Historically, the NC State Wolfpack has struggled whenever they’ve had to go down to Death Valley, with an overall record of 11-24 at Memorial Stadium.
In fact, the last time the Pack beat the Clemson Tigers, George W. Bush was president, the very first season of American Idol premiered on Fox and Eminem had just released his hit single “Lose Yourself.”
But NC State head coach Dave Doeren doesn’t believe that history has any impact on the present.
“I don’t think the last 10 years matter,” Doeren said. “I don’t. In college football these days, every team has so many new parts. What matters is the guys on your team that have played against these kinds of teams, and we have a lot of players that have played well against Clemson. Obviously, we have to get the job done down there. That’s something we haven’t done. We’ve been close, but close doesn’t get it done.”
Saturday, the Wolfpack will be looking to finally get it done and they’ll be relying on true freshman quarterback CJ Bailey – who, at 18, has never known a Wolfpack victory in Clemson – as they head down south to take on the No. 21 Tigers.
Doeren confirmed on a conference call Monday that starter Grayson McCall would not be available for the game against Clemson after the quarterback left Saturday’s game against Louisiana with an undisclosed injury.
“Grayson got dinged up,” Doeren said. “I’m not going to get into the injury, but it’s good news on him as it’s a day-to-day thing. We’re going to take our time. CJ’s ready to play and he’s our quarterback and we’re behind him.”
Last weekend’s game against the Bulldogs was Bailey’s first time throwing at the college level and he finished 13-for-20 with 156 passing yards as well as picking up 27 yards and a touchdown using his legs.
While Bailey was picked off on just his third throwing attempt after entering in relief for McCall, he settled in as the game progressed and found a groove with the offense, leading three second-half scoring drives.
“He’s a football player,” Doeren said. “That kid understands the game and he’s a winner. He’s excited. He’s a kid that’s excited to play the game and I’m excited for him. You just go out there and do everything you can staff-wise to set him up for success. You know what the challenges are, and you try to give him every look possible so that he can be successful and play fast on Saturday.”
That preparation will certainly be a tall task for the staff though.
“[It’s] a great place to play football,” Doeren said. “It’s going to be a loud environment. … Arguably one of the hardest places to play in the ACC.
“I have great respect for their coaching staff and their players. It’s a trophy game, the only trophy game we have, and it means a lot to the universities that are playing in it all the way back to the Textile Bowl. It’s going to be a great matchup. A very talented team that we’re playing.”
In two games, Clemson has already experienced the epic highs and lows of college football, having suffered a blowout loss to Georgia in Week 1 and then thrashing App State in Week 2.
“They’re coming off of a game where they looked unstoppable and they scored 50+ points in the first half against a good Appalachian State football team,” Doeren said. “They were explosive in that game offensively, played some young receivers that really took the tops off of coverages and I thought [Cade] Klubnik threw the ball extremely well in that football game. He was very accurate, showed touch, showed range and we all know he can run.”
On top of the offense starting to mesh, Clemson also has a staunch defense and one of the best lines in college football.
For NC State to come out ahead, they’ll need a full-team, four-quarter effort, which has been a bit elusive for the slow-start prone Pack.
“For us, we just have to focus on getting better and playing four quarters,” Doeren said. “Just being as clean as we can, playing as hard as we can, straining as hard as we can and just being a little bit of a better version of ourselves each week.”
“NC State football teams over the years, we pride ourselves on improving as the year goes on and that takes an internal focus. It takes guys that are willing to admit the things they have to do better, coaches fixing things schematically and evolving over the course of the season. And we have to play a full game. We’ve had spurts in games where we’ve looked good and spurts where we’ve looked really bad. That’s the evolution of this football team. Learning the new parts and learning how to play together better and how we play NC State football.”
The Pack will be looking to put that evolution forth on the field and prove that history in fact doesn’t dominate the story.
