NC State’s nationally televised Thursday night game 10 years ago against No. 16 Florida State may have belonged to Wolfpack junior quarterback Russell Wilson, but it was saved by injured linebacker Nate Irving.
Wilson, in his third season as the starter for the Wolfpack offense, scored three rushing touchdowns in the game and threw for another with less than 2:30 remaining to give the Wolfpack a 28-24 lead against the still-dominant Seminoles, who were in their first season without legendary head coach Bobby Bowden.
Wilson’s pass came on a daring fourth-and-goal call from the 1-yard-line. Head coach Tom O’Brien pulled the field-goal unit that was ready to tie the game off the field and put the ball — and the possible lead in the ACC’s Atlantic Division — in Wilson’s hands.
The star quarterback did not run for another score, though the ball was barely six inches away from the goal line. Instead, he faked a handoff and hit wide-open tight end George Bryan in the back of the end zone to give NC State the lead and to send the sold-out crowd into a frenzied roar.
It was, however, almost the classic case of scoring too early, as O’Brien’s team had learned in two of its previous three games. The Pack lost to both Virginia Tech and East Carolina in the final minutes of those contests.
The Seminoles, guided by preseason ACC Player of the Year selection and quarterback Christian Ponder, marched straight down the laser-leveled field, winding up on the Wolfpack’s 4-yard-line with less than a minute on the clock. It appeared the Seminoles, which had won five straight games after an early loss to Oklahoma, were going to extend their winning streak and take control of the Atlantic Division race.
Irving, a team captain and senior leader on the Wolfpack defense, had been missing for much of the fourth quarter. He was on the sidelines with an injured thumb he suffered while making a tackle earlier in the second half. Nothing could have kept him off the field for the final series, however.
“I can’t even describe the pain in my thumb on that play,” said the 2010 first-team All-ACC and second-team All-America selection. “But being a team captain, I knew I had to suck it up and go out and fight for my team.”
Ponder dropped back to throw the exact same play-action pass Wilson did to his tight end, but ran into running back Ty Jones, knocking the ball out of his hands. Irving, on a straight blitz to pressure Ponder, saw the ball on the ground and reached out for it — with his good hand, preserving one of the most exciting of NC State’s nine wins over the Seminoles since Florida State joined the ACC.
“What I remember was that we had a blown coverage,” says Irving, who is in his third season as an assistant coach at Ponderosa High School in Parker, Colorado. “They tried the play-action pass and their tight end released down the field and he was wide open in the end zone. I just went charging in and when I saw the ball on the ground, I couldn’t believe it.
“I just scraped it in with both hands.”
For Irving, it was one of the many thankful highlights he had after missing the entire 2009 campaign following a near-fatal car crash before the start of the season. Two games later, Irving set an NCAA record with eight tackles for loss against Wake Forest.
“That, to me, was the most emotional part of that season, my Senior Day game,” Irving says. “Mario was my favorite player growing up and when NC State recruited me, I said I wanted to break one of his records. That was something I forgot about until my dad reminded me after the game. It was something special that I will always remember.”
Wilson was also looking to erase a painful experience. The year before against the Seminoles in Tallahassee, the sophomore thrower completed 20 of 30 passes for 349 yards and five touchdown passes, but could not complete the upset on the road. Florida State escaped with a 45-42 victory.
Wilson wasn’t going to let a good performance go to waste in the 2010 game, even after Florida State grabbed a 21-7 lead in the first half. He was nearly perfect in the third quarter, completing all seven of his passes and running for touchdowns of 10 and 20 yards to tie the game.
Even when he did make a mistake — throwing his only interception early in the fourth quarter — Wilson chased down the Florida State linebacker for a game-saving tackle on the sidelines.
Overall, he completed 18 of 28 passes for 178 yards and rushed for 69 yards on 17 carries. His three rushing touchdowns were the most for a Wolfpack quarterback in 22 years.
“This is definitely the biggest win we have had since I’ve been here — so far,” Wilson said after the game.
The Wolfpack lost to Clemson the following week, but beat Wake Forest and North Carolina to put itself in position to earn the Atlantic Division’s bid into the ACC Championship game.
The Tar Heels did its rival a favor by beating Florida State for the first time in ACC play. The only thing standing in NC State’s way was a Thanksgiving weekend game at Maryland. A win would qualify the Pack for the title game in Charlotte.
That, however, didn’t happen. The Terrapins dashed the Wolfpack’s hopes for its first ACC title since 1979 with a 38-31 victory at Maryland’s Byrd Stadium.
The next time Wilson and Irving were on the field together was in 2014 at Super Bowl XLIX, when Wilson led the Seattle Seahawks to a 43-8 victory over Irving’s Denver Broncos at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
But it was not a trip down memory lane for Irving with Wilson, J.R. Sweezy and Stephen Hauschka.
“In the spirit of competitiveness, I’m not someone who usually goes out and talks with opposing players before a game, even if it is the Super Bowl,” Irving says. “Maybe after the game, but it’s not something I usually do, especially after a loss.”
Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.
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