The high hopes North Carolina State had for this season officially have been tempered.
The Wolfpack will look to bounce back from a severe beating when they battle Louisiana Tech on Saturday in Raleigh, N.C.
North Carolina State (1-1) was steamrolled 51-10 by then-No. 14 Tennessee last weekend in a contest that exposed the Wolfpack. Tennessee outgained NC State 460-143 and the points allowed were the most by the Wolfpack since a 55-10 loss to Clemson in 2019.
NC State coach Dave Doeren knew where to place the blame for the debacle.
“It starts with me. I’m the one that sits in there and leads the staff and our game planning and all that,” Doeren said. “But this is a really good bunch of guys, and they will go back to work, I know that, and they’ll stick together. There’ll be a lot of people telling them that they’re no good, and that’s fine.”
Wolfpack quarterback Grayson McCall passed for 318 yards and three touchdowns in his school debut in a 38-21 win over visiting Western Carolina on Aug. 29. It was a much different story in his second appearance.
McCall had just 104 passing yards and was intercepted once against Tennessee during a game in which the Wolfpack were 3-of-12 on third-down conversions and 0-of-2 on fourth down.
McCall, a former three-time Sun Belt Player of the Year at Coastal Carolina, was unable to pinpoint what went wrong.
“I’m not sure honestly. We got behind the sticks a lot,” McCall said. “We were hurting ourselves with penalties, dumb mistakes that we usually don’t make. We weren’t able to sustain drives. When we did and we got to the red zone, we couldn’t finish.”
Louisiana Tech (1-0) had a bye last weekend after opening the season with a 25-17 win over FCS program Nicholls on Aug. 31.
Bulldogs quarterback Jack Turner left the contest in the first half with an injured left knee. The bye week was timely in that regard and coach Sonny Cumbie is hopeful Turner will be available.
“We’ll see more (at practice) how he moves around and where he’s truly at,” Cumbie said. “That’ll determine if he can play, but I’m encouraged with where he’s at in terms of his chances to play.”
Turner completed 4 of 8 passes for 70 yards, one touchdown and one interception before exiting against Nicholls. Backup Blake Baker was 12-of-24 passing for 207 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
NC State has won both previous meetings, including a 34-27 home win in 2021.
