Wolfpack regains touch for home stretch
North Carolina State discovered the right kind of reaction after a puzzling defeat. Now the Wolfpack wants to keep that growth it has shown by facing a couple of underdog in-state rivals to close the regular season.
There’s Saturday’s game at North Carolina followed by a Dec. 1 home date with East Carolina.
The mid-November loss to Wake Forest served as a chance to test N.C. State’s resiliency and the team certainly came through with the rout at Louisville.
“I think the best thing you can do with anyone you’re working with is be honest and own the things that are yours and ask them to own the things that are theirs,” N.C. State coach Dave Doeren said. “Point out the things that are correctable. ? Every week, whether we win or lose, we want to be better than we were the week before.”
Recovery to put the season back on track was the impressive part after N.C. State lost three of four games. Now the Wolfpack (7-3, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) is back on pace to reach some goals.
Doeren said there were valuable lessons in how the Wolfpack responded.
“So you use it as an opportunity to grow as a coach and as an opportunity to grow as a player. And it’s not about blame. It’s about fixing things and getting things back to where we can win a football game.”
Scoring touchdowns in the Louisville game was almost a tonic after the Wolfpack spent the two previous games too often settling for field goals.
It will be important to get into the end zone with some regularity against North Carolina (2-8, 1-6), which will be playing its final game and will be pulling out all the stops to try to disrupt the rival Wolfpack.
Doeren said the offense’s improved efficiency in the latest game was a good sign.
“We just got to finish plays and that’s fundamental football,” he said.
N.C. State just faced a Louisville team that was playing under interim coach Lorenzo Ward less than a week after the firing of coach Bobby Petrino was announced.
The game against North Carolina comes against a Tar Heels team that will end up with a losing record for the second year in a row. There has been lots of speculation about the future of Tar Heels coach Larry Fedora, but the Wolfpack will want to keep its focus on the factors that matter on the field.
It’s about a strong ending to the season for N.C. State.
“Our team knows how to finish,” Doeren said. “That’s where our focus is as a staff and as a group of players.”
This will be N.C. State’s final road game, though a good number of its fans will be in the stands for this matchup. The Wolfpack is 2-2 away from home this season.
“To go on the road and win, we’ve got to take care of the football,” Doeren said. “We have to do a good job getting the ball back.”