NC State fell short against Virginia Tech, but the pain surpassed the final score
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- NC State mourned the loss of coach DJ Eliot’s daughter after cancer battle.
- Virginia Tech exploited N.C. State defense with 278 yards in explosive plays.
- Doeren pledged team resilience as emotional, physical fatigue hampers performance.
With red-rimmed eyes and a sniffly nose, Caden Fordham stepped to the podium as tears slipped down his face as he answered a handful of questions after N.C. State’s loss to Virginia Tech. Justin Joly presented with a similar appearance.
It was the most upset the two players have been, at least publicly, after a loss.
But these weren’t regular tears that might follow a disappointing loss. Everyone has seen those. These were the tears of heartbroken players, of a grieving program. It was more than a game, but, at the same time, only a game.
“Just a lot going on in our defense right now, with Coach Eliot and his daughter,” Fordham said, unable to stop the emotions. “It just meant a lot to me, this game. I mean, they all do, but I don’t know. It just sucks losing, and every time it hurts.”
Defensive coordinator DJ Eliot’s daughter, Drue, died on Saturday after a five-year battle with cancer. He stepped away from the program earlier in the week to be with his family in Drue’s final days.
Though the program is no stranger to adversity, this was the first time in Dave Doeren’s career one of his assistants lost a child. The team wanted to win more than the fans even realize, he said, not only for the record but to bring joy to the Eliot family.
“The kids did want to play well. They care a lot about Coach,” Doeren said. “Everybody’s heart hurts for him and his family, and we wanted to bring them some levity to the situation that they’re dealing with. It’s tragic. … I can’t even tell you how hard this week’s been. The kids — emotionally, physically, mentally — were there, and they wanted to play really well.”
Wanting and doing are two different things.
Struggles everywhere, but especially on defense
N.C. State struggled in all three phases for the second straight game. The offense was held to a season-low 299 yards of total offense and only 59 net rushing yards. Special teams return coverage lacked intensity.
Defense, in a game where it desperately wanted to shine, faltered again.
Players and coaches have repeatedly discussed the importance of limiting explosives, but the talking still has not consistently transferred to the field.
For the fourth time in five games, the Wolfpack gave up more than 275 yards on explosive plays.
Virginia Tech recorded 158 yards on explosives in the first half alone and added another 120 in the second half for 278. The Hokies finished with nine rushing plays of at least 10 yards, totaling 201 yards — the most allowed by the Wolfpack defense this season.
Entering the game, the N.C. State defense allowed 267.3 yards per outing on explosive plays alone. It gave up 290 yards against Duke and Virginia and allowed East Carolina to rack up 308. This latest outing increased the overall average of big play yardage to 269.4 per game.
The Hokies’ Terion Stewart, who ran for 174 yards, accounted for seven of the nine explosive rushing plays. He had one play for 85 yards that started at the Hokies own 4-yard line. Marcellous Hawkins added the other two major runs.
“Credit to the running back. They had a really solid running back,” defensive end Cian Slone said. “He was able to break a lot of our tackles, but we need to rally to the football and trust the scheme and just play with our hair on fire. There’s too many missed tackles on defense, and that’s just something that we need to take responsibility as as players and get that fixed for next week.”
Poor tackling plagues Pack
Slone said the players are in the right spots and have chances to make plays, but they’re not wrapping opposing players up. Multiple players had an opportunity to stop Stewart on his nearly-full-field run but missed completely, tripped on the chase or weren’t fast enough to catch up.
Fordham led all players with 15 tackles, including eight solo. Slone and Asaad Brown finished with seven and nine tackles, respectively. The team also added 10 quarterback hurries, two sacks and four tackles for loss. On paper, those numbers are good.
Doeren was also pleased with the game plan co-defensive coordinator Charlton Warren devised, but it wasn’t enough — for the win or to provide a spark of happiness in a difficult time.
Everyone in the locker room knows it fell short again. The proverbial pitchforks are out on social media posts and comments on the sidelines have been explicit.
On a regular day, the on-field performance would’ve been disappointing. On Saturday, it was a gut punch to the highest degree.
“There’s a lot of football left, so we’re going to do everything we can to rally around these guys,” Doeren said. “We’re a beat up group right now, emotionally and physically, unfortunately. We’ll get these guys in here tomorrow and go back to work.”
This story was originally published September 28, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
