Key questions for NC State football at the start of practice

N.C. State opens football practice on Monday with a little more mystery and a lot lower expectations than a year ago.

The Wolfpack began 2015 with a veteran quarterback in place and a goal of winning at least 10 games for only the second time in program history.

Injuries and other personnel exits caused the Wolfpack to stumble down the stretch to a 7-6 finish and a 3-5 mark in the ACC.

Fourth-year coach Dave Doeren made some staff changes in the offseason, notably at offensive coordinator (Eli Drinkwitz replaces Matt Canada) and strength coach (Dantonio Burnette replaces Jason Veltkamp).

N.C. State also lost three key seniors — quarterback Jacoby Brissett, left tackle Joe Thuney and cornerback Juston Burris — in the NFL draft.

With one of the toughest schedules anywhere in college football, and with questions at quarterback and the offensive line, N.C. State was picked to finish fourth by the media in the top-heavy Atlantic Division.

With senior Matt Dayes and junior Jaylen Samuels back on offense and a strong defensive front, the Wolfpack will look to make progress after taking a step back last season.

Here are three questions to follow during training camp and in the run-up to the season opener on Sept. 1 at home against William & Mary:

1) What’s different on offense?

Doeren hired Drinkwitz from Boise State, and off of spread guru Gus Malzahn’s coaching tree, to speed up the Wolfpack offense, when necessary, and help develop a new quarterback.

Sophomore Jalan McClendon and freshman Jakobi Meyers competed for the job in spring practice but junior Ryan Finley, a graduate transfer from Boise State, has since been added to the mix.

Finley worked with Drinkwitz at Boise State and was the Broncos’ starter for the first three games last season before an ankle injury.

Brissett, a two-year starter, was a strong leader and had a propensity to make plays out of nothing but also didn’t make the kind of progress as a fifth-year senior last year that you would expect.

His composure and experience will be missed but if Drinkwitz can teach the new quarterback to consistently feed Dayes, Samuels and Nyheim Hines, the offense could be better than last year’s.

2) Will the tackling improve?

N.C. State gave up 553 yards and 45 points to North Carolina and 569 yards and 51 points to Mississippi State in its final two games of 2015. Given those numbers, you can understand why both of those games were losses.

When Doeren started making staff changes in the offseason, some fans were surprised that defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable wasn’t one of them.

But Huxtable’s group, for all its problems against UNC and then Mississippi State in the bowl game, actually improved significantly in total yards (from 66th to 51st in the FBS last year) and scoring defense (from 47th to 29th last year).

Eight potential starters return, including DE Bradley Chubb and DT Kentavius Street, who could be in for breakout years up front.

The big question will be in the secondary where teams routinely threw away from Burris last season and picked on the safety and corner positions.

The safeties, in particular, need to tackle better. N.C. State allowed 16 plays from scrimmage of 40 yards or more, tied for 80th among FBS teams.

3) Will every kick be an adventure again?

Doeren loved what he saw in practice from kicker Kyle Bambard last season. The execution didn’t quite carry over to the games. As a freshman, Bambard was 7 of 14 on field goal attempts last season and missed all of his attempts longer than 40 yards.

Graduate transfer Connor Haskins was brought in from UNC-Pembroke to compete with Bambard. Haskins’ 42-yard field goal drew one of the loudest cheers from the crowd in the spring game.

Given the improvements in the return game last year, by Bra’Lon Cherry on punts and Hines on kickoffs, N.C. State’s special teams would be among the best in the conference if the kicking game can get straightened out.

This story was originally published July 31, 2016 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Key questions for NC State football at the start of practice."