RALEIGH — Thanks to a pair of muffed punt returns, the NC State Wolfpack qualified for bowl season with a 21-11 win over the Florida State Seminoles Friday night at Carter-Finley Stadium.
In a season that felt on the verge of going off of the rails so many times, NC State managed to hang on and find a way to qualify for their sixth straight postseason.
“There is no quit here,” said NC State coach Dave Doeren. “My teams don’t do that. 11 bowl games in 13 years, we’ve done some good work. To be in a bowl game with this team, I’m fired up.”
It was a pretty lackluster affair for a while there in Raleigh — the Pack led just 7-3 at the half — but things started to get interesting in the fourth quarter when FSU scored their first touchdown of the night and brought it within three points thanks to a two-point conversion.
But special teams can make or break a team and tonight, it broke the Seminoles.
With under five minutes to go, NC State quarterback CJ Bailey took a bad sack, setting up what looked to be a good chance for Florida State.
However, senior Caden Noonkester’s punt came up a bit short and actually hit a Seminole player right in the dome causing the ball to bounce 26 yards back to Noonkester for the recovery.
“I cannot say I’ve ever done that before,” Noonkester said. “I’ve watched my fair share of fumble recoveries, so I tried my best to imitate that on the play. It’s a result driven business, so I got the result. I’m sure a lot of people can criticize my technique, but I got the job done.”
“To see Caden Noonkester recover a punt is like the craziest thing ever,” Doeren said. “Like, that’s the one due on our team that wants no contact. So to see him do that was awesome.”
But the Wolfpack couldn’t do much with that opportunity and after a quick three-and-out, they were right back in the same position.
And then Seminoles screwed up the punt return, again, with the ball bouncing right off the chest of the Florida State receiver, and NC State was back in the driver’s seat just 11-yards from the endzone.
And credit to Dave Doeren for believing in his guys, as NC State stalled out and considered kicking a field goal on 4th-and-6, but instead burned a timeout and came right back out with the offense, where Bailey found tight end Justin Joly to put the Pack up by two scores.
“Scared money can’t make money,” Doeren said.
The Wolfpack’s success on third and fourth downs was actually a significant part of the win even before the late touchdown as NC State built their lead in the third quarter on a 15-play, nine minute drive that included two third-down and one fourth-down conversions and featured a few key plays by freshman quarterback Will Wilson.
The NC State defense also had a much better showing tonight, which was much needed after what happened in Miami last week, holding a Florida State offense that was ranked fourth amongst P4 teams in yards per game (487.5) to just 11 points.
“That’s the second best offense, supposedly, in the country ranking wise and we held them to 11 points,” Doeren said. “So proud of our defensive kids and defensive staff for putting together that game plan and executing that game plan and playing the way they did after coming off of a really opposite type of game the week before.”
“We felt like we haven’t put a full game together as a defense and I feel like we did that tonight,” said senior linebacker Caden Fordham. “They were on us all week about doing what we need to do. Just doing your job, playing fast and it showed tonight.”
The Wolfpack came up with two interceptions on FSU quarterback Tommy Castellanos, both by senior cornerback Devon Marshall and one of which led directly to the initial scoring drive, and although they didn’t register a sack, the defense was credited with seven quarterback hurries and seven pass breakups (six of which were credited to Marshall as well).
“[Marshall] played his tail off tonight,” Fordham said. “Definitely helped us a ton. He’s a vet and he stepped up.”
NC State will finish out the regular season on Saturday as they host rival UNC Tar Heels for a marquee matchup in Raleigh.
“I expect a crazy, crazy ass crowd next week,” Doeren said. “I mean crazy. 7:30 kick on Saturday, Thanksgiving week against the baby blue. Make sure you show up.”
