The Wolfpacker Show: NC State vs. Western Carolina reflections

hello everyone and welcome to the wolfpacker show my name is Ethan McDow I am here with my co-host Noah fman and we are here to talk about everything to do with NC State's 38-21 win over Western Carolina Thursday night um I mean I think I speak for most wolfback fans that game did not go how um most expected it to Inc State went into that matchup over 30o favorites um and ended up winning by 17 and strong start really um brightened up the fact that this was a game that inate trailed after three quarters to an FCS opponent um pick to finish um in like the upper third of the Southern Conference in the FCS the number 19 team in um the FCS uh we're going to talk about everything um that we saw that we're concerned about what we're optimistic about we're going to talk about if this game you know changed our perception of this season at all um before we do that quick housekeeping note we're both um reporters for the wolf packer that is NC State site on the on3 network um on3 is the fastest growing college football and basketball recruiting anything you want college sports related it's all up on there on on three.com um encourage you to go check us out at thewolfpacker.com for everything to do with NC State um we already have nine stories up from last night's game and that varies from telling the story of Jaylen Parker filling in at Mike linebacker to um talking to KC about another electric game for for the sophomore wide receiver we've got it all on the website right now we have column we have you know superlatives a report card for their day grading out how the pack did it's all up there um we have access to pff's grades and advanced stats that'll all be up there as well later today um that's my long-winded way of telling you it is a great time to join thewolfpacker.com and to make it even better today's the last day of our kickoff sale um if you go to thewolfpacker.com and you join to become a ual member you can sign up with kick the code kickoff 24 and you'll get 50% off in annual subscription um that comes out up out to just under $5 a month I believe so it's a sweet deal um it's not going to get really any better than that and um you get access to all of those um you know sweet deals that I was talking about plus you know the recruiting Scoops some basketball both basketball teams had some key visitors on campus over over the past week we're going to be talking about that as well football recruiting had some of the top recruits in the country in Carter Finley Stadium last night to watch that game so go check it out at thewolfpacker.com again um go use the promo code kickoff 24 and you'll get 50% off your annual subscription Noah um we recorded last podcast um saying we were excited to talk about real football the speculation we ready to be done with the speculation we ready to talk about Real Results on the field um this was not the result we were anticipating uh you can go back and read what we wrote listen to what we talked about we thought we were on here speculating about which backups we were going to see later in the game in state starters had to play every minute of this one um Noah I want to just get your initial take your initial thoughts on um how your how your gut is feeling after um in state you know grinds out this win over Western Carolina yeah I mean we thought that this was going to be a blowout game Kevin concepion after the game admitted the team thought it was a blowout game I think it one of those things where they kind of took the opponent for granted a little bit kind of underestimated what what Western Carolina had team that's ranked 19th in the FCS poll um they're good FCS football is good I mean especially in the top half of that that division of college football it's teams that can play I mean we saw it with North Dakota State giv Colorado run for its money last night as well so obviously NC State didn't have that big of a concern late they were would to pull away fourth quarter which I thought was a good sign to see we'll talk about that later but overall it's a game that leaves you with question marks but it's a game that gives a lot of Hope and a lot of building blocks and I think that they flashed things that were good on both sides of the ball obviously the offense figured it out the defense a little bit behind the eightball was without two key starters as well Kaden forom was ejected less than three minutes into the game they're targeting Jihad um conter starting nickel didn't didn't play um he'll be back for Tennessee they held him out precautionary reasons no reason to play him in a game like this they found a way to win um but it did enough and I think the biggest thing that we're gonna see coming out of this game is the jump from game one to game two I think it's the big jump that any team makes in the season and frenzy State they need it um when with Tennessee coming up on the horizon you go from maybe one of your easiest opponents on the schedule to one of your toughest so we're to see what happens but overall game serves a lot of lessons to learn on the film room I'm sure the Murphy Center this weekend is going to be busy in the film department and two it gives some things to build off too there wasn't it wasn't entirely Negative they didn't lose the game first of all and they they flash good things Kevin conceps own three touchdowns a career high you know 121 yards second most in his career receiving yards so they did some good things did some bad things but it's game one and I don't think it's too big of an overreaction to freak out quite yet yeah I agree um don't push the panic button yet but um when you put it the performance into the context of everything um I think there is reason to be you know a little caught off guard a little concerned about stuff um I mean we can kind of dive into what concerned us about the game Noah um and for me it started with um Mall's performance I thought Grayson in his first game with the wolf pack was um uncharacteristically inaccurate I thought he missed on some throws that you go back and you watch him in Western Carolina or Coastal Carolina and he didn't miss those passes um he is that is one of the things he is known for is his pinpoint accuracy and um he was throwing behind receivers leading receivers a little too far um there were a couple plays that if he hit the receiver in stride they would have gone for a touchdown but he um couldn't make that happen and um I don't think it was a protection thing I thought the pass protection was actually maybe the one of the brightest spots the night maybe the brightest spot of the night two pressures allowed the entire night come on some of that I will say was mcau extending plays really well as well I thought that is something he did well but um he finished the game with 318 passing yards but I think You' just like to see him hit some of like the gimmies I thought he made a lot of really challenging throws like he he made some throws that um I don't think we've seen a Wolfpack quarterback make since Devon lery um but he was also just missing some layups that uh NC State needs to have they were pushing the ball downfield the receivers were getting open receiver group receiving group is as advertised I thought that group looked incredible pretty much top to bottom um but you we in NC State needs a reliable point guard for the offense and um I still completely believe that McCall can be that guy like don't don't get me wrong though like I'm not casting dispersions on what Mcall is going to look like the rest of the year but that performance did C catch me off guard and I do think it was safe to say that it it was far from his best performance and wouldn't shock me if it was one of his worst in a Wolfpack uniform this year yeah I think that you know he always did a rough start um that's you know no hiding it finished with over 300 passing yards three touchdowns I think part of it is it's his first competitive cach ball game in almost a year yeah he you know he only played seven games last year left with the concussion wasn't sure who going to play college football again at one point I think it was kind of rust um obviously he's played well in practice they know he can do it they've seen it on film from five years at Coastal Carolina three time somebo player of the year so I don't think it's a mystery I think it was just rust we saw in the fourth quarter he settled down looked good you know a pick is uncharacteristic for him I think it's interesting to say you know when you talk about a quarterback you know one interception so be it this is a guy that entered the day with 14 in his career he is known for taking care of the football he threw it right at a Defender who was able to almost get a pick six so I think it was mainly rust we'll see how much of a week of practice in film can really do because he settled in by the fourth quarter and was able to lead them you know down the field and extend plays and make the tough throws yes some balls behind even on Kevin concep Jon's first touchdown grab was kind of like at his feet he kind of to go get it so we'll see but he definitely settle in by the end of the game yeah dude you're right maybe I'm maybe I'm I'm grading him on an unfair scale here um I think my expectations were just really high um for Grayson because um you know everyone had talked so much about how accurate he was and how careful with the ball and how he's never putting It In Harm's Way which is all true that is 100% factual but his fifth pass of the game was that interception that if it wasn't for a tremendous H hustle play by Justin Joie would have been a pick six um I I but then you're right he finished the game really strong five of six in the fourth quarter um you know connected with KC well um for three touchdowns we'll talk more about um concepion later what a performance by him but um yeah they finished the day with 521 yards of total offense that's a good number um against I will say though against when you're playing an FCS team and you're keeping your starters out there for all four quarters you better be fast than 500 yards of total offense so um there's a place to build from but um I think Noah we were talking off mik so I'm gonna let you take the Reigns on this I think the uh more concerning part is how the Wolfpack was running the ball yeah running the ball did not go well and in they were at like 3.2 yards per carry in the first half not great they finished the game with decent numbers when you look at it you know just over six yards a carry fourth quarter helped with that you know 50 yard run by Jordan Waters gave him a 123 yards on the ground tying his career high um which came against n State last year and Durham at Duke but Titus Curry High 123 yards two touchdowns for him looks like a good day on paper but you take out the big run rushing attack didn't go well Hol with Smothers had a long run two of 25 yards you take those two 75 yards out of the Playbook and NC State did not run well they averaged four yards a carry with those two big explosive plays taken out and it was run the pass the rushing the Run blocking sorry words are hard to speak but the Run blocking was the the biggest problem NC State pass blocked well as we said earlier graceon mcco only had two quarterback pressures wasn't sacked in the game good to see but there was times Ethan defensive lineman from Western Carolina were literally just walking past offensive lineman like walking past there was one play we were like how do you get in there we turn around look at the replay some some dudes are just literally flying right through past guards it's it's something that's obvious ly a telling Point NC State only had one player finish above 70 with a run blocking score according PFF that was Anthony Carter everybody else was above with below 70 on the Run blocking score um including Jar's Peak at 52.5 so not great especially Zeke Carill right in front of him at 53.1 so run blocking wasn't great if the veteran offensive line you assume it would be better NCC has got a lot to lot to fix on that department I think that's the big biggest learning and growing point from this game is fixing the offensive line run blocking because against Tennessee who can go 8 to 10 Deep on the defensive line if they run block like that NC State won't be able to establish a run game it'll be a long day in Charlotte so we'll see what happens but not a good day when you're playing a FCS defensive line who did have some size I give him that but still these guys on NC State's offensive line should have been able to establish the line of scrimmage yeah I think that was the um most disappointing uh part of the game for me um I thought that in state the cohesion plus adding Zeke Carell I thought was just gonna translate to more success on the ground especially with Jordan Waters in The Back Field who is good enough to make up for some poor blocking at times but he was you know he was either gonna have a defender in his face in the backfield or right at the line of scrimmage and um he you know struggled to make folks miss a little bit early and then was um you know breaking tackles especially on his um first touchdown of the day he shook off about half the Western Carolina team on the way to the end zone that was that was an impressive run by the graduate but um he uh it was just a slow slow day you mentioned it man 3.4 yards per carry after three quarters the ball hit the turf three times three fumbles they recovered all of them but still one was like Kevin kipan or two of them were I believe one was definitely by Jordan Waters but KC also had one at least maybe two but still so ball security was an issue and uh I don't know man I thought I thought this was going to be the year in state was able to take a step forward with its rushing attack and I think that kind of boils down to my biggest takeaway and why um I'm internally recalibrating my expectation just a little bit for this season is because everything we heard everything we heard publicly and behind the scenes everything we saw made this season feel like it was going to be different um and last night felt a lot a very much status quo it felt very similar to you know the Dave Doran teams that we've seen the past three or four years which let me be clear is not a bad thing that is that that is me saying this looks like an eight or nine win team right like that that is a very good football team um I don't think we saw enough from the wolf pack yesterday for me to be like this could be a great team this is the potential is there don't get me wrong like absolutely but we're going to need to see a lot more against Tennessee and man that is a tough matchup early that is um a tough way to go into um that game but hey I'm I'm sure they're going to be locked in and focused and practice because like we're saying this here and um The Players know it the coaches know it they know they didn't play as well as they wanted to and um they're happy to get the win but they're not going to be satisfied with how they played and um May maybe they'll go out there and they'll prove me wrong against Tennessee and they will look like a great team that day but um I didn't think they were there yet against Western Carolina and um it just felt similar to the past couple season openers the ECU win where they needed the last second missed field goal or the Yukon game where you know the defense started pretty slow and then of course you know ended up you know ratcheting down in the second half and they pulled off that win but neither of those season openers were very confidence inspiring and this one certainly wasn't either in my opinion so um no I I I'm I'm done being negative um that I I've got it all out of my system I'm I'm ready to talk about what I what I liked about the game because I know I I just spent the first 15 minutes of this podcast um being you know negative about how everything went but there were positive moments um I'm going to let you start us off here what is something that you saw Thursday night that um impressed you I think Hollywood Smothers impressed me um he had two big you know he had the big run 25 yards that I mentioned earlier you know he finished a day um you know with three carries 39 yards he only played 10 snaps yeah 10 snaps that's it he was their most effective running back in the first half and didn't get a lot of run which was kind of interesting they were really trying to ride Jordan waters getting him going um but when when a red shirt freshman like Hollywood Smothers who is probably one of the most talented players on this team just with real all talent coming out of high school um I think they could have G him more I think he encouraged me there he encouraged me on kickoff return too he had a nice return there he also had one where he kind of hesitated and ended up at like the 15 yard line but he's the kind of guy that that's playing well I think it may have just been a case of playing a vanilla offense against Western Carolina saving some stuff for Tennessee and Clemson so I assume his usage rate will go up in the next couple weeks but he impressed me a lot in his NC State debut and this a guy that didn't play many games last year kind of getting you know his Taste of actually playing a lot of snaps only 10 snaps this time but I think that number will rise as the season goes yeah another guy that um you can kind of use the ex not an excuse is the wrong word but explanation of this is his first major m game in a major role since his junior year of high school because remember he didn't play a senior year so it's been years since Hollywood has played a game um and played Major snaps so I'm sure we're gonna see his role expand just like you said and yeah he's explosive you saw that on that on that first kickoff return you saw it that was one where you're you're kind of sitting up there and you're like okay he's going to take the touch back he's going to take a kn take it out at 25 and um no he took off and uh he made the most of it too he he um was about to break it I think the kicker actually brought him down but um he uh he was pretty close to Breaking that one for a massive game it was a really good return um so excited to see what he can do especially when um you mentioned saving stuff for the Tennessee game I I've been harping on it all off season I think he's going to be a game changer as a receiving back maybe we'll see some of that against Tennessee but I'm totally ree on Hollywood um as far as let's talk about defensively what we liked um for me personally it was um the second half by the defensive line I thought in the first half it was so much quick game so much stuff that was obviously steering away from Brandon Cleveland away from Davin van away from travali price that was a very concerted effort I thought the unit played pretty well they were just um they just didn't have the chance to make plays because the ball was never in the quarterback's hands long enough so um I thought in the second half they did a really good job once um Western Carolina did have to go to more of a dropback passing game at points you saw them gone into the backfield Brandon Cleveland and Davin van combined for a big sack I thought Cleveland was um really disruptive that's exactly what we wanted to see out of Brandon in the season opener um Davin van is well Davin van he's really freaking good at football um so he was you know a big disruptor and travali price had a nice tackle for loss and um you know popped on the tape early so um good to see that from him as well um and the depth I thought the depth played pretty well Noah Potter was pretty disruptive um Isaiah Shirley obviously had um forced the lone turnover of the game on the last play of the game um for the pack um got a sack fumble so I thought the defensive was one of the more encouraging units Noah even though the stats don't necessarily reflect it yeah you're you're forgetting the one person though Red Alert had team High three three pressures team High three pressures three quarterback curries as the team's pass rushing specialist couldn't get to the quarterback they were doing a lot of those like you know short passes get the ball out his hand like coz's run too a 50- yard run kind of concerning but yeah defensive line I do agree played well in the second half um but everything else was kind of a mess when you when you're without your Mike linebacker for the whole game basically without your starting nickel things are a little up and down I think that that gets resolved next week through practice it is what it is they did play well enough um but yeah I mean the thing that kind of surprised me the most about the defense Aiden white getting targeted 10 times didn't have that one on my my yeah you wouldn't have thought they would be throwing at him and they had a modest amount of success against him six for 10 um for 72 yards and a touchdown yeah that would not have been on my Bing go card um we kind of saw it last season he had a game like that against Notre Dame um and he rebounded and was one of the best corners in the ACC for the rest of the year so you know um he's a veteran he'll bounce back um I think a lot of the defense's issues can really be um kind of narrowed down onto the two starters they were missing right yeah um Western Carolina's leading receiver is a preseason all ACC selection um AJ um I'm forgetting his name off the top of my head but um you know Columbo Columbo um he was a slot guy who had a lot of success against NC State slot Defenders and you were missing your top slot Defender and jod Carter makes sense yeah cool um then you gave up um six runs of more than 10 yards quarterback runs were four of them not having your Mike linebacker in there probably hurts the quarterback contain I thought Jaylen Parker did a good job but Kaden forom is a really important member of that defense and um losing him early especially like a few plays after he had um just almost had a pick six um it's just a brutal like turn of events there um um also to be clear just gonna throw this in here no um for the folks that maybe are a little confused on the targeting rule because um almost everyone's confused on the targeting rule um Kaden is not suspended for the first half of the Tennessee game he'll be back um if he was if he got the targeting call in the second half then he would have missed the first half of the Tennessee game but he won't he'll be back which is great for NC State um but yeah missing him probably doesn't help with quarterback contain and um and those are really the two big issues I feel like sure they had a couple of good plays um where they created some big holes offensively um running the ball but I thought defensively otherwise it was a pretty solid performance if you take out the um you know oneplay sevenard drive that um they scored on their first touchdown on um off of Grayson McCall's interception then they give up 14 points I went into this game predict predicting that they'd give up 10 it's like that like that wasn't above like Way Beyond expectations right like this was a team that did throw for um you know over or not throw for but racked up over 500 yards per game last year and um you know the FCS isn't division two football like it's a high level of football that um as NC State learned last night you cannot take for granted so you know they I thought the defense as a whole especially late as um I think they started to wear down the Western Carolina offensive line as they went deep in that defensive line rotation and you know got better and better as the game went on but um I I'm certainly not pressing any sort of panic button with the defense I think um we need to see how this team faes over the next couple weeks before we're really going to know what NC state has defensively for sure I just wanted to put a side note in there you know we talk about the defensive line going deep DJ Jackson made his NC State debut yes two years or in his third season at NC State he missed the last two seasons with two injuries he had recovered from a torn ACL from high school his freshman year and then his rard freshman year had nilles injury that kept him sideline so he made his debut didn't record a tackle but played 22 snaps played on that defensive rotation looked pretty good he's different than Randon Cleveland lot more athletic nose tackle they like him a lot chess Chaz Wallace did not play who is that Colorado transfer knows tells me they like what they have in DJ Jackson Everyone likes him you know on in off the field he's nice guy like they everyone says good things about him we haven't heard anything bad about DJ Jackson This Camp I think we'll see a lot from him this year and it was good to see him back on the field after you know missing two years at NGC State and he missed his senior year high school like that's three years without playing football he played his first game in over a thousand days that's that's pretty impressive you know um Dave Grayson McCall and Davin van all said something to the effect of there were nerves or a little bit of jitters in the first game when you lay it out and you think about how many players were playing Major football for the first time in a long time I mean you can go down the list you you got Noah Rogers Hollywood um Grayson McCall DJ Jackson it's like all right Jaylen Parker he did didn't didn't last night he he played more snaps last night than he had in his Wolfpack career right yeah he entered the day with 43 snaps on defense in his wolf pack career in the previous two seasons he played 45 last night he's a special team guy but yeah he he played 45 snaps on defense seven tackles guess how many tackles enter the day with three in his career he had seven and like and like Brandon Cay too right like another guy who he's a true sophomore who did not play a who played a decent bit in the dime package but now he is the starting outside corner of course there were nerves of course there was a little bit of um you know a slow start like I I understand that um and that's part of the reason why you know hand is far away from the panic button um but now it is in a familiar spot where you know Dave Dorne likes to talk about how this the big leap is always from week one to week two there is a lot of pressure pressure on that leap once again for the third year in a row there's a lot of pressure on that leap I would say um last year I don't know if we really saw the leap um two years ago I'd say maybe there was need to see the leap here similar situation the last year said in Notre Dame it's Tennessee big game big game it's going to be a fun one all right I'll go ahead and now but I'd be remissed before we get out of here I know we to wrap this up soon Grace McCall probably for the first time in his life got called for uh unnecessary rupess on a pretty bad flop he was lead blocking got a little push after the play but this man's like 62 220 pushing guy who's almost 300 pounds and the dude fell over didn't know we were playing like soccer out there kind of rolling around like in but it is what it is he did get a penalty for rough unnecessary roughness did you see um we were of course in the Press Box we didn't see the TV broadcast there was a clip though circulating Twitter I forgot who tweeted it out I'm sorry but um it's like they cut to um Doran talking to the refs and it looks like the refs said oh yeah he flopped and I just thought that was funny man yeah you know um Macau plays with an edge you know he's such a softspoken um one of the most like um coach speak quarterbacks that I've ever spoken to really nice guy um great leader by all accounts great locker room Guy and um he plays with an edge out there which NC State loves out of its um quarterbacks um and I'm sure the his teammates love playing for him because of that all right before we get out of here let's um talk about some players of the game each week we like to hand out two game balls a piece um one for each side of the ball or I guess we could do two for offense two for defense if you want but um Noah give me your first game ball I think I know who it's going to yeah I'll give it to KC I mean nine receptions 121 yards three touchdowns did it all this man is an Elite Talent picked up just where he left off a year ago as the ACC Rookie of the Year on thre's National true freshman allamerican for offense he did it all got a pretty much every freshman All-American award you can win a year ago he picked up where he left off as a sophomore he is just different you get the ball they go 14 Targets in the game easily the most he had more than double the next closest guy with six which was Justin Jolie which I'm sure we're going to talk about in a second but uh Kevin concepion now is six multi-touchdown games in his career he's played 14 games in the college football level so just about half it's a pretty good number yeah but I will say the other eight he um failed to score touchdown in so maybe we'll it'll balance out this year but it's either a lot or nothing for for Casey but he picked up right where he left off you mentioned um Justin jool Lee and he's definitely getting my first game ball I thought he had a really really good day five for 75 um and that doesn't include a trick play touchdown he would have had if it was not called back for an illegal man downfield penalty um I thought he had a really really good night um there was you know plays where he was sitting in the soft spots of his own there was plays where he was juking Defenders out I thought he played a really smart game show his athleticism and um you know used his you know height athleticism combo to his Advantage um thought he had a really good day and he also had maybe the two best hustle plays of the day we mentioned earlier in the show him chasing down the defender on Mall's interception to save the pick six um like he was really the only person downfield on that he he was given it his all to um you know try to keep those seven points off the board um that's something that we talked about you know bad film room moments that'll be a good one he's going to receive a lot of Praise from the coaches I think um um to tomorrow and you know so on but and then he recovered a fumble too later in the game so just two big you know game-changing type of plays that you don't have to make we probably we might even have given him a game ball if he had just caught the five for 75 but you add in those two hustle plays catching all five of his targets too that's a big thing that's a big part of it that um I think uh that's something we got to monitor this year is just the percentage of targets caught because that's not that was not a very high number last year for NC State's pass catchers at points but um he brought in all five of his so pretty pretty optimistic about what the tight end could do um moving forward Noah give me a second game ball I'll give one the Jaylen Parker obviously he had some plays that didn't go well I mean Miss some tackle here there but like it is his first game playing he was not expecting to play 45 snaps I'll tell you that they were expecting to rotate the linebackers don't get me wrong but he was not expecting to play that much he he played pretty well and did what he need to do on cting adverse circumstances where though starting Mike linebacker gets ejected in the first drive it is what it is and he stepped up to the challenge showed up pretty well he was nervous but he calmed down by the end of it and and played pretty yeah to to wrap it up I'll um give out one to um you know the second leading tackler for the day Donovan Kaufman um you know is a free safety and he played exactly like an NC State free safy does he was hitting he was um you know enjoying the contact and uh I thought he just kind of fit exactly what NC State needs out of that position he missed one tackle but um made seven total five solo and um yeah I just thought he had a nice day deserved a little bit of Praise but I don't think we had mentioned him yet today so I think he's another player that'll makes some big plays um he has an act for creating turnover so I bet we'll see some of that later on all right nowah I think that's it for our show today um appreciate you all tuning in um I don't think we were that negative today um but there are concerns and we wanted to talk about them but we're going to find out a lot about this team next week um Tennessee is a good program uh we're going to break down that game extensively before pack takes the field on Saturday so go check out thewolfpacker.com we will be back on your podcast feeds back on our regular schedule next Thursday so go check out check keep an eye out for us Thursday probably early afternoon we'll see you then and um thanks for watching folks