NC State football’s lackluster season opener curbs preseason dreams

And just like that, all the preseason hype surrounding NC State football is gone.

The No. 24 next to NC State’s name in the AP Poll will most certainly not be there next week for its matchup against No. 15 Tennessee. The Wolfpack’s season opener against Western Carolina was supposed to be a tune-up for the Volunteers; it was anything but.

Yes, NC State won by 17 points and no victory should be taken for granted in college football, but trailing an FCS opponent entering the fourth quarter is concerning. The final quarter should’ve been an opportunity for the Wolfpack’s younger players to get on the field but instead, NC State found itself in a dogfight.

The Wolfpack trailed the Catamounts 21-17 going into the fourth quarter but scored three straight touchdowns to make the final score look better than it was. A team with ACC Championship and College Football Playoff aspirations now looks like a team that could struggle to reach last year’s win total.

It may just be an overreaction for a squad that’s trying to find chemistry and its identity with over 40 new faces. But that’s what the offseason was for. NC State can’t afford to work out the kinks in live game action with its upcoming schedule. A ranked Tennesse and Clemson both loom in September.

NC State’s attempt at trying to find chemistry on the fly almost resulted in a historic upset before finding a semblance of what the offense was projected to be in the fourth quarter. Maybe the Wolfpack should be judged on its fourth-quarter performance and that’s the team it will look like next week, but the larger sample size is concerning.

“The coach’s message is that we have a whole bunch of work to do,” said sophomore receiver Kevin Concepcion who recorded his first career three-touchdown game. “We were expecting a blowout.”

For three quarters, graduate quarterback Grayson McCall and the rest of the offense struggled to find a rhythm against a team that doesn’t even play on the FBS level.

McCall threw for over 300 yards in his Wolfpack debut but had more off-target throws than precision passes. He found an instant connection with Concepcion but too many times Concepcion had to haul in a ball that was thrown behind him or low.

“There were some balls that, if he would’ve put a little bit to the right or a little bit to the left, would have been completions and some of them potentially big gains,” said head coach Dave Doeren.

It was also concerning that Concepcion provided most of the offense when portal additions like redshirt freshman wide receiver Noah Rogers, junior wide receiver Wesley Grimes and junior tight end Justin Joly were brought in to help take the load off of Concepcion.

There is nothing wrong with McCall feeding Concepcion — he was wide open on most plays. It’s the fact that when the ball wasn’t in Concepcion’s hands, the offense was stagnant. The sophomore receiver was always going to be the focal point of the offense but he shouldn’t have to be relied upon, especially against an opponent like Western Carolina.

On the ground, graduate running back Jordan Waters was supposed to provide a spark to a run game that hasn’t finished inside the top half of the ACC since 2019. Aside from a 50-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter, Waters averaged less than four yards per rush as his offensive line struggled to move the Catamounts’ defensive line that recorded a sack and nine tackles for loss.

Defensively, the Wolfpack didn’t force a single turnover and didn’t record its first sack until the fourth quarter. The past three seasons no Power Four team has recorded more interceptions than NC State but it couldn’t come away with one against Western Carolina.

It also struggled to contain Catamounts quarterback Cole Gonzales who threw for 211 yards and ran for 65 more. There were also costly penalties that kept Western Carolina’s offense on the field. Missed tackles and blown coverages were also too common of a theme for a defense that has a high standard for itself.

“We came out prepared for them to run, and they didn’t do quite what we were prepared for,” said graduate defensive end Davin Vann. “It was just the first game nerves and just we started off slow. Moving forward, we’ve got to attack every quarter with the fourth quarter mentality the way we did today.”

Going into this season, Doeren knew he had to get a lot of new players on the same page. He and the rest of his coaching staff altered their schedule and created spaces on the calendar to build team chemistry.

The team took a trip to Camp Rockfish in Fayetteville, North Carolina during the spring for team-building activities that included coaches and players sleeping in the same bunks and a dip into the 55-degree lake.

But on Thursday night against the Catamounts, it seemed like the players hadn’t gotten enough work on the field. While players need to bond off the field to build trust, none of it will matter if they aren’t on the same page on the field.

Thursday night’s first three quarters provided a glimpse of why it’s dangerous to build through the portal. It can take years for a team to build chemistry, and attempting to find it throughout the season can be costly.

The Wolfpack is keenly aware of that.

Last season, the Wolfpack struggled to find its identity early in the season, resulting in losses that ultimately cost it a spot in the ACC Championship game.

This year’s team looks like it could be headed that way. So for NC State’s sake, it better hope the fourth quarter is a sign of things to come.