3/10/2021 basketball Edit

NC State football players energized, refreshed entering spring practice

Justin H. Williams • TheWolfpackCentral

Staff Writer

NC State football flipped a disappointing 4-8 campaign in 2019 into an 8-4 record in 2020.

While the Wolfpack is proud of its turnaround last season, it’s focused on building on it this fall as it began spring practice Tuesday.

What made the Pack’s surprising success last season even more impressive was the conditions in which it took place.

In an exhausting year that subjected players and coaches to stuff cotton swabs up their noses on a daily basis and lockdown for the better part of six months, many teams decided to opt-out of bowl games in an understandable desire to pack it in for the holidays.

But not the Wolfpack. Even with four of its top defensive starters unavailable due to injury, the Pack happily accepted a bid to the Gator Bowl in what was a competitive four-quarter contest against Kentucky.

Multiple NC State players admitted that the time off in January was much-needed, but almost everybody was ready to get back in the Murphy Center after the success of last season.

“With my time off, I actually got to go snowboarding with some high school friends up in Boone,” redshirt junior receiver Thayer Thomas said. “After a week and a half, it was right back to work. It was good to have a little bit of time off, but I think we were all eager to get back here because we know what kind of potential this team has for the 2021 season. We were all sort of ready to get back to work so we could get off to a good note.”

NC State Wolfpack football Grant Gibson — Redshirt junior center Grant Gibson (50) avoided an injury scare in the Gator Bowl and is healthy entering spring practice. (AP Images)

The energy is different in the locker room compared to this time last year.

Granted, roughly one year ago today is when life as we knew it changed overnight due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Wolfpack’s goals have evolved this offseason.

What was once a team looking to build chemistry and confidence last spring is now a tightly-knit unit with plenty of charisma after its success on the field last fall.

“Everybody wants to be here,” Thomas said. “We report in the mornings pretty early, then around four o'clock we have probably half the team back in the building doing other stuff. That might have not been the case two years ago, so I think we're all very understanding of what we could do as a team. We all want to do it, so we're doing everything possible in our power to prepare for this upcoming season.”

“There's a lot more of a drive and a want-to factor within the building,” fifth-year senior defensive end Daniel Joseph added. “Just from my short time being here, the guys here are about their business. It's just grown since the end of last season.”

Joseph, who decided to use the extra year of eligibility the NCAA granted to fall athletes in 2020 after transferring from Penn State last summer, will be one of 10 returning starters on defense for the Pack this fall.

NC State’s returning talent is promising, but the Wolfpack still has some issues to address in the offseason.

The most glaring of which is limiting penalties. Of 127 FBS programs that competed in 2020, the Pack ranked dead last in total penalties (96) and penalty yards (891).

“The big thing that we want to fix this offseason is the small things,” redshirt junior center and team captain Grant Gibson said. “The post-snap and pre-snap penalties that we had, they have to go. We've talked about that as a team, we need to cut back on these things because those costs you games, and we understand that.”

“We looked at different statistics like that, it could make us win two more games if we just minimize some of the stupid penalties that we had,” Thomas added. “Penalties and turnover battle, if we fix those two areas, we did a lot of research on it, it could make us have 11-to-12 wins. It goes from eight-to-nine to 11-to-12 that easily.

“It's not just about Clemson, it's focusing on ourselves in that aspect. If we fix those two things about ourselves, the rest will take care of itself. We'll end up being a team like Clemson. That's what we're focusing on, it's just focusing on ourselves, not just the opponent.”

Unlike the last offseason, the Wolfpack will get to train together in person this spring. Not long after NC State began its spring practice, everyone was sent home and didn’t return for months as the realities of COVID-19 hit the country.

That in-person training could be what makes the difference in areas like penalties and turnovers.

“This is going to help us a lot,” Gibson said. “When you think about it, we got five days in last spring before we got sent home. Now that we get a whole spring where we get to slow things down and don't have to do stuff on Zoom anymore, now we're hands-on. It's going to be great for us.”