‘Every win for us is vital’: NC State hopes victory over Cal turns into more after bye
A couple of N.C. State players ran around the field at California Memorial Stadium on Saturday, arms stretched out like airplanes in celebration, after the Golden Bears missed a potential game-winning field goal.
The Wolfpack (4-4, 1-3 ACC) defeated Cal (3-4, 0-4 ACC), 24-23, on the road to win its first conference game of the season. It was a necessary victory to try and salvage the season, but the performance itself wasn’t one to star as particularly impressive.
It took everything, including that moment of luck — Derek Morris was 3 of 3 before the attempt — to pull off the win. N.C. State even needed to play defense on the final drive after the offense was forced to punt with 25 seconds on the clock.
“Really proud of our players and staff,” head coach Dave Doeren said. “Thankful for their grit, their perseverance, the way that they finished and didn’t give up.”
Doeren acknowledged plenty of things went wrong in the game. Wide receiver Noah Rogers fumbled the football on the first drive of the second half, which Cal turned into a field goal.
Later in the third quarter, Jalen Coit muffed a punt, something he’s never done before. That gave Cal field position inside the red zone and a subsequent touchdown. The Golden Bears took a 23-10 lead with 24 seconds left in the period.
Those were just the turnovers, too. Quarterback CJ Bailey nearly turned the ball over in the first quarter when a shovel pass bounced off a Cal defender and back toward Bailey. Positive plays were called back after penalties. And, Bailey was sacked six times.
The defense gave up a 49-yard rushing touchdown on the first drive, Aydan White coming from the edge and in no position to stop Jaivian Thomas. In fact, Cal had more than 100 yards of offense just seven minutes into the game.
Add in two punts shorter than 35 yards, a missed 53-yard field goal, and allowing a 40-yard kickoff return and you have a recipe for a messy game.
Davin Vann recorded two late-game sacks and the offense outscored all but one of Cal’s previous opponents, so it wasn’t all bad. That said, there’s still more to do.
The Wolfpack has another chance to turn things around, starting with rest and recovery: N.C. State finally gets a bye after playing eight straight weeks.
“You never want to go into the bye week with a loss, so that was something we’ve focused on all week; not rushing to the bye week and making sure that we took the necessary steps to beat Cal,” Vann said.
The team admittedly is tired — mentally and physically — and several players are injured. Vann said he’s sore and relied on willpower to help the team.
“Coach always says it hurts a lot less when you win,” Vann said. “It was kind of just the mindset; not wanting to lose. I was gonna be hurting regardless, so I wanted to get that dub.”
The health and well-being of his players is the No. 1 priority this week, Doeren said, calling his squad a “beat up football team.”
After that, thye Pack will get back to work on “pretty much everything,” running back Hollywood Smothers added. It wants to carry the momentum and excitement from this weekend into a run.
“We’re just going to go back, reflect, watch film and see what we didn’t do so good — like, we weren’t able to get the run attack going — and see what we’ve got to do better,” Smothers said.
Entering this game, the team turned the remaining games into a five-game season, and it wants to have a better second half than the first half. Some areas of the stat sheet are in bad shape, primarily due to the team’s inconsistency and inability to play complementary football for an entire game.
It hopes this time off will provide renewed energy, effort and lead to winning the final four games.
It won’t be easy. The Pack still hosts Stanford and Duke before ending the season at Georgia Tech and UNC.
But, it’s doable.
The program was in this position last year after losing to Duke. It rattled off five in a row, including wins over Clemson and the Tar Heels, to make a bowl and finish with nine wins. That felt good, and it’s the readjusted goal for 2024: End the game with a statement.
The players want that, too. It might not be a perfect season, but it doesn’t have to be a wash.
“Every win for us is vital right now,” Smothers said. “We’re tired of losing our games. We just got this one on the road, and we just had to do what we had to do. … We’re trying to finish the rest of these games and go 5-0 and get us a good bowl game.”
This story was originally published October 20, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "‘Every win for us is vital’: NC State hopes victory over Cal turns into more after bye."
