NC State coach Dave Doeren set the tone on Tuesday. Of course he wanted to beat East Carolina after losing to the Pirates in the Military Bowl last December, but he was focused on limiting costly mistakes.
“How we play matters,” Doeren said in his final pregame media availability. “It’s way less about who we’re playing than it is about how we play and how we execute. You watch college football [this past weekend], and there’s a lot of penalties, a lot of turnover. You want to play a clean game. … How we play is what matters. The execution is what matters.”
Fast forward two days later, and although NC State beat ECU 24-17 at Carter-Finley Stadium to open the 2025 season, the way in which the Wolfpack did so left a lot to be desired. That’s even after it had one of its better starts to a game, too.
“I was really excited about how we started,” Doeren said. “We started fast, and penalties really derailed a lot of drives on offense. We just had some bonehead penalties — false starts and things like that. … I’m proud of the guys, and at the same time, there’s a lot of things that we can do better.”
NC State’s costly penalties arose on multiple occasions as it committed seven for a loss of 63 yards in the victory. The Wolfpack, which outgained the Pirates 144-8 in the opening quarter, only had 3 points to show for it. Why? Well, a personal foul on right tackle Teague Andersen displaced NC State from the second-and goal on the ECU 7-yard line to the 22, which led to a made field goal — a true touchdown-scoring opportunity wiped away.
That wasn’t the only drive that was killed by penalties, either.
In the third quarter, NC State committed back-to-back false start penalties as it looked to set the tone in the second half. Instead of starting from its own 36-yard line after forcing a turnover on downs, the Wolfpack handed all the momentum back after redshirt sophomore wide receiver Noah Rogers and redshirt junior left tackle Jacarrius Peak both moved early.
Those two pre-snap errors ruined a drive that NC State was looking to capitalize on momentum from the defense’s stop. Instead, the Wolfpack had to punt.
And once the fourth quarter rolled around, even more self-inflicted wounds appeared. Senior tight end Cody Hardy committed a holding penalty on the ECU 19-yard line after senior wideout Wesley Grimes caught a 46-yard pass to move the Wolfpack inside the red zone. That penalty, followed by a sack later in the drive, led to NC State going backwards and a 40-yard field goal attempt from redshirt freshman Nick Konieczynski that missed wide left.
On the Wolfpack’s next drive, only up a touchdown, sophomore quarterback CJ Bailey lost four yards as he scrambled to make something happen on third-and-10 from the ECU 25. That led to a 46-yard field goal try from Konieczynski, which again missed, this time wide right.
Both penalties and lost yards in the backfield seemed to grind Doeren’s frustration after the game as he looked for areas the team could improve on moving forward.
“I thought we stalled out in the red zone with penalties and tackles for a loss — we went backwards,” Doeren said. “We’d have an explosive play to get down there, and then all of a sudden, we’d be going backwards. A lot to improve on offense. A lot of good things, but our goal is to score 31 or more. We were a touchdown short of our goal in this game, and we had two missed field goals, which hurt us. That’s an area we need to get better as well.”
Bailey, who was 24-for-34 passing for 318 yards with two total touchdowns and an interception, took ownership of the slow start to the second half. NC State had the chance to put ECU away, but instead it relied on a defensive stop in the final minutes to secure the win.
The young, but thoughtful leader, was quick to own his mistakes that could have come back to haunt the Wolfpack against the Pirates. Even though NC State was able to escape with a win, Bailey elected to use this as a learning opportunity ahead of the Wolfpack’s Week 2 tilt with Virginia next Saturday.
“The mindset is finishing better,” Bailey said. “I felt like we started off at a good pace, the offense got it rolling, the defense got it rolling. We just have to come out [of halftime] way better than we did. Part of it is me as a leader, getting the offense going. We started to feel comfortable with our lead, we can’t do that. Me as a leader, I have to get those guys going.”
Bailey was voted to be the youngest captain in the Doeren era for a reason. His teammates respect everything he says. Now, the quarterback is focused on using that platform to correct the “boneheaded” mistakes as his coach called them before they snowball into more down the road.