Friedlander: After lackluster opener, it’s ‘shut up or put up’ time for NC State against Tennessee
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There were any number of extenuating circumstances to explain away NC State’s slow start in its opener against Western Carolina last Thursday.
New starters at key positions on both sides of the ball.
A lesser opponent taken lightly.
A couple of dropped interceptions.
Communication issues caused by the ejection of the player wearing the green dot helmet.
The Wolfpack got away with them all in a pedestrian 38-21 win that kept them at No. 24 in the national rankings. They won’t be as fortunate if they don’t tighten up considerably for this week’s matchup with No. 14 Tennessee at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson knows that only too well.
“It’s time to shut up or put up right now,” he said. “It’s all out there. A nationally ranked team in a great stadium, a great venue. The world’s going to be watching. What are we going to do? They better come to play.”
You’d think they’d already be motivated regardless of the opponent, the location or the television coverage.
State’s entire athletic program has been riding an unprecedented wave of success since its men’s and women’s basketball teams advanced to the Final Four in April. And with a roster fortified by a nationally-ranked transfer class, expectations for this year’s team are as high as they’ve been in recent memory.
Especially among a defense whose players have spent all spring and summer talking about the chip they have on their collective shoulders because of the perception that their unit won’t be as good without Bednarik and Butkus award-winning linebacker Payton Wilson.
But that spark didn’t immediately translate into results.
It took until the 4th quarter for State to finally take its first lead. And while they were finally able to find a rhythm and pull away for a double-digit victory, the result was anything but a positive against a 33.5-point underdog with an SEC foe on the horizon.
“We weren’t executing at the level necessary to have the success we know we can have,” said center Zeke Correll, 1 of 5 transfers making their first start as a member of the Wolfpack. “This week it’s really just coming down to preparation and executing in the moment.”
The biggest chore facing State, beyond taking advantage of the opportunity this “moment” presents, is slowing down an up-tempo Tennessee offense that torched Chattanooga for 69 points in its opener last week.
That wasn’t an outlier performance, either. Josh Heupel’s offenses have been among the 10 best in the sport almost every year he’s been a head coach. And this year’s group is led by a 5-star quarterback in Nico Iamaleava.
Correll, quarterback Grayson McCall and the rest of State’s refueled attack can help in that pursuit by establishing its running game early instead of waiting until the 4th quarter as it did against WCU, control the clock and keep Iamaleava and the Volunteers from getting into a rhythm.
Ultimately, though, it’s going to be up to Gibson’s defense to raise its game to a much higher level than it did in its opening night performance.
Some of the rough edges can be attributed to the loss of middle linebacker Caden Fordham to a targeting penalty on the game’s opening series. The junior isn’t just being counted on as Wilson’s replacement. He’s the player chosen to wear the helmet communication technology now allowed in college football.
With Fordham sidelined for the rest of the game, the responsibility went to Sean Brown, a converted safety making his first start at linebacker. Fordham’s replacement, Jayland Parker, was making his first start, period.
Confusion between them might have contributed to the breakdown that allowed a 50-yard run by quarterback Cole Gonzales, which led to a WCU touchdown late in the opening period.
The Wolfpack eventually tightened up and allowed only 7 more points over the final 3 periods. But Gonzales, the Southern Conference’s preseason Player of the Year, still ended up throwing for 211 yards and 2 touchdowns while running for 75 yards and averaging 12.5 yards per carry.
Those numbers are cause for concern.
Because if Cole Gonzales can do that against a defense that has been one of the ACC’s best over the past 2 seasons, one can only imagine what a Heisman candidate such as Iamaleava is capable of.
The 5-star redshirt freshman put up all of his 314 yards and 3 touchdowns in the opening half against Chattanooga before taking the rest of the day off.
“We’re going to have our work cut out,” Gibson said.
Yes, they do.
But if State wants to become recognized as the big-time program it fancies itself to be and raise its profile beyond the ACC, playing Tennessee in an NFL stadium in prime time on network television is the kind of challenge it has to meet.
And the kind of opponent it has to show it can beat.
Like the man meant with his somewhat mixed-up expression, it’s time to put up or shut up.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
