Dave Doeren wants NC State to make more of its ‘layups’
N.C. State relied a pair of NFL receivers last season in Kelvin Harmon and Jakobi Meyers. Between the two of them, they caught 173 passes for 2,233 yards.
The duo had their share of highlight catches in becoming the first pair of receivers from the same team to make the All-ACC team.
“There were a lot of circus catches made by our wideouts last year,” Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren said.
But N.C. State’s win over Ball State featured an old bugaboo with five dropped passes, which caught Doeren’s attention.
“I’m more concerned about the layups we’re missing,” Doeren said.
Junior receiver Emeka Emezie had a pair of drops, on seven targets. The first pass of the third quarter was one Doeren singled out.
McKay hit Emezie in a window, about 12 yards down the field, between the corner and safety. Emezie looks like he was bothered by the three defenders around him and dropped the pass.
“We throw a great pass to Emeka and he doesn’t catch that ball,” Doeren said. “Those are the kind of plays. For us, it’s eliminate the penalties, make the layups and let’s see what happens. That to me is the biggest thing we have to do: be the team that doesn’t beat itself, takes advantage of the plays that are there and then go make the great play.”
Emezie leads the team in targets (45), catches (25) and yards (252) but also in drops (5). (See the searchable season passing breakdown chart below). He had a spectacular one-handed catch for 19 yards in the first quarter against Ball State.
Emezie isn’t the only skill player who struggled with drops in the first four games. Running back Bam Knight has had a drop in each of the past two games. Doeren wants to get Knight (and running backs Ricky Person and Jordan Houston) more involved in the passing game this season.
But Knight has dropped two of his seven targets this season and has only three catches for 5 yards. Person (six catches for 71 yards) and Houston (five catches for 28 yards) have been more effective.
Knight, Houston and Person aren’t the same type of backs as Nyheim Hines or Jaylen Samuels but N.C. State’s offense is more effective with more options in the passing game and when it gets its best players the ball in space.
Samuels’ 14-yard touchdown “catch” in N.C. State’s last trip to Florida State in 2017 was a classic example of creative ways Doeren and his staff found ways to get the ball in the hands of their best playmakers.
Houston, with his speed, is probably the best option to adopt some of the specialty plays used by Samuels in his record-setting career with the Wolfpack. Houston had a key 15-yard catch on N.C. State’s last possession in the win over Ball State.
This story was originally published September 25, 2019 at 10:31 AM.
