This Saturday begins a new journey for the 2019 NC State Wolfpack football team. The Pack will take on the East Carolina Pirates Saturday at 12:00 p.m. at Carter-Finley Stadium.
The two teams met in the final regular-season game last year that was rescheduled due to Hurricane Florence. The Pack blew out the Pirates by a score of 58-3 in that game. Last year’s game, however, is in the past and this year’s will be full of new faces for both teams.
East Carolina has a new head coach in Mike Houston who comes from James Madison, a team the Pack faced off against last year and beat. Houston had a decorated career at the helm of the Dukes. In his three years at James Madison, he won two conference titles, a national championship in his first year and national runner-up in his second year. With James Madison and NC State facing off last year, Houston is familiar with Dave Doeren and his team.
The Pirates come in with a young starting quarterback in sophomore Holton Ahlers. Throughout his freshman year, Ahlers showed very good signs for the Pirates, and they hope he’ll be able to continue his success into year two.
As for the Pack, there will be a lot of new coaches and players this year. For this Saturday, redshirt sophomore Matt McKay has been named the starting quarterback with redshirt sophomore Bailey Hockman and redshirt freshman Devin Leary as the backups.
The offensive line will look much different compared to the past for the Pack, especially without star center Garrett Bradbury who was taken in the first round of the NFL draft in April.
The one place that looks to be a big advantage for the Pack is its running game, something that was inconsistent last year. With sophomore Ricky Person Jr. and incoming freshman Zonovan Knight, look for the backfield to take the ball a lot, especially in the opener.
An area that Doeren believes has improved during the offseason is the secondary, a position where the Pack struggled tremendously last year. Some of the struggles came from things out of their control, but overall, it seems that it has made big strides to fix the inconsistencies.
Saturday’s game for both teams is going to be new and different in many ways, which could provide us a tight football game in terms of the score. In home openers under Doeren, the Pack has a 6-0 record and hopes to start the 2019 campaign off on a positive note with a win on Saturday.
Redshirt sophomore tight end Dylan Parham grabs an ECU player as tensions rise on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018 in Carter-Finley Stadium. The Wolfpack beat the Pirates 58-3.
