28 - 19 If there was an ACC team with something to play for it was NC State.
It’s been 20 years since NC State had a 10-win top 15 season.
The opportunity was there in a bowl game Kansas State, but make it 21 after NC State’s fourth straight bowl loss.
This wasn’t a matter of motivation. The Wolfpack had plenty of motivation. You can say NC State missing the best defensive player in the country Payton Wilson was the difference. It hurt, but Kansas State had their own opt-outs at QB and WR among other positions. This was NC State’s chance at a special season. Yet again they fell just short.
Dave Doeren did a whale of coaching in the 2nd half of the season as the Wolfpack won their final 5 regular season games. For the 6th time in 7 years, NC State won 8 or 9 games. The Wolfpack is a good program, but eventually, you have to see that breakthrough season, that never seems to come. The signature out-of-conference win never seems to come either. The best OOC win Dave Doeren has ever had was over a Texas Tech team that finished the year 8-5 in 2022 or was it over 10-1 Liberty in 2020?
That’s in 11 years coaching the NC State program, and that’s not much.
NC State has hit the transfer portal hard. There is young talent with receiver at Kevin Concepcion, but until it happens, NC State remains a pretty good program that never achieves greatness.
