NC State Questions Heading Into Week 5

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The NC State Wolfpack enters week five with more questions than answers. The team heads into the fifth week of the season being one of the most disappointing teams in the country. Fortunately for them, teams like Florida State exist and have taken the media’s attention. As the team prepares for its last game before the heart of ACC play, what’s wrong for a team ranked No. 24 to start the season?

Is Dave Doeren’s Seat Heating Up?

Dave Doeren has surprised fans this season by speeding up the disappointment to the beginning of the season instead of the end. Maybe he will save himself by speeding up the hype that usually does not start until the offseason.

Until that happens though, this season has become a normal season for NC State. With this in mind, is this the bar of NC State Football? Fans used to preach the “doing more with less” mentality but in recent years, the level of talent has supposedly gone up. This includes the 27th-best class in 2024 according to 247 Sports. Furthermore, the standard of NC State athletics has also risen.

With the recent success of NC State athletics, pressure has to be increasing on Doeren and his staff. While Doeren has been able to expand his presence off the field, on the field has been a different story. The NC State head coach has never been able to handle pressure well in big games, and maybe the struggles in meaningless games can be attributed to added pressure.

Who is the Starting Quarterback?

A surprising question yet again this season is who should be the starting quarterback for the Wolfpack? In the offseason, the team was able to pick up Grayson McCall in the transfer portal. McCall, who was supposed to be a highly touted transfer quarterback, has struggled so far. Furthermore, he has been struggling with injuries so far this season. In his absence, the team has turned to true freshman CJ Bailey.

Bailey has not shown that he deserves to be the full-time starter just yet for the Wolfpack. However, in his second half against Louisiana Tech and the game against Clemson, he has looked better than McCall. Unfortunately, NC State fans are all too well familiar with this as they faced the same situation last season with Brennan Armstrong and MJ Morris. At this point, McCall could be healthy by next weekend and the team is rumored to be undecided on a starter.

Hopefully, this go around, NC State should be able to navigate this situation better than they did last year.

NC State’s Defense Has Struggled?

One abnormality with NC State this season is their defense. They have struggled. Even when the team is bad, they have still been known for having a top defense, so what has gone wrong this season?

The team lost Payton Wilson to the NFL draft and potentially have found themselves having a leadership void. Players could be trying to overcompensate for the loss of Wilson instead of filling their gaps to the best of their abilities. Either way at this point in the season it has been a head-scratcher for NC State fans.

Potential Upset at Home

Northern Illinois is not an easy win. They have been put on the map this season with their upset win against Notre Dame in South Bend. However, coming off a bye they lost a nail-biter to Buffalo.

This season NC State has shown they should not think any game is an easy win. If they go into this game with that mentality then they could leave it 2-3. Furthermore, Northern Illinois is a run-heavy team and in NC State’s two losses, those teams have had no issue establishing the run. They also have had a stronger defense at this point in the season.

Kick-off for this game is at noon and if the Wolfpack leaves this game with the same questions then fans need to begin preparing for basketball.

 

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