NC State Coach Dave Doeren shares more player injury news. This time, it’s not all bad
It had almost become routine for N.C. State head coach to jump on his Monday press conference and deliver bad news about one of his players.
It’s happened three times this year. But Monday was different. Doeren had an update, but it wasn’t grim. Defensive end Savion Jackson, who missed all but one quarter of the Florida State game, is “day-to-day” Doeren told the media.
“It’s something we’ll have to monitor and see,” Doeren said. “He was walking around on the sideline so it wasn’t anything major from that standpoint.”
The former Clayton High School star was injured in the first quarter of the Packs 28-14 win over Florida State on Saturday. After the game Doeren said Jackson tweaked something. By the second quarter Jackson was on the sideline in street clothes, with a brace on his knee.
Terrell Dawkins, Cory Durden, Davin Vann and Ibrahim Kante rotated at Jackson’s defensive end spot the rest of the game. N.C. State sacked FSU quarterback McKenzie Milton three times.
Jackson had one tackle against the Seminoles. He was coming off the best game of his career the previous week, racking up seven tackles in a win over Louisville. This season, Jackson has 50 tackles, including 4.5 tackles for loss and one sack.
The N.C. State defense was already without linebackers Payton Wilson and Isaiah Moore, defensive tackle C.J. Clark and safety Cyrus Fagan. They entered the game another man short as nickel back Tyler Baker-Williams missed the FSU contest.
But the good news kept coming. Doeren announced Baker-Williams will be back for the Wake Forest game.
Joshua Pierre-Louis filled in for Baker-Willams and Doeren said there was no “drop off” at the position. Pierre-Louis had an interception in the first quarter against FSU. This week facing Wake Forest and their dangerous slot receivers, it’ll be crucial to have Baker-Williams back, plus Pierre-Louis for backup.
“Defending the slot in this league is a tough day at work for a lot of people,” Doeren said. “T-Bake and Joshua Pierre-Louis, they’ve done a nice job of limiting the production in the slot for people.”
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 1:15 PM.
