Through NC State football’s 2-0 start, there’s a lot to be happy about for head coach Dave Doeren and his staff. Graduate quarterback Ryan Finley and his receivers look like the real deal, with the emergence of players like redshirt freshman Thayer Thomas giving the team incredible depth at that position. After looking a bit shaky week one, the defense held Georgia State off the scoreboard following the game’s opening drive Saturday.

There’s one massive concern; however, and it’s one that has the potential to submarine a promising season. Through two games, the Wolfpack simply has not been able to run the football.

After averaging a paltry 2.86 yards per carry against James Madison week one, the Wolfpack rushed for just 115 yards on 31 carries against the Panthers Saturday, and if you take away graduate Brady Bodine’s breakaway 39-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter, that’s under 3 yards per carry again. There were times in the week-two matchup that it looked like NC State’s running backs were repeatedly attempting to rush the football into a brick wall.

It was known coming into the season that NC State had a lot to replace in the run game, including a 1,000-yard rusher from last year in Nyheim Hines, an all-purpose weapon in Jaylen Samuels and two starting offensive linemen.

However, the assumption was that with two offensive linemen with experience in sophomores Justin Witt and Joshua Fedd-Jackson, and a running back group with senior Reggie Gallaspy Jr. leading the way, the Pack’s run game had a chance to pick up where it left off.

So far, that hasn’t been the case. Gallaspy hasn’t been the answer, and the Pack has yet to have any of its trio of talented freshmen in Ricky Person Jr., Trent Pennix and Nakia Robinson Jr. healthy.

Now, it’s not time to throw in the towel on this running game just yet. Witt and Fedd-Jackson are still adjusting to being starters, and have one of the best position coaches in the country in Dwayne Ledford to help them through it. The Pack has yet to see Person, who probably has the most potential of those young backs, at 100 percent. The team has also been missing redshirt sophomore tight end Dylan Autenrieth, who is a key blocker, for the first two games.

So, there’s still plenty of hope for things to turn around.

“I know [the run game is] not where we want it,” Doeren said after Saturday’s game. “We gotta continue to work at it and getting our offensive line — all of those guys playing together, continuing to get reps from those backs and the tight ends; and they’re still young so all that’s going to help over time. We obviously have work to do there and I know we’ll work hard to get better at it.”

For the Wolfpack’s sake, Doeren needs to be right. The team can’t get away with a one-dimensional offense as the schedule toughens up. NC State will need its run game against the likes of West Virginia, Boston College and Clemson, to run a more balanced offense, set up play-action passing and extend drives to keep the high-powered offenses it will face off the field.

With the talent NC State has in the passing game and its underrated defense, this has the potential to be a special season. However, if the Pack’s going to reach its full potential, it needs its run game to improve exponentially from the first two weeks.