Notebook: 2021 NC State spring football game

NC State conducted its spring football game Saturday before a crowd of roughly 10,000 in Carter-Finley Stadium.

The Red team, composed of mostly first-string players, defeated the White team, mostly reserves and freshmen, 37-17.

“Your goal is to get everybody in to play as clean as you can and not have injuries,” Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren said. “I thought we came out strong on all three of those.”

Starting redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary took snaps for the Red team throughout the first half before sitting out the second.

The 6-1, 212-pounder was sharp for the most part in his first public performance in Carter-Finley Stadium since suffering a season-ending leg break in the Pack’s home win over Duke last October.

Leary completed 12 of his 23 pass attempts for 175 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He also rushed for 13 yards on three attempts.

“Outside of the interception and his first pass, where he had a guy pretty open and rushed it, I thought he played well,” Doeren said. “The thing I like about how Devin’s playing, he’s just comfortable right now.

"He knows the system, his eyes are in good places, he’s communicating well, he’s making quick decisions and he’s doing what Coach [Tim] Beck wants him to do. It’s fun to watch him in his progression from last year to this year.”

Back-up freshman quarterback Ben Finley played three quarters, two of which were with the White team in the first half and the last with the Red team in the third quarter.

After an injury scare on a bobbled snap during his first drive, the second-year freshman responded with a strong performance, completing 10 of 20 passes for 160 yards. He also ran in a four-yard touchdown in a second-quarter goal-line situation.

“He has a knee brace on to protect him on plays like that,” Doeren said. “You hate for anyone to get rolled up. I was right behind the play. I didn’t really think it was anything major. I think it was more of a contusion or bruise more than anything. It was great to see him go through the process of being evaluated, saying he wanted to come back in, then throwing a really good fade ball followed by a run for a touchdown.

“Ben is way ahead of where he was a year ago, and you’d expect that. I think all of those guys at quarterback are. That position, you don’t touch those guys, so every now and then they do get hit. As long as they come up healthy, that isn’t a bad thing for them to feel contact every now and then.”

Freshman quarterback Aaron McLaughlin took third-string snaps, appearing for one drive in the first quarter after Finley’s injury scare and for most of the second half.

The 6-5, 230-pounder looked the part physically but showed his youth, completing just 1 of his five pass attempts for two yards.

NC State’s two leading rushers from last season, sophomore running back Zonovan “Bam” Knight and junior running back Ricky Person Jr., were unavailable Saturday as they’ve nursed injuries during spring practice, but the Wolfpack was still able to get plenty of production from its backfield in the scrimmage.

Sophomore running back Jordan Houston led all rushers with 89 yards on 10 attempts, including one touchdown.

All of his production came in the first half before he was taken to the locker room with an apparent leg or foot injury he suffered late in the second quarter. Doeren said that X-rays were negative.

On his last play, Houston picked up 16 yards and a first down before he was tackled from behind by freshman linebacker Jordan Poole, who forced a fumble on the play.

Redshirt freshman running back Delbert Mimms III was the second-leading rusher, gaining 52 yards on nine attempts.

“They’ve been impressive all spring,” Doeren said. “They’re tough, they understand the offense, they’re good in protection. They’re playing within themselves. They’re not trying to do too much. They’re physical backs, they’re not going to dance a whole lot, they’re going to get extra yards and run behind your pads.

“I think we’ve built depth at the position this spring. We were able to cross train Jordan and Trent [Pennix], you saw those guys playing at other positions today. Jordan was able to play receiver and running back. That’s one of the benefits when you hold a couple players out of the spot, you build depth, and we were definitely able to do that at running back today.”

Doeren has not been shy in sharing that one of the main goals for the Wolfpack this offseason is to cut back on penalties. Despite having a successful 8-4 campaign last fall, NC State had the most penalties and penalty yards at the FBS level in 2020, although not every team played as many as the Wolfpack's 12 games.

While we won’t find out if the offseason efforts pay off until this fall, the Pack was off to a good start Saturday, suffering just one penalty in 60 minutes of game play.

“That was something we were trying to do,” Doeren said. “We wanted to play as clean as we could, and I felt like we did that.”

The lone penalty was on the offensive end on a false start in a red-zone situation.

“Last year, we dang near led the nation in penalties,” junior safety Tanner Ingle said. “Moving forward, that’s what we are trying to work on. We came out there and had just one flag today, so I felt like that was a success.”

Morale was high for the team Saturday as it completed a spring practice ahead of what could be a special season considering nearly all of the Pack’s production from last season is returning in 2021.

“That’s one thing you can’t do, add experience,” Doeren said. “Being a young football team a couple of years ago, these guys are now reaping the benefits of reps. As a program, we are as well. There’s competitive depth at a lot of positions, there’s experience in the first and second strings, there’s positive things that they’ve done in games, which breeds confidence. There’s been learning moments from losses and negative things, which brings opportunity to grow through adversity.

“These kids have been through a lot together, they’ve overcome a lot together. To have all of that back, it’s just a matter now of getting them healthy and having a really good summer. We lost out on a lot of training last year, everybody did. For Thunder and his group in the strength and conditioning program, it’s a really important five weeks coming up.”

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