After one of the most unfathomable losses in college football history, NC State now faces an undefeated in-state rival eager to add to the Wolfpack\u2019s misery.<\/p>\n
Can NC State respond after Saturday\u2019s 35-31 loss<\/a> at Vanderbilt that unfolded in unthinkable fashion?<\/p>\n Leading 31-28 with seven seconds remaining and the ball on the 2, quarterback CJ Bailey fumbled in the end zone on fourth-and-7 while trying to run out the clock, and Vanderbilt recovered for the game-winning touchdown with one second remaining.<\/p>\n NC State head coach Dave Doeren said Monday that his team has worked on those types of situations every Friday practice for 14 years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe decided as a staff to take a safety, and the plan was to take a safety play that allows us to also milk the clock,\u201d Doeren said. \u201cThat play is designed to allow the quarterback to roll to his right, milk the clock until people get near him and then fall down and not take contact. And obviously that\u2019s not what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Doeren said he knew NC State would still likely have to kickoff after the safety and planned a deep squib kick to try to run out the final seconds.<\/p>\n \u201cWe preferred that option over the other option which is throwing the ball as far as you can from the pocket, rolling out and doing that out of your own end zone,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n With the ball on the right hash, there was concern about rolling right \u2014 and, being on the road, about how quick or slow the clock operator might be.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you do throw that and five seconds go off, they get the ball on the 2,\u201d Doeren said, which would allow Vanderbilt a game-tying field goal attempt or one play for a potential game-winning touchdown. \u201cJust felt like that was a much riskier play in our own end zone.\u201d<\/p>\n Bailey is in his third season as the Wolfpack\u2019s starter. He completed 25-of-37 passes for three touchdowns \u2014 all to receiver Keenan Jackson \u2014 and one interception against Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a play isn\u2019t executed properly, there\u2019s two things that are true,\u201d Doeren said. \u201cThe player didn\u2019t do what he was coached or trained to do, and the coach didn\u2019t do a good enough job training the player to do what he wanted them to do. And both of those things are true.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cCJ takes ownership. I take ownership. [Offensive coordinator] Kurt Roper takes ownership. We take ownership. It\u2019s a terrible way to end a football game that you controlled and so there was a lot of pain in that locker room after the game and a lot of anger. I know the fans feel the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n Doeren said he and Bailey met Sunday to talk and \u201cvent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe and I love each other and have a lot of respect for each other,\u201d Doeren said. \u201cAnd just wanted to make sure that we learn from what happened and that I understand completely what was going on with him and how we can move forward and best use this as a galvanizing moment with our football team.\u201d<\/p>\n The play will likely live on in highlights \u2013 or lowlights \u2013 for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Teams with the lead and less than 10 seconds remaining were 1,046-1 in the last 20 seasons before Vanderbilt\u2019s miracle, ESPN reported. The only previous loss came in 2015 on a fumbled punt by Michigan against Michigan State, another improbable ending.<\/p>\n NC State led 17-0 in the second quarter, 24-7 in the third and 31-21 in the fourth. An interception by NC State\u2019s Brody Barnhardt at the goal line with 1:04 remaining seemingly sealed the game for NC State.<\/p>\n But it didn\u2019t. NC State was out of timeouts and took a delay of game penalty before fourth down that pushed the offense back to the 2.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a shame it came down to that play,\u201d Doeren said after the game. \u201cThat should never happen. Obviously a play that breaks your heart more than anything. I was proud of how our guys played for 59 minutes and 59 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n He compared the loss to the 2016 overtime loss at No. 3 Clemson<\/a> when NC State forced four turnovers and a 2024 loss to South Carolina in Charlotte<\/a> when NC State outgained the Gamecocks 504-215 \u2014 games where he felt his team was better but didn\u2019t get the win.<\/p>\n Doeren said he absorbed valuable lessons after that 2016 loss to Clemson that could help this week.<\/p>\n \u201cThat devastated our locker room for a long period of time,\u201d said Doeren, whose team lost the next three games. \u201cI\u2019m not going to let that happen. I\u2019ve learned a lot from that. With the team, we talked about it. I brought up that game to them and how we can\u2019t let one team get to the next game, the next game, the next game. We\u2019ve got to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n Doeren said he was in shock after the game \u2013 and \u201cso mad.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFootball is a fickle sport, and it\u2019s tough and crazy stuff happens at times,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just unfortunate that we were part of the crazy this week.\u201d<\/p>\n NC State has already bounced back once this season. The Wolfpack were blown out 34-8 by Virginia in the season opener, a humbling defeat for a team with high hopes entering the year. The Wolfpack crushed Richmond 73-0 and set a slew of offensive records in its next game.<\/p>\n But the loss at Vanderbilt was of a different nature, a gut punch of a defeat. It was NC State\u2019s sixth straight loss against teams from the Southeastern Conference.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s different in that we didn\u2019t underperform,\u201d Doeren said. \u201cWe came out and played really good football.\u00a0 Whereas in Virginia, we didn\u2019t. So that part is different, but getting back on the winning side of things and a lot of football left, all these things are still true.\u201d<\/p>\n NC State plays three straight homes, including Saturday when the Wolfpack (1-2) hosts App State on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium. The Mountaineers (3-0) are seeking their first-ever win over NC State, which is 6-0 in previous meetings, all in Raleigh, including their last contest in 2006.<\/p>\n Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU and 101.5 FM in the Triangle.<\/p>\n The Mountaineers defeated East Carolina 27-24 and Charlotte 26-21 the last two weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just got to get locked in with loving the process of preparing to win,\u201d Doeren said. \u201cThat\u2019s all this week is going to be about. It\u2019s not going to be about what happened on Saturday last week. It\u2019s going to be about what we\u2019re going to get done this Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n NC State is 33-2 in nonconference home games under Doeren, who is the school\u2019s all-time leader in football coaching victories. Doeren, in his 14th season in Raleigh, is under contract through the end of the 2029 season. The heart-breaking loss has led some<\/a> to call for the end<\/a> of the Doeren era in Raleigh. NC State would owe him more than $9.75 million if it fired him after the season.<\/p>\n NC State athletics director Boo Corrigan said last year that he was against in-season firings, saying there has been \u201ca little bit of a loss of dignity in what we do\u00a0 and firing coaches midseason.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After one of the most unfathomable losses in college football history, NC State now faces an undefeated in-state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,102298,361726,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-856541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-nc-state-sports","tag-nc-state-stuff","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}