Notebook: Ground game comes alive in win over WCU

NC State freshman running back Zonovan Knight scored a touchdown on his first college carry last week and rushed for over 100 yards and two scores in his encore performance.

The Wolfpack were more patient in week two with the ground game in rolling up 53 carries for 309 yards and four scores in a 41-0 win over Western Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium. NCSU is averaging a robust 6.0 yards per carry on 84 rushing attempts on the young season.

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Knight might have been the headliner with 18 carries for 119 yards and two touchdowns, but he got help from his friends. Fellow freshman Jordan Houston had a nice second half and tallied eight carries for 73 yards and a touchdown. Sophomore Ricky Person Jr., who is the last NC State back to gain 100 yards as a true freshman when he did it last year against Virginia, had 10 carries for 51 yards and a score.

NCSU also did a good job of utilizing jet sweeps. The only negative is that redshirt freshman Trent Pennix left the game due to an apparent injury, and clarification on his health will likely come next week.

NCSU head coach Dave Doeren was encouraged by Knight’s running style. He has rushed 27 times for 161 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Wolfpack through two games.

“He was physical and he gets north-south,” Doeren said. “He is not afraid to throw his body in there. You see him jumping over guys and diving through and running through contact. He runs hard.”

Doeren had mentioned on his radio show Wednesday and reiterated Saturday that Knight maybe had let his success of the Kay Yow Spring Game go to head during August camp. Knight didn’t think it was so much reading his press clippings, but he had a bizarre three-day stretch of fumbling the football. After talking to his mom and old prep coach at Bailey (N.C.) Southern Nash, he regrouped and it hasn’t been a problem since.

“I was at a point where I was thinking about quitting,” Knight said. “They told me you have to take care of business and control yourself.”

Truth be told, the other players enjoy playing a physical ground-based offense.

“It’s what we love to see,” NCSU redshirt junior tight end Dylan Autenrieth said. “It kind of shows how dominant up front we were today. The tight ends, we have a big part of that. We work very, very close with the O-Line. It feels really good.”

The one-two punch of redshirt juniors Cary Angeline and Autenrieth combined for seven catches for 87 yards and a touchdown, which was a nifty back of the end zone grab by Angeline. To put the production in perspective, the Wolfpack tight ends had 13 receptions the entire 2018 campaign. The group also underwent a coaching change that resulted in new tight ends and special teams coordinator Todd Goebbel.

“It was awesome,” said Autenrieth, who had three catches for 40 yards. “That just kind of reflects of how we are with this team. We will do whatever we are asked to do. Today we were asked to make some plays, and we did.”

The production was a marked improvement from the East Carolina win, where Angeline had one catch for seven yards in representing the tight ends group.

“It was just a great play call by the coaches,” said Angeline on his touchdown catch. “I just ran a corner route and he [redshirt sophomore quarterback Matthew McKay] just threw it up and it was a great throw by him.

“The coaches do a great job and we definitely prepared hard all week. It’s nice to see them trust us.”

The tight end position has been a little dormant in the NC State passing attack the last few years, but that kind of production would have been brought smiles to the faces of some recent Wolfpack tight ends such as David J. Grinnage, Mario Carter or George Bryan. The specter of H-back Jaylen Samuels likely cut down on the previous tight end production.

Grinnage had seven catches in a pair of games in 2015 en route to finishing with 25 receptions. Carter once exploded for seven receptions for 105 yards and a touchdown in a 62-48 loss at Clemson on Nov. 17, 2012. He went on to finish with 34 receptions and two scores.

Bryan was the most consistent tight end for the Wolfpack over the last decade. He snagged eight balls for 79 yards and a score against Maryland on Nov. 26, 2011. He finished with 126 receptions for 1,323 yards and 17 scores in his Wolfpack career.

The Wolfpack tight ends have been more blockers than receivers the last few years, but part of that is due to the proclivity in the passing game to Samuels, Kelvin Harmon and Jakobi Meyers. NC State might not have that one receiver who snags 70-plus passes this season, and the tight end could be needed more.

Catching the ball is always fun, even if blocking is what the “UKU” group does the majority of the contest. Autenrieth said UKU has lived on without former fullback/tight ends coach Eddie Faulkner, who joined the Pittsburgh Steelers organization as running backs coach.

“It’s nice, but as I’ve said before, whatever they ask me to do, I’ll do,” Autenrieth said. “If I’m blocking the whole game and I catch three passes, I don’t really care. Getting some more passes is like a cherry on top.”

NC State only allowed two field goals in the opener against East Carolina and zero points against Western Carolina on Saturday.

“We kept the ball in front, tackled well and did not give up any explosive plays,” Doeren said.

WCU star quarterback Tyrie Adams got suspended and missed the game, leaving the offense in the hands of redshirt sophomore Will Jones. The Wolfpack went from expecting one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the FCS level to more of a drop-back passer in Jones.

“We take a lot of pride in that [the shutout],” said NCSU sophomore defensive lineman Alim McNeill, who had three tackles and a sack. “We want to keep it low. We just manhandled them.

“It was a huge difference and the pass-rush lanes changed for us knowing we didn’t have to chase a guy around that scrambles. He [Jones] was a lot different quarterback than the one originally starting [Adams].”

The results were probably predictable. WCU passed for 98 yards and rushed 19 times for eight yards in an abysmal effort. East Carolina only managed 29 carries for 41 yards in the opener.

“We did a lot of good things and executing,” McNeill said. “We have to execute better and on our different blitzes.

“We have to get the calls and our eyes back on coach and being more disciplined. We have to wrap up and make tackles that we should be making. There is a lot of room for improvement.”

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