head coach of the team asked for money to help improve the roster to push it over the top and the fans listened. The money was used to recruit players out of the portal but it didn’t work. So what would incline fans of NC State to donate again after watching their money essentially go to waste?
Well after the Wolfpack’s 35-30 win over the Tar Heels Saturday night at Kenan Stadium, Doeren has solid evidence of why fans should keep donating — not to recruit players but to retain them.
It’s NC State’s young offense made up of freshman quarterback CJ Bailey, sophomore wide receiver Kevin Concepcion, Rogers and Smothers that gives Wolfpack fans a reason to hope for the future and, perhaps more importantly, donate to keep that future.
“It shows the talent that we have and where we can be with it,” Rogers said. “I am a firm believer that there’s multiple ways we can be a powerhouse offense. Playing with guys like that, it does nothing but better you because you’re just constantly learning and playing with guys who want to win and want to get better.”
With how college football works nowadays, each of those guys will have teams offering them large sums of money to transfer to their school, especially after their performances against the Tar Heels.
After completing just three of his eight passes for 19 yards in the first half, Bailey threw for 223 and two touchdowns in the final 30 minutes while leading NC State on six consecutive scoring drives.
No drive was more impressive than the game-winner. Down 30-29 with less than two minutes to go on his own 25-yard line in his first rivalry game, Bailey was composed. He completed his first three passes to get NC State to its 46-yard line. On the next play, Bailey ran for six yards but it was negated by a holding, resulting in a first-and-20 from NC State’s 39-yard line. But on the next play, Bailey canceled out that holding and then some.
With less than a minute to go, Bailey lofted a ball downfield to Rogers, and he couldn’t have placed it any better. The ball floated just over the hands of Tar Heels cornerback Will Hardy and away from UNC cornerback Marcus Allen into the hands of Rogers for a 44-yard gain that set up the game-winning touchdown.
“CJ got it all,” Smothers said. “He’s a leader in the huddle every time. And he got all the intangibles back there, and we trust him with the ball in his hands. He made a lot of big plays right there, especially for a guy at his age as a freshman quarterback. His preparation and everything — he’s ahead of his time. He’s gonna be a great player for sure.”
While it was Bailey who led the game-winning drive, Smothers was the one NC State relied on in the second half. Smothers only had three touches in the first half that went for a total of one yard. But in the second half, offensive coordinator Robert Anae made it an emphasis to get Smothers the ball and it paid off.
Smothers received 13 touches in the last two quarters and turned them into 116 yards, including running in the game-winning touchdown. It wasn’t until NC State’s eighth game of the season against Cal that Smothers received more than 10 touches in a game and since then he has been the Wolfpack’s most explosive playmaker. In the last five games, Smothers has recorded over 100 yards of scrimmage three times while scoring six touchdowns.
Then there’s Rogers, who dropped two passes earlier in the game and then came down with the biggest catch of the game with two defenders all over him.
“He had a couple of drops before the half and [I] was telling him to get out of his head, play his game,” Bailey said. “I always trust him. I told him, ‘I trust him, you trust me.’ We go make plays.”
It hasn’t been the best year for Rogers, who’s had an inconsistent role in the offense but he flashed his talent on the catch. And now he has a full offseason to work with Bailey after doing most of his work with McCall last offseason as long as NC State can keep them on the squad.
And how could anyone forget about Concepcion?
The reigning ACC Rookie of the Year’s stats took a dip across the board this season but his talent is undeniable and he proved that against the Tar Heels. When the Wolfpack needed him most in the fourth quarter, Concepcion hauled in three passes, two that went for first downs and one for a touchdown.
The Wolfpack’s young offense has had to learn on the fly this season especially when Bailey was thrusted into the starting role in what was supposed to be a developmental year. They made plenty of mistakes along the way. The three turnovers in the red zone in a one-possession loss to Syracuse, holding the ball for only three minutes and 33 seconds in the fourth quarter in a one-possession loss to Wake Forest and scoring just one touchdown in six red zone trips in a 29-19 loss to Duke.
“It’s a lot of young players,” Doeren said. “And when you get reps, you get better, and then you’re learning from the experiences of those reps, and the game all of a sudden starts to have recall from other games that you played in, and you can look at things differently because you’ve had those live reps and games.”
If its performance against the Tar Heels was any indication, the Wolfpack offense has a bright future ahead of it. But just like last season, Doeren will need the support of his fanbase to keep as many young pieces as possible.
Will Wolfpack fans hold this debacle of a season against Doeren and refuse to spend their money on the football team again? Or will the promise of the offense be enough for fans to put aside this season and pay up for the promise of the future?
