NC State vs ECU football: Three things to watch as Wolfpack opens season in Greenville
N.C. State linebacker Drake Thomas has been to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for East Carolina football games. He knows what to expect Saturday in the Wolfpack’s opener against ECU.
Thomas’ father, Trevor, starred at Marshall in the early 1990s. When Marshall has played at ECU, the Thomas clan has been there cheering for the Thundering Herd.
“It’s a really good atmosphere,” Drake Thomas said this week. “They have a very passionate fan base, and I’m really excited to go over there and experience that.”
Thomas is also pumped about experiencing it with fellow linebackers Isaiah Moore and Payton Wilson. Moore and Wilson each missed a big chunk of last season with injuries, but the band of ‘backers will be back together again in Greenville — Moore again in the middle, Thomas and Wilson on the outside.
“It’s a lot of fun playing together out there (with) the chemistry and having played a lot of snaps together,” Thomas said.
Given what should be a festive, rowdy environment at Dowdy-Ficklen, their understanding of the defensive game plan and their ability to read off each other should be a key factor for the No. 13 Pack. Quick reactions by the linebackers can help make up for mistakes up front on the defensive line.
The Pack will be facing a fourth-year starter in quarterback Holton Ahlers and a 1,000-yard rusher from a year ago in running back Keaton Mitchell. The Pack’s linebackers must be active, aggressive and effective.
Thomas, Moore and Wilson were last together in a game at Mississippi State in the second game of the 2021 season. Wilson, who led the ACC in tackles in 2020, went out with a season-ending shoulder injury and also missed spring practice but is back and ready to play.
“They look good and really healthy,” Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren said this week.
Can the Wolfpack run?
One of the more puzzling aspects of the Pack’s late-season play in 2021 was the constant struggle to run the ball. Doeren has cited the back injury that took left guard Chandler Zavala out of the lineup the last seven games as a big factor.
The Pack topped 100 yards rushing once in the last five games of the season — against North Carolina.
Zavala is back but gone is left tackle Ikem “Ickey” Ikwonu, the first-round pick of the Carolina Panthers. Gone are running backs Zonovan “Bam” Knight, who made the Jets’ 53-man roster, and Ricky Person Jr.
Doeren said the preseason talk of who’s gone has further motivated Jordan Houston, Demie Sumo-Karngbaye and the other running backs.
“They’re all excited to get out and prove what they are,” he said. “That’s a hungry group.”
Who wins the kicking game?
Former ECU coach Pat Dye often said it and many football coaches have echoed him: “The kicking game can kill you.”
That’s true in any game and especially in openers. An opposing team can add a new wrinkle or new returner and burn you. There can be a bad snap, missed PAT, blocked punt, you name it.
N.C. State has experienced the good and the bad of it. In the 1999 opener at No. 17 Texas, the Pack blocked three punts in a 23-20 win over the Longhorns. In N.C. State’s 2017 season opener against South Carolina in Charlotte, the Gamecocks’ Deebo Samuel took the opening kickoff back 97 yards for a touchdown.
Ryan Finley passed for more than 400 yards and the Pack had more than 500 yards in total offense against South Carolina but the Gamecocks won 35-28 — in the end, Samuel’s return the difference.
And ECU has a new wrinkle. Coach Mike Houston said Mitchell, who led the American Athletic Conference in rushing last season with 1,132 yards, would return kickoffs this season.
“Any time we can get the ball in his hands, I think it’s a plus,” Houston said at his weekly press conference.
How to watch
The game will be shown by ESPN. Anish Shroff will handle the play-by-play, Brock Osweiler will be the analyst and Lauren Sisler the sideline reporter. It is also available on the ESPN App with an ESPN+ subscription, and through various subscription apps that carry ESPN, such as Hulu and YouTube TV.
Pregame reading
- NC State’s moment is here. If it’s ever going to happen for Pack, this is it
- How scars from 2019 made NC State a better program, Dave Doeren a better coach
- Ready for ECU return, NC State assistant Ruffin McNeill ‘looking forward to the competition’
- ACC Now podcast: A look back at NC State vs ECU football series ahead of Week 1 opener
- NC State looks to end curse that has defined college football in North Carolina
- Quarterback University? Devin Leary wants to add to NC State’s QB legacy this season
- Saturday’s college football games in NC are bigger than ACC rivalries — in their own ways
- News & Observer’s Week 1 college football picks
This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 6:10 AM.
