RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — The NC State football team is coming off a bye week, and now the Pack heads into a tough five game stretch to close the regular season.
There are no easy games left to be played as the Pack (4-3 overall, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) looks for at least two more wins to become bowl eligible. The next few weeks won’t be easy for State, but then again, getting to this point wasn’t either.
“Seven in a row wasn’t easy either, I can tell you that,” said NC State head coach Dave Doeren.
The Pack spent the bye week resting up, getting healthy and reflecting on how each player can get better. NC State coaches did extensive evaluations of each players performance to this point in the season, looking for any weaknesses to correct.
“We call it ‘one more.’ There’s something in their game that’s showing up over seven games, enough that we need to get that off of film,” said Doeren. “I think the biggest area of improvement your team can have is each kid that plays for you — say it’s 50 guys — they all get that one thing in their game better and you have aggregate improvement.”
Doeren said the players are receptive to what can sometimes be tough to hear. It helps when the conversation is a two-way street.
“They want to get better, they want to be with coaches that make them better and it’s us [coaches] too, we have to look at how we’re calling the game and if it’s not working it needs to get fixed,” said Doeren. “When you’re transparent as a leader with hey, these are my faults, then it’s easy for them [players] to sit there and accept what theirs are. The only way to get better is to not point fingers and blame others. You’ve got to accept where you’ve got to go.”
The Pack’s five-game stretch run begins on Saturday when State travels to take on Pitt at 3:30 p.m. in a game that will be played on the Pittsburgh Steelers home field, Heinz Stadium.
“I think it is cool, as a college athlete, to be able to go play in an NFL stadium is a neat thing for these guys to be able to do,” said Doeren.