NC State will remember this week for years to come.
The week started with heroes around the state of North Carolina dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Helene. NC State senior defensive end Davin Vann and his younger brother redshirt sophomore center Rylan Vann and their family helped raise awareness and items for those affected in Western North Carolina. Sports helping society is always powerful, and the work will continue for weeks and months in the areas hit hard.
The Wolfpack then hosted Wake Forest on Saturday, their rival and fellow Tobacco Road program. The Demon Deacons and the Triad area were just an hour or two from where the devastation of Helene took place.
Distress of a different kind took place early in the football game at Carter-Finley Stadium. NC State senior quarterback Grayson McCall made a return to action after missing the last two games with an undisclosed injury. McCall took off from the pocket on third and 11, and he was drilled by two Wake Forest defenders, causing him to fumble and his helmet came off. Wake Forest senior safety Evan Slocum returned the fumble 88 yards to the two-yard line.
McCall was taken off on a cart surrounded by his family and put his hands up to signal to the crowd with 9:27 left in the first quarter. It was one of the scariest plays in decades at Carter-Finley Stadium, and Doeren called it a “vicious” hit. McCall had his season come to an end last year after an illegal hit caused a concussion against Arkansas State.
NCSU coach Dave Doeren said McCall wanted to stand up when he came to, but the medical people told him not to. McCall told his team to “go win the game.”
“All the reports back from the hospital are positive,” Doeren said. “Grayson went through the entire protocol [the last two weeks] and was cleared and had a great week of practice. He’s our starting quarterback and the captain. You don’t lose your position to injury.
“He took a vicious hit. Sometimes football is a very violent sport at times. That was a big hit that he took and I hate it for him. You hate to see a guy get hit like that.”
Wake Forest scored two plays later when senior quarterback Hank Bachmeier threw a two-yard pass to junior running back Demond Claiborne to give the Demon Deacons a 10-0 lead with 8:51 left in the first quarter. What could go wrong went wrong in the first 6:09 of the contest.
NC State turned to freshman quarterback Cedrick “C.J.” Bailey and it became a battle throughout, and the Wolfpack lead grew to 30-20 with 13:08 left in the fourth quarter. NC State sophomore running back Kendrick Raphael ran for a 20-yard touchdown with 3:02 left in the third quarter, and redshirt junior tight end Justin Joly caught a 22-yard touchdown at the start of the fourth quarter.
NC State’s defense just couldn’t close the game out, and Wake Forest scored twice in the final 8:43 to pull out the 34-30 win. NC State fell to 3-3 overall and 0-2 in the ACC, and Wake Forest improved to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the league.
“It was heartbreaking,” Doeren said. “There was plenty of opportunities to close that game out for us.
“The last 11 minutes of the game were not good enough. We didn’t finish. We didn’t make enough plays.”
Claiborne finished with three touchdowns — two rushing and one receiving — and rushed 20 times for 136 yards in the win. However, one of the biggest plays of the game wasn’t a touchdown.
Wake Forest was facing fourth down and three at the NC State 26-yard line, and eschewed what could have been a game-tying field-goal attempt to go for it. Senior quarterback Hank Bachmeier found redshirt freshman wide receiver Deuce Alexander for a six-yard gain with 1:40 left in the game. Claiborne scored two plays later with 1:01 left.
“That was a gutsy call by them,” said Doeren, who pointed out that WFU converted all three fourth-down conversions.
NCSU senior cornerback Aydan White, who is from storm-ravaged Asheville, N.C., simply said lack of communication was the difference in the fourth quarter.
“Everybody's got to stick together and just know what we want at the end and just keep chasing what we can do,” said White, who had a team-high nine tackles. “Just making sure we keep staying together and no outside noise from anybody.”
Bailey threw an interception to senior linebacker Brandon Combs to start the final drive, and it clinched the disappointing outcome.
Bailey finished going 28-of-42 passing for 272 yards, two touchdowns and the lone interception, and he rushed four times for minus-one yard.
“I was proud of him,” Doeren said. “He came into the game with poise. He gave us a chance to win the game. I know he is down for throwing the pick on the last drive, but C.J. didn’t lose that football game.”
NC State returns to action with home contest against Syracuse next Saturday. NC State played Saturday without sophomore starting cornerback Brandon Cisse, backup redshirt freshman running back Daylan Smothers, redshirt sophomore reserve guard Valen Erickson and rotational redshirt junior wide receiver Dacari Collins.
“This a team that has a lot of football ahead of them,” Doeren said. “I am going to coach them as hard as I can.”
McCall’s future will remain in doubt for a while, but NC State senior right guard Timothy McKay supports what his teammate has put his body through.
“It was heartbreaking to see,” McKay said. “He's the guy who fought hard for us. He came here from Coastal [Carolina]. He is the captain. Seeing him go down earlier in the season and go again this year, this week is kind of disheartening. I know how hard he works for us. It's really sad seeing that.”
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