NC State has a choice to make going forward

NC State had something going with Devin Leary. He didn’t play great, but when Leary was running the offense the rest of the team responded. Unfortunately, Leary’s season more likely than not season ended on Saturday. Leary underwent surgery on Sunday to repair a broken Fibula. The time frame for him to be out is 4 to 8 weeks. Personally, if I am the coaching staff I shut him down for the season. There’s no reason to bring him back this season.

This injury leaves quite the conundrum for this coaching staff. They have made the decision already to go with Bailey Hockman as their QB. I am not sure that is the call that should be made. We have seen the best and worst of Hockman. When you watch that Duke game, 3 passes should have been intercepted. He woefully underthrew Thayer Thomas and only because the ball went through the DB’s hands was that a TD. Then there was the disaster of the Virginia Tech game. He was benched for poor play. In the Wake Forest game, you saw the best of Hockman. Short passes at or behind the line of scrimmage. And then leaned heavily on the running game.

With Leary, NC State had a possible 7 or 8 wins on the schedule. Without Leary? I don’t think that’s possible. Hockman is a limited QB and has shown what kind of QB he is. When you look at that schedule there are no gimmies without good QB play. UNC? more than likely a loss, Miami? Probably a loss, Liberty? After seeing what they did to Syracuse are you saying that is a definite win? I’m not. Syracuse? Okay, I’ll give you that one. Georgia Tech? I made that mistake last year and Georgia Tech won. With only real 1 layup game left does 5 wins really do something for the fanbase? I am not sure it does.

I am wondering why Doeren isn’t going with either Ty Evans or Ben Finley. But this is the problem with Doeren he doesn’t take chances on guys. This was the problem last year with Leary, McKay, and Hockman. Knowing that last year was a rebuilding year, Leary should have been the pick at the beginning of the season. But Doeren went back and forth and wasted an entire year for no real development of Leary. Having made this poor decision last season, Doeren is doing the same thing. Instead of trying to see what you have in Finley or Evans and seeing what happens he has decided to go with the known and questionable commodity in Hockman.

If Doeren loses out, which is possible and sticks with Hockman the entire time, there will be no excuse. If Doeren were to go with either Evans or Finley there is an argument that losing a QB derailed what could have been a nice season for NC State. With Hockman, that excuse isn’t going to be there and the fanbase is going to be circling. If the season goes off the rails, Boo Corrigan is going to have a decision to make. Doeren could have made that choice harder by trying to develop a young QB. He decided against that option. We will see how the season goes, I am not optimistic.