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The sun came up on Sunday. As it always does.
It signaled the start of a new day, with all the promise the future holds.
That’s about all Dave Doeren and his NC State football team have to look forward to as they try to pick up the pieces from the 51-10 beatdown they absorbed from Tennessee at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday night.
The loss was every bit as thorough as the score indicates. And the details of the performance that led to it are even more unsightly in the light of day than they were under the national network television lights the night it happened.
“We needed to play complementary football in this game, which means we possess the ball, we score points,” Doeren said. “We didn’t get points and we turned the ball over 3 times. And one of them was a touchdown. If you don’t rush the football, you don’t control the line of scrimmage, you don’t stop people on 3rd-and-long, it’s hard to win. Bottom line.”
That pretty much sums it up.
Doeren’s Wolfpack were beaten in every phase of the game, especially on the line of scrimmage.
They were outgained 460-143 and produced only 39 yards on 28 rushing attempts. They turned the ball over 3 times, including the pick-6 Doeren mentioned. They were stopped twice on 4th-and-inches in their own territory and allowed Tennessee to convert half of its 14 3rd-down opportunities.
Many of the problems that plagued them for the first 3 quarters of last week’s opener against Western Carolina – an inability to run the ball effectively, inconsistent quarterback play from prized transfer Grayson McCall and a propensity for giving up big plays on defense – showed up again against Tennessee. They were just magnified by the faster, more physical and significantly more talented Volunteers.
Doeren was understandably downtrodden afterward. But he expressed confidence in his team’s ability to bounce back and contend for the ACC championship it’s been chasing since 1979. He and the Wolfpack don’t have much time to get things right, though. There’s a lot to fix and not much time to do it with only 1 more dress rehearsal – at home next week against Louisiana Tech – before opening their conference schedule.
On the road. At Clemson.
They have their work cut out for them.
Here’s what else we learned about the ACC in Week 2:
Maybe it was Georgia, after all
Like Doeren, Dabo Swinney insisted that his team was better than it looked after a convincing loss to an SEC power. Turns out, it wasn’t just coachspeak.
Swinney’s team needed to make a definitive statement after getting humiliated by Georgia in its opener. And it didn’t waste any time doing so against Appalachian State on Saturday. The Tigers scored a touchdown on the 3rd play of the game and set a program record by scoring 35 points in the first quarter on the way to a 66-20 drubbing of the Mountaineers.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik, who shouldered a bulk of the blame for Clemson’s dismal offensive performance against the Bulldogs in Atlanta, answered his critics by going 24-of-26 for 378 yards and 5 touchdowns. Including that early 76-yard strike to highly-touted freshman Bryant Wesco to get the snowball rolling.
Appalachian State isn’t UGA, of course. So the dominating performance should be taken with a grain of perspective. Just like last week’s lopsided loss.
But the show of firepower should at least serve notice that maybe the disappointing opener was more about the nation’s No. 1 team than it was about Clemson. And that the obituaries that were already being written about the Tigers’ season, their status as a Playoff contender and Swinney’s way of doing things were incredibly premature.
Fran Brown has something cooking at Syracuse
It’s still early. Very early. But even after only 2 weeks, there are already indications that the hiring of former Georgia assistant Brown was among the best – if not the very best – coaching decisions of the offseason.
Brown’s personality and optimism energized the program and its surrounding community from the moment he rolled into town. The momentum only continued to build as he assembled a nationally-recognized transfer class and now that the season has begun, it’s carrying over to the field.
The Orange ended Georgia Tech’s short stay back in the national rankings with a 31-28 victory that personified the culture their new coach is trying to establish.
It wasn’t about the high-powered offense, triggered by transfer quarterback Kyle McCord, that put up 31 points and 521 yards. Although that didn’t hurt. The biggest takeaway from the eye-opening win over the ACC’s early-season darlings was the physicality of a Syracuse defense that limited the Yellow Jackets’ strong rushing attack to only 112 yards.
The show of toughness was made all the more impressive by the absence of leading tackler Marlowe Wax. And it came as the direct result of what Brown perceived as slight from his coaching counterpart.
Tech’s Brent Key wasn’t actually suggesting that the Orange were soft when he said that Saturday’s game would be more about being physical than the Xs and Os. But that’s the way Brown sold it to his players. And they responded in a big way.
“I took it personal when he said it wasn’t about Xs and Os,” Brown said after the game. “I’ve coached with (Georgia coach) Kirby Smart and (former Georgia co-defensive coordinator) Will Muschamp. That’s what they do. Why would we not be a tough physical football team?,” Brown added. “I want to make sure everyone understands that. When you play us, just be quiet. Don’t give no ammo to me. You give ammo to me, I’m coming at you full tilt.”
Virginia might finally be turning the corner
Tony Elliott hasn’t had it easy in his first 2 seasons with the Cavaliers. He’s had to endure an unthinkable tragedy, a rebuilt roster and a string of close losses. But his persistence might finally be paying off.
The Cavaliers’ come-from-behind 31-30 win at Wake Forest gives them their first 2-0 start since Bronco Mendenhall’s final season in 2020 and puts them two-thirds of the way to matching their entire win total from each of the past 2 years. And they did in a way that shows their growth.
Five of their 9 losses in 2023 were by a touchdown or less, with 4 coming by 3 or fewer points. Saturday, they flipped the script against the Deacons by battling back from a 13-point 4th-quarter deficit to earn a close victory.
They did it by driving 12 plays, including a pair of 4th-down conversions, for the go-ahead touchdown with just over 2 minutes remaining. They then sealed the deal by forcing a turnover on Wake’s final possession.
Not only did the win help solidify Elliott’s hold on his job and give UVa a legitimate shot of reaching the 6 wins needed for bowl eligibility, it also validated the 3rd-year coach’s choice of sophomore Anthony Colandrea over graduate Tony Muskett as his starting quarterback. Colandrea threw for 357 yards and 3 touchdowns, including a 24-yard strike to Trell Harris that started the Cavaliers’ comeback early in the final period.
Cal, not SMU, is the newcomer to watch
Of the 3 ACC newcomers, it was assumed that the Mustangs would be the one with the best chance of contending right away. SMU returned 14 starters (8 on offense, 6 on defense) from a team that won 11 games and the American Athletic Conference championship.
But 11 of those wins came against Group of 5 competition. SMU lost all 3 games against a power opponent, including Boston College in the Fenway Bowl.
And it lost again Friday in its first test of this season. Badly. The Mustangs got pushed around at the point of attack on both sides of the ball, managed only 261 total yards and didn’t score a touchdown in an uninspired 18-15 home loss to BYU.
Cal, meanwhile, traveled more than 2,000 miles into the heart of SEC country and beat Auburn in front of 80,000 hostile fans at Jordan-Hare. And it did so with his best player, running back Jaydn Ott, limited to only 10 yards on 11 carries because of an ankle injury.
Quarterback Fernando Mendoza showed why he won a preseason competition with Chandler Rogers by hitting on 25-of-36 passes for 233 yards and 2 touchdowns, both to freshman Nyziah Hunter. It was the Bears’ portal-fortified defense, however, that did most of the heavy lifting on The Plains. UNLV transfer Nohl Williams had 2 of his team’s 4 interceptions and linebacker Teddye Buchanan, formerly of UC Davis, had 2 sacks to help keep Auburn off the scoreboard for 49 ½ minutes after giving up a touchdown on the opening drive.
In doing so, they served notice that they’re not coming into the ACC just to add value to the league’s television contract.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
