Following an abrupt end to their 2021-22 season with the Holiday Bowl being canceled due to UCLA’s COVID outbreak, NC State finished the season with a final record of 9-3.
Throughout last season, the Wolfpack had some nice wins against Atlantic Division opponents Clemson and Florida State, as well as suffered three big losses against Miami, Wake Forest, and Mississippi State that left them just shy of playing in the ACC Championship game.
Going into his 10th season as the Wolfpack’s head coach, Dave Doeren spoke at the ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte about the Wolfpack’s expectations for the upcoming season, and how it will take making fewer mistakes on both ends of the ball to win the ACC Championship.
“It’s just another play… we lost two games last year that kept us out of that game (ACC Championship) to win it,” Doeren said Wednesday. “It’s one more play that you have to make. That’s it. Whether it’s a defensive play, offensive play, special teams play, we lost two one-possession games… If any of those plays change, we win that game.
“There’s a lot of mistakes that happen on both sides. In the end, it’s going to come down to one player making sometimes a routine play that changes the outcome of the game. For us, it’s just doing that repetitively. You have to do it in every game you play at the conference.”
Specifically, on the defensive side of the ball, Doeren would like to see the defense get more aggressive and create more turnovers this fall.
“To me, it’s about creating more fumbles on defense,” he said. “If we can continue to do what we’ve been doing, stopping people on third down, intercepting the football, the takeaways. When you get more sacks, you usually get more fumbles, and create more short fields for our offense.”
A big positive heading into the 2022 season for the Wolfpack is the number of returning players, including Devin Leary at starting quarterback. Leary finished the 2021 season throwing for 3,433 yards, posting the third-best completion percentage in school history at .657, and being named a finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.
Heading into his redshirt junior season at NC State, Leary knows what it takes to get his team to the next level, starting with him.
“This being my third year in the system, you know, I’ve got to take that next step of getting us out of bad plays,” he said. “I think that all starts with focusing more on defensive ID and bringing along younger guys too… teaching them and making sure they understand what they need to do.”
Even with Leary returning, many teams on NC State’s schedule also have their returning quarterbacks for this season. Returning starting quarterbacks is a common theme in the Atlantic Division of the ACC as all seven teams have their starting quarterbacks returning for the 2022 season.
“When you play ACC football every week, you’ve got to show up,” Doeren said. “It’s a very well-coached league. It’s a tough league. The kids play hard. Every time you go out there, you have to earn a victory.”
The Wolfpack is set to face off at East Carolina in the two teams’ season-opener on Sept. 3 at 12 p.m.
