Can NC State football overcome its history to capture elusive ACC title this season?
The 2022 N.C. State football team has heard the high expectations outside the Murphy Center, but linebacker Isaiah Moore knows talk is cheap.
“We look great on paper,” Moore told The News & Observer. “We still have to go out there and play. We have an older group, a mature group, but none of us have arrived yet. We didn’t accomplish our goal and we acknowledge that.”
That goal — an ACC title — has eluded the Wolfpack for 42 years. Moore and the rest of the upperclassmen at N.C. State want to end that streak.
The program has the pieces: Ten starters return on defense. Devin Leary returns at quarterback. All 10 assistant coaches return.
“I think all of those things are indicators that it’s a great place not just to play, but to work,” Doeren said. “I’m very proud of that. It’s not always been that way. It’s taken time not just on my behalf, on the players’ behalf, the coaches’ behalf, the chemistry, getting it right. It’s fun to be a part of that transformation and I’m very proud of it.”
But is that consistency, and that pride, enough for N.C. State to overcome a past marred by letdowns?
A lot to replace
The Pack will start the 2022 season with a host of players in the starting lineup who took lumps during the 4-8 season in 2019.
“We had just lost Ryan Finley, Kelvin Harmon, Jakobi Meyers, Germaine Pratt, NFL guys,” linebacker Drake Thomas, a true freshman in 2019, said. “We had some older guys try to step up in those roles, and I would say it was unsuccessful. That was my first taste of college football and it was like a punch in the mouth.”
Thomas is one of those 10 starters returning on defense, but the team has some losses to overcome on offense. N.C. State must replace its top offensive lineman (Ickey Ekwonu), top two running backs (Zonovan Knight, Ricky Person) and top wide receiver (Emeka Emezie).
This isn’t Clemson or Alabama, where you replace pros with five-star recruits or another future pro. Is there potential? Sure, but the players filling in those spots are unproven. Doeren’s roster is loaded mostly with three-star recruits who play with a chip on their shoulders, feeling overlooked. Moore, for example, talked about N.C. State being his only ACC offer coming out of high school.
Redshirt sophomore Anthony Belton and redshirt freshman Anthony Carter are the top two candidates to replace Ekwonu, the first offensive player drafted in April’s NFL draft. Belton and Carter have appeared in a combined two games. That the Pack will look to protect Leary’s blindside with a young left tackle cannot be overlooked.
Jordan Houston, a junior who will get first crack at running back, has four career starts, but only carried the ball 20 times a year ago.
Potential roadblocks
One of the biggest challenges on N.C. State’s potential path to an ACC title will be winning on the road. All three of the Pack’s losses came on the road last year. The biggest test will be at Clemson on Oct. 1.
N.C. State hasn’t won at Death Valley since 2002.
The opener at ECU on Sept. 3 will be telling. While on paper this might be the best Wolfpack team to visit Greenville, N.C. State is 1-4 all-time at ECU. Its last road loss to the Pirates was in 2016, a three-point ECU win over a Pack roster that featured multiple future NFL players.
That same season, N.C. State traveled to Clemson and had a chance to knock off the No. 3 Tigers. The Wolfpack missed a game-winning field goal in regulation, a 33-yard attempt, and fell in overtime.
Those letdowns are what N.C. State needs to overcome in 2022 if it really wants to prove this team is different.
“It’s time to start playing football,” Doeren said. “And earn where you want to be.”
This story was originally published July 25, 2022 at 5:35 AM.
