‘Next man up’: How NC State’s non-starters have remained ready to play, just in case
Payton Wilson, Cyrus Fagan, C.J. Clark, Chandler Zavala and Isaiah Moore aren’t walking through that door at the Murphy Center.
If Dave Doeren wants to channel his inner Rick Pitino he can start with that speech. That’s the reality now for N.C. State football; five starters, two captains, four defenders are all done for the season.
With five games remaining, starting Saturday against Louisville (4-3, 2-2), nobody on the schedule is going to feel sorry for the Wolfpack (5-2, 2-1) who still have hopes of making it to the ACC championship game.
That task is obviously a little tougher without so many key pieces, but it’s been the next-man-up mentality around the facility all year. Since the start of fall camp coaches always preach the need to stay ready to the younger players. Sometimes, it sticks, and they prepare like they are always one play away. Sometimes it doesn’t, and they are thrown into the fire not knowing what to do.
Coaches preach it until they turn blue in the face. Doeren takes a different approach.
“At the beginning of every year, I talk about that and I involve players in the room,” Doeren told the News & Observer. “I’ll ask ‘who has played when you didn’t think you were going to play, and then you were disappointed that you weren’t ready had you approached it differently?’”
Doeren asked that question to his team at the start of training camp. Several players raised their hands. So instead of the younger guys hearing it from a coach again, Doeren had those players speak to their peers.
The message becomes a little clearer when they hear it from a teammate. Too many times, Doeren has seen a young guy come in and expect to play right away. That’s not always the case and when they have to sit, one of two things happen: They approach practice like they can play any given Saturday, or their practice habits slip, and that’s the week they’ll be thrust into action unprepared.
“And that’s a hard lesson,” Doeren said. “Some of them have to learn the hard way just like everyone in the world has to learn the hard way sometimes, but we do address that and talk about it quite a bit. There’s enough examples, living examples, on our roster where ‘man, I don’t want to be not ready.’”
When Wilson went down, Jaylon Scott was ready. Same with Jakeen Harris for Fagan and Cory Durden for Clark.
“I think at every position we haven’t fallen off the face of production,” Doeren said. “Would Payton have more tackles than Jaylon right now? I would probably say yes because he did last year, we’re missing that, but Jaylon’s playing really good, he’s doing some really good things. Same thing when you look at Cory Durden, he’s doing some really good things. I think the guys have stepped up in the roles that they’ve had and have done as good as we can ask for.”
Scott is seventh on the team in tackles after starting the last five games. Wilson and Fagan went down in week two, Clark played one more game after that and was ruled out ahead of the Clemson contest in week four. N.C. State is still No. 1 in the ACC in total defense and rush defense heading into Saturday’s game versus the Cardinals.
Stepping up
Devan Boykin is a guy who knows all about staying ready.
The Greensboro native only got eight total snaps the first two games, 29 in a blowout win over Furman, and only played special teams against Clemson. He was in for eight snaps against Louisiana Tech before playing 28 snaps in back-to-back games against Boston College and Miami.
After returning a fumbled punt for a touchdown against the Eagles, he was named the ACC Specialist of the Week.
After Fagan went down, Boykin was the next man up behind Harris. A coach’s son, Doeren credited the freshman with approaching practice each day like he was a starter, which carried over to his play on the field once his number was called.
“I would say I’ve been ready to step up to the plate for a while now,” Boykin told the media this week. “Just being ready, that’s the main thing.”
Freshman Devon Betty filled for Moore versus Miami and finished with seven tackles in a career-high 41 snaps. Betty is another player that Doeren credited with preparing the right way each week, even though he was playing behind an All-ACC caliber linebacker in Moore.
Betty didn’t see the field at all in consecutive games versus Clemson and Louisiana Tech and was in for one snap versus Boston College (resulted in a safety), now he’s set to replace Moore and start at middle linebacker versus Louisville.
Boykin expects his classmate to be ready, saying everyone has been training for this moment.
“You have to have that mentality, it’s the game of football, anything can happen,” Boykin said. “Injuries can happen. Right now we have some guys who have to step up for us.”
Pride will also play a factor. Expectations were high when N.C. State was fully healthy. Even when three starters on defense went down, that side of the ball is still tops in the league. Nobody wants to be the reason for a drop off moving forward. That’s a big motivation for the next guys up.
“I think they take it personally that they don’t want to see the level of play change because they are now the guys in there,” Doeren said. “They’re driven.”
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 4:00 PM.
