They say in sports, failure makes success all the sweeter when it finally does come. If that’s the case, the NC State football team’s win over Florida State Saturday ought to have tasted about as sweet as a large tea from your local Bojangles’.
In a recent slew of “moral victories,” the Pack hung tough with top opponents but could not make the crucial plays needed to win, leading to several heartbreaking losses. That list includes a missed game-winning, 30-yard field goal at the buzzer in an overtime loss to Clemson in Death Valley last season, and a 24-20 loss to the Seminoles in Raleigh a few weeks later in which senior safety Shawn Boone dropped an end-zone interception late in the fourth quarter, one play before the game-winning touchdown.
It continued with this year’s season-opening loss to South Carolina. The Pack dominated but lost by a score thanks to two turnovers and a disaster on special teams. In this year’s trip to Doak Campbell Stadium, the Pack made those key plays, including a forced fumble late in the first half from senior defensive end Bradley Chubb that ended a Seminoles drive that could have given the Pack’s 12th-ranked opponent the lead.
“Just being in this situation, three years in a row, winning the game and having it taken from you, just to finally pull it out just meant a lot to us,” Chubb said. “That’s what we’ve been working on all offseason, finishing. We’re all excited.”
Many of those losses left NC State fans saying “if this, then that,” and wondering what could have been. Against Florida State, the Pack finally grabbed a tangible victory, rather than looking for the silver lining that it dropped a nail-biter to a top team. The win is NC State’s first against a top-25 opponent since it beat the Seminoles 17-16 at Carter-Finley Stadium with current Chicago Bears signal caller Mike Glennon at quarterback and Tom O’Brien as the team’s head coach, and ends a 10-game losing streak to ranked opponents.
The man who has drawn the most ire for the Pack’s inability to grab a win over a top ranked opponent the past four seasons is head coach Dave Doeren. Doeren entered Saturday’s game at 9-23 in the ACC, with his only wins coming against Boston College, Wake Forest, Syracuse and UNC-Chapel Hill. He took over the Pack in 2013 and did not win a single conference game in his first season. It’s been a slow build since then as Doeren stocked the roster with his recruits and developed them, bringing in a senior-laden, talented team to 2017.
Those efforts were finally rewarded Saturday with his first top-25 win as NC State’s head coach.
“Our players came here with a dream three and four years ago, and most of those guys are out there, and that was to help me and our staff elevate our program, be competitive and be a contender in the conference,” Doeren said. “Today was a great step in the right direction for all of us that way.”
The Wolfpack came into this season with a talented roster and a load of expectations for what the team could do after the way it played against teams like Florida State and Clemson last year, with some analysts going as far as to call NC State a dark horse for the College Football Playoff.
After the season-opening loss to the Gamecocks, it was fair to wonder if the Pack was simply a talented group of players without the ability to execute as a team in big games. The team silenced many of those doubters Saturday, but work remains for the ultimate goal of competing for an ACC title.
The Pack has instituted a “24-hour rule” this season, in which that is the time frame a team has to move onto its next game, win or lose. It will be important to stick to that and focus on the task at hand, with home games against other ranked opponents in No. 17 Louisville and No. 2 Clemson on the docket, along with a trip to South Bend to face No. 22 Notre Dame.
This year’s Wolfpack team is a talented bunch, there was never any doubting that. Against Florida State, the team finally showed an ability to capitalize on that talent. If that’s the new norm for NC State, the signature win of the Dave Doeren era could be a sign of further great things to come this season.
