Missed kicks, phantom penalty calls and an entire offense vanishing at halftime — NC State football fans have seen it all.
Seemingly every season, the Wolfpack suffers an unexplainable loss that stuns the program for years, rips away the potential for a ten-win season or keeps the red-and-white out of the ACC Championship. Here are the five games of head coach Dave Doeren’s tenure that continue to haunt NC State fans.
2016: NC State 30, ECU 33
Arguably the worst loss under Doeren’s watch, the Wolfpack got off to a frighteningly poor start. ECU scored in bunches early, jumping ahead 12-0 early in the second quarter. Nevertheless, NC State fought back and scored a trio of touchdowns before halftime to take a 20-19 lead into the break, seemingly stifling the ECU defense.
The Pirates weren’t done, though. The sides traded punches until ECU delivered a knockout punch. Putting together a 14-play drive that lasted over seven minutes, ECU slowly squeezed the Wolfpack like a boa constrictor, sucking the life out of the Pack that day. Down 33-30, NC State never managed to get within field goal range as time ran out on the red-and-white.
Any loss to ECU, a program that Wolfpack believes it should always beat, will haunt NC State fans. However, this loss was particularly crushing for the Pack, given the state of the Pirate program. Following the game, the Pirates managed just a single win over their final 10 games. After losing to a lifeless program and local rival, NC State fans are almost always nervous when depending on Doeren’s Wolfpack to defeat ECU.
2016: NC State 17, Clemson 24
Kicker Kyle Bambard lined up for a 33-yard field goal in Death Valley. With a chance to knock off No. 3 Clemson, a Tiger team that went on to win the national championship, Bambard just needed to make one kick from straight on to complete one of the biggest wins in school history.
Instead, Bambard missed right as time expired with the score dead even at 17 apiece. A play that started with the potential to be one of the most exciting in school history ended up as the single most devastating play during Doeren’s tenure. The Tigers, of course, handled business in overtime, breaking the hearts of Wolfpack fans with a game-sealing interception in the endzone.
The loss was the best chance NC State would have had at a win against Clemson for years. The Wolfpack didn’t win against Clemson until 2021, and still haven’t won in Death Valley since then — a losing streak that goes back to 2002.
2021: NC State 42, Wake Forest 45
Since 2011, only one ACC football championship didn’t go to Clemson or Florida State — the 2021 championship won by the Pitt Panthers. With annual powerhouse Clemson behind the eight ball after a loss to the Wolfpack and the Seminoles failing to even make a bowl, the ACC Atlantic division was wide open when NC State visited Wake Forest for a division-deciding showdown.
Unfortunately for NC State, Winston-Salem is where ACC championship dreams go to die. While it’s not the biggest or the loudest home-field advantage in the conference, Wake Forest has become a house of horrors for the Wolfpack.
The game was the antithesis of a typical NC State game under Doeren. Points flew left and right, and defense became optional. NC State allowed less than 30 points in nine games throughout the season, but against the Demon Deacons, the Wolfpack defense appeared lost, slow and confused all game long. What could have been the Wolfpack’s first ACC championship since 1979 ended up as just another nine-win season in all because of one frightful day in Winston-Salem.
2022: NC State 20, Boston College 21
With a 16-game home winning streak on the line and senior day festivities taking place, NC State arrived for a day of celebration. A victory would break the school record for most consecutive home wins, send out the senior class on a high note and give NC State an 8-2 record. For a time, it looked like everything would go smoothly for the Wolfpack, as NC State jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
From there, NC State’s afternoon quickly spiraled out of control. The offense that looked sharp completely collapsed, only finding a pair of field goals the rest of the way. With confidence slipping, mistakes piled up with three fumbles and an interception.
Meanwhile, Boston College slowly climbed back. The Pack thought it’d earned a victory. However, when Boston College threw an incomplete pass on 4th down, a haunting penalty flag was thrown for pass interference. The call gave Boston College a fresh set of downs that led to a game-winning touchdown. To this day, the pass interference flag remains one of the most infamous penalties in NC State history.
2023: NC State 10, Louisville 13
On a chilly fall evening, the Wolfpack and the Cardinals met at Carter-Finley Stadium for an early-season battle. With the home crowd roaring in their support and a 10-point advantage at halftime, NC State had every reason to be confident that it’d pick up the win.
The second half proved to be a different story. What began as a picturesque college football Saturday morphed into a gut-wrenching nightmare. The Wolfpack offense vanished in the second half. Losing three interceptions and a fumble, NC State’s offensive woes proved to be Louisville’s best offense. Setting the Cardinals up with good field position, the Pack crumbled away before allowing Louisville to steal the lead with a 53-yard field goal — the final blow that knocked the Pack out cold.
Little did the two teams know, the winner of this game would be ACC Championship-bound. With Clemson off to a very slow start and Miami still in the midst of a rebuild, the ACC race ended up being wide open in 2023. The Wolfpack closed its regular season with five straight wins and would have had an excellent chance to beat a Florida State squad that was playing without starting QB Jordan Travis. Instead, the Cardinals got that opportunity and Doeren’s best shot at an ACC title was never to be.
