The Wolfpack opened its football season against University of South Florida on Thursday, Sept. 2 and was able to shut out USF.
Junior running back Ricky Person Jr. had an impressive three touchdowns and redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary had two touchdown passes and one interception in his first game back after an injury last year.
“I just asked them to be mature and they showed that to me,” said head coach Dave Doeren. “I think last year, we weren’t as mature as we are now and being able to get up on a team and stay up on them, keep them in the corner, I guess you’d say, not let them out. Then they tried, they did a couple things to get down in the red zone, were able to get two turnovers defensively down in the red zone, which are huge plays, but I just love the maturity of them.”
NC State brought the energy in the first quarter, especially as Leary looked to be in peak shape from the beginning, throwing for 62 yards on the Pack’s first drive, including a 33-yard pass to Person for the first touchdown of the night. Sophomore running back Zonovan Knight rushed for 17 yards in the first, averaging 2.83 yards per play. Junior kicker Christopher Dunn had his first field goal of the year to contribute even more to the Pack’s early lead, 10-0.
USF just could not keep up with NC State in the first quarter, putting up 21 total yards with an average of only 1.6 yards per play. USF quarterback Cade Fortin completed two passes in the first quarter and the Bulls weren’t able to get anywhere close to a score with all four of their drives resulting in a punt.
The Pack kept its momentum going in the second. Person continued to keep up his energy, scoring both of NC State’s touchdowns in the second, the first on the second quarter’s first drive on an 11-yard rush play to put the Pack up by 17 points. Leary had an amazing 51-yard pass to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Devin Carter and the Pack finished that drive with another 11-yard rushing touchdown by Person.
The Bulls started warming up a little bit after the first, picking off Leary early in the second quarter and quarterback Timmy McClain coming in for Fortin. The Wolfpack defense answered with an interception by sophomore linebacker Drake Thomas. USF only had 71 total yards in 19 plays in this quarter and the half ended with the Pack 24-0.
NC State came back from the half with the same energy as it came into the game with, starting with Knight scoring the fourth touchdown of the game on an impressive 46-yard rush play. Redshirt freshman tight end Christopher Toudle had the fifth Pack touchdown of the game on a seven-yard pass.
On the defensive end, graduate safety Cyrus Fagan intercepted a pass by McClain, the second Wolfpack interception of the night.
McClain tried to get a scoring drive going with two consecutive deep passes of 29 and 31 yards, respectively, to attempt to make a dent in the Pack’s large lead. But without a running game to back him up, as well as Thomas and redshirt junior linebacker Isaiah Moore being all over the field, there wasn’t an opportunity for McClain to put USF on the board and left the quarter down by 38 points.
As if it couldn’t get worse for USF, the Bulls’ first drive of the fourth quarter was cut short by an interception by junior safety Tanner Ingle.
“And they always tell us, ‘Just get us the points,’” Leary said. “It doesn’t matter if we score three points or 50 points, we’re gonna hold them to zero. And that’s just their mentality.”
After another Wolfpack rushing touchdown by sophomore running back Jordan Houston, Fortin attempted to make a last-minute effort to get on the board with two rushes in the red zone and three incomplete passes into the endzone. The Bulls just weren’t able to answer anything from NC State, leaving the final score 45-0.
“It’s very rare to see a shutout,” Thomas said. “So you know, we really wanted that shutout. We were trying to get back — some of the guys were trying to get back in the game. But when we saw that last incomplete pass, we were super excited.”
Between Knight and Person, both being healthy and seemingly at the top of their game, the Pack’s offense is in a great position to keep up this momentum.
“[Person] and Zonovan are each other’s biggest fans and also competitive,” Doeren said.
NC State will travel to Mississippi State for its next game on Sept. 11.
