CHARLOTTE — NC State was looking to make a national statement Saturday, but instead are going back to the drawing board.
Tennessee dominated in every facet to roll to a 51-10 victory at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. The good will built up during the offseason and No. 24 national ranking have both gone poof. The game turned instantly when senior quarterback Grayson McCall had a miscommunication with junior tight end Justin Joly, threw a 85-yard pick six to Tennessee safety Will Brooks with 3:29 left in the second quarter. That opened the gates and a 17-3 lead, and the Volunteers poured it on in the second half in front of 72,730 in attendance.
“Everything that could have gone wrong, felt like it went wrong,” McCall said. “We have a lot of learning to do.”
NC State managed just 14 carries for 13 yards, and completed 4-for-5 passing for 14 yards in the second half. Star sophomore wide receiver Kevin Concepcion didn’t have one touch after halftime.
“We came out here and kind of laid an egg tonight,” McCall said. “We turned the ball over too much. The defense didn’t play great. Special teams not great. Too many penalties hurt ourselves. All that starts with me. I didn’t play well tonight.”
The game challenged coach Dave Doeren’s previous worst defeat, which was a 55-10 loss against Clemson on Nov. 9, 2019.
“You turn the football over, and we did three times, and one of them was for a touchdown,” Doeren said. “You don’t rush the football well and you don’t control the line of scrimmage. You don’t stop people on third and long, so it’s hard to win.”
Iamaleava didn’t have gaudy numbers, but other than his own pick six that NCSU senior cornerback Aydan White returned 87 yards for a score, he played within himself. He finished going 16-of-23 passing for 211 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions, plus he rushed eight times for 65 yards and a score.
NC State has played against North Carolina quarterbacks Sam Howell, Drake Maye and Mitch Trubisky, who were all drafted. Same for first-round picks Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson, plus Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson won a Heisman Trophy in college.
It’s a safe assumption even after three college starts that Iamaleava will one day join them in making the NFL one day. He was also helped by junior running back Dylan Sampson, who rushed 20 times for 132 yards and two scores, plus three catches for 37 yards.
Doeren said it simply came down to losing the battle in the trenches.
“We were in the game, and then the pick six and things unraveled,” Doeren said. “They just never got back into it.
“He [Nico] is a good player. Against their spread, we defended it very well. They were throwing some screens and some shovel [passes] to the running back. They got into bigger personnel [two tight ends], which they hadn’t done on film. Credit them for changing up.”
NC State was hoping to have a big breakthrough against an SEC team, and the game was televised on ABC with recruits watching.
NC State’s performances over the years against SEC foes have long been a sore spot. Since Doeren took over in 2013, the Wolfpack have gone 1-6 against the SEC, with the lone win over Vanderbilt in the Independence Bowl game.
The first of the six losses was in the exact same stadium. Quarterback Dak Prescott and Mississippi State drilled NC State 51-28 on Dec. 30, 2015, in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte.
NC State got the win over Vanderbilt in the bowl game, but then lost 35-28 to South Carolina in 2017, 52-13 to Texas A&M in 2018 and 23-21 to Kentucky in 2020. NC State got a rematch with Mississippi State and fell on the road 24-10 in 2021.
NC State issues with the SEC pre-date Doeren. The last time NC State played Tennessee, some simply call it the “Cordarrelle Patterson game.” The two teams entered the 2012 season in Atlanta, Ga., and Patterson was an under the radar junior college transfer. The future NFL receiver/running back/return man shredded NC State’s defense for six catches for 93 yards and a touchdown, and two carries for 72 yards and a score in a 35-21 win.
Former NC State coach Tom O’Brien went 0-4 against the SEC with two losses to South Carolina, one to Vanderbilt and the aforementioned Volunteers game in 2012.
Doeren knows the SEC history inside-out, but he didn’t expect a blowout to happen Saturday.
“As the head coach of the team that didn’t play well, I didn’t coach well enough obviously,” Doeren said. “We had a really good week of practice. We needed to play complementary football, which means we possess the ball and score points.
“It got away from us. In the second half, we had to go for it all the time and it put our defense in short fields. It just snowballed.”
NC State showed various weaknesses in its 38-21 win over Western Carolina. The loss to Tennessee combined with WCU losing 24-16 to Campbell on Saturday magnified the issues.
NC State returns to Carter-Finley Stadium against Louisiana Tech next Saturday. The goals of winning an ACC title still remain, and the build-up will slowly happen again with playing at Clemson looming Sept. 21.
“We’ll watch the tape and then flush it, and we can’t have one loss turn into two,” McCall said. “We have to take care of business next week. It starts in practice. When you have a bad night like this, you have to learn from your mistakes.”
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