CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In a game where NC State football finally had a chance to prove its worth against the might of the SEC, the Wolfpack simply couldn’t hang.
Now 1-6 against SEC teams in the Dave Doeren era, the NC State head coach and his team couldn’t muster any firepower to combat their inter-conference demons, much less the Tennessee Volunteers, at the Duke’s Mayo Classic in Charlotte.
The No. 14 Vols (2-0) had their way with the red-and-white, stifling the No. 24 Wolfpack (1-1) defensively and racing past it on offense for an authoritative 51-10 win in the Queen City. In fact, the Volunteers didn’t just race past NC State — they lapped their opponents until the Pack spun off of the track.
“We just weren’t good enough tonight — bottom line,” Doeren said. “We had our chances in that football game, but it got away from us. And then in the second half, we’re having to go for it all the time, putting our defense in a short field. It just snowballed as it went.”
The Pack’s start to the 2024 Duke’s Mayo Classic wasn’t pretty, but compared to the rest of its game, it was highlight-worthy. Early on, the Pack stayed with the Vols, but quickly sputtered out of control once graduate quarterback Grayson McCall rifled a redzone pick-six to make it 17-3.
From there, it was all downhill for NC State. McCall and the offense were held to just a field goal all night. Meanwhile, Tennessee mercilessly poured it on. Compounded by penalties, Volunteer chunk plays, turnovers and more, the snowball quickly grew into an avalanche.
“We were in the game and then the pick-six, and then all of a sudden, things just started to kind of unravel,” Doeren said. “And we just never got back into it. Every time we’d make a play, there’d be a penalty. It was really frustrating and not what we expected.”
Tennessee used three NC State giveaways and two turnovers on downs to run up the score. By the end of the night, the Pack suffered a 41-point defeat, tied for the second-worst loss in Doeren’s tenure at NC State.
Once Tennessee capitalized on McCall’s mistake, the fast-paced Tennessee offense took advantage of an NC State defense that felt like it was always on the field. At 2.94 plays per minute, the Volunteers have run the fastest offense in the nation since 2021 and pushed the ball down the Wolfpack’s throat as quickly as it could.
Led by quarterback Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee averaged 13.2 receiving yards per completion and 5.7 yard per rush. Gashing NC State for chunk play after chunk play, the Vols’ 20-3 halftime lead was just the start of their high-flying day on offense.
Once the second half rolled around, the Wolfpack just couldn’t keep up with Iamaleava and head coach Josh Heupel’s speedy offense. Four second-half touchdowns, many of which were walk-ins for the Volunteers, left the Pack and its fans that filled Bank of America Stadium stunned.
“It felt crazy because it felt like we were in the game and then coming out in the second half, it started slipping away from us,” said redshirt junior linebacker Sean Brown. “We call it pressing, we press and then that’s when everybody just kind of zone out. It’s just kind of we’re out there just to be out there, and that’s what we got to fix.”
While Tennessee’s tempo squeezed the Wolfpack defensively, NC State’s offense put its defense in positions to fail throughout the contest. With an inability to run the ball, McCall and his unit routinely found themselves behind the chains, resulting in a dismal 25% third down conversion rate.
“We got behind the sticks a lot,” McCall said. “We’re hurting ourselves with penalties and just dumb mistakes that we usually don’t make, things like that. They’re just setting us behind the chains. We weren’t able to sustain drives, and when we did, when we got to the red zone, we couldn’t finish.”
Nearly all of NC State’s offensive inefficiencies stemmed from Tennessee’s dominant defensive line. If the Wolfpack’s 1.4 yards per rush doesn’t tell the story well enough, then graduate running back Jordan Waters’ negative four rushing yards on seven attempts does.
“Their defensive line was our biggest concern, particularly their defensive tackles,” Doeren said. “We think those guys are really good players, and we just did not block them up front the way that we have to run the football.”
As the tailspin grew more turbulent, so did the offense’s shortcomings.
Two third-quarter fumbles, zero third or fourth down conversions, .9 yards per rush and a total of 27 yards headlined the second half for NC State’s offense. The Volunteer avalanche was in full effect, and there was no slowing it down.
Tennessee piled on 35 second-half points, scoring on five of six straight second-half drives. The Volunteers were only briefly stopped by a lone bright spot of the night for the Pack — an 87-yard pick-six from graduate cornerback Aydan White. Even after, Tennessee picked up where it left off, putting up back-to-back touchdown drives on a defense that gave up 460 total yards by the final whistle.
After failing to follow through on its opportunities to punch in scores early on, all the Wolfpack was left with as the final seconds ticked down were ‘what-ifs,’ and McCall’s pick-six that kickstarted the nightmarish outing was the biggest one.
“He’s very competitive — mad at himself right now,” Doeren said. “[He’ll] get back, study it, flush it and move on, and he’ll be excited to play the next game. I have great confidence in Grayson and sometimes you have games like that as a quarterback. And as a head coach, I completely believe in him.”
With its offense rendered ineffective and its defense drained, NC State’s 41-point loss only added to its SEC woes. Despite being outmatched, outgunned and outclassed, Doeren still emphasized his belief in his quarterback and his team’s ability to rally together after the loss.
While Louisiana Tech at noon on Saturday will be a less rigorous challenge than the vaunted Volunteer squad NC State faced in Charlotte, the Wolfpack will have no choice but to right the ship before playing its rival, Clemson, on the road in two weeks time.
“This is a really good bunch of guys, and they will go back to work — I know that,” Doeren said. “And they’ll stick together. There’ll be a lot of people telling them that they’re no good and that’s fine. Inside the building, we got to do a great job of leading with our captains, our leadership council — all of that. There’s a lot of football in front of us.”
