NC State makes the most of its second chance, while East Carolina can only hope for one
There was no undoing the impact of what happened to N.C. State on its official senior night, a Thursday night loss to Wake Forest that sent the Wolfpack’s season down a very different path. There was at least now an opportunity to exit on the right terms, for the seniors to walk away from Carter-Finley Stadium on a different note.
That was the gift of this impromptu game against East Carolina, that rarest of things in sports and life: a second chance, even if an incomplete one.
It’s hard to imagine N.C. State making any more of it than the Wolfpack did Saturday.
“If you ever went home and had a dream about how your final game would be,” Jakobi Meyers said, “that’s how you would want it to be.”
Amid all the records set and touchdowns scored in this 58-3 victory that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate, there were moments of pure joy sprinkled everywhere, like blueberries in a muffin.
Take your pick of several, but this one stood out: Garrett Bradbury, the beloved graduate-student center and level-headed conscience of the offense, lining up in the backfield for a 1-yard touchdown plunge, only to celebrate by handing the ball to linemate Terronne Prescod to punt into the stands.
“I did not get the ball back,” Bradbury said. “It’s fine. We’ve been thinking about that, and everyone was saying to keep it and bring it back to the sideline and put it up in a case. I feel like if I did that, I would just look at it every day and say, ‘What if Terronne could have punted it?’ So I gave it to Terronne.”
It was almost like the fog that surrounds college football, the toxic smoke of self-importance that forces everyone who inhales it to pretend this game is serious as a heart attack, lifted for that one moment and the sun shone through. The fun shone through.
When Reggie Gallaspy broke the 1,000-yard mark – everyone in the huddle knew he needed about 60 yards to break it, and he ran for 87 before he was brought down from behind – N.C. State coach Dave Doeren called a timeout so the team could celebrate and the crowd could chant Gallaspy’s name, an entirely deserved moment of unadulterated adoration for a player whose career at N.C. State has been anything but smooth and easy but, when healthy, ran rough and hard.
“I never imagined that,” Gallaspy said.
It’s OK to enjoy this stuff once in a while. Because N.C. State needed only look across the field to see just how grim things can get, a team in purgatory being forced to endure the needless prolongation of a dismal season to satisfy the long-term financial goals of the university.
It might have made sense back in September to tack this game onto East Carolina’s season, and certainly the Pirates got something out of it down the road – another game here in 2025 and one in Greenville in 2028 – but for these players under these circumstances it was nothing short of excruciating, having to play 48 hours after the Pirates fired head coach Scottie Montgomery and removing whatever win-one-for-Scottie motivation might have elevated their performance.
“Imagine taking everything you’ve worked for and having somebody rip it out of your chest and throw it on the ground,” East Carolina senior Garrett McGhin said. “It almost makes you feel like you don’t matter. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve had to go through. I pray no one in this locker room has to go out the way I had to go out.”
The Pirates would have been far better off at home Saturday, where they could move on to whatever – and whomever – comes next. Whether that’s Mike Houston or Skip Holtz or Butch Jones (or, dare we say it, a different Butch?), there’s some work ahead, although it’s hard to fairly assess the Pirates with freshman quarterback Holton Ahlers injured. It’s hard to reconcile the team on the field Saturday with the one that beat North Carolina in September, although not hard to reconcile that neither coach is still employed.
At least now East Carolina can finally turn the page on the Montgomery regime, ill-fated as it was, and go about the remedial work of hiring an athletic director who can hire a football coach and rebuild a once-proud program that has suffered too many self-inflicted wounds. If the rudderless university ever gets around to it, that is.
“We’ve got to kind of hold it together until they do what they’re going to do,” said defensive coordinator David Blackwell, Saturday’s interim coach and the man tasked with keeping things from getting any worse while his alma mater continues to dither.
The end was as merciful for East Carolina as it was joyful for N.C. State, and yet bittersweet for the Wolfpack as well. It may have been the way N.C. State’s seniors wanted to exit Carter-Finley (South), but they were still exiting Carter-Finley for good.
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Gallaspy said. “I’ll probably be in bed crying with a teddy bear tonight.”
The sadness will come later, but there shouldn’t be much. The Wolfpack was given a second chance, and made the most of it. Maybe some of East Carolina’s players will get of their own one down the road, someday.
This story was originally published December 1, 2018 at 5:02 PM.
