NC State gets a second chance at its second 10-win season - ESPN

ORLANDO, Fla. — When NC State coach Dave Doeren walked off the field in mid-October following a blowout loss at Duke, he felt uneasy, embarrassed, unsure — mystified, quite frankly.

The Wolfpack were 4-3 and Doeren had already benched starting quarterback Brennan Armstrong to shake up the offense, but losing 24-3 to the Blue Devils felt like rock bottom. The Wolfpack converted on just 4 of 15 third-down chances and had 11 penalties. NC State headed into its open date staring at a five-game stretch that would define its season.

Doeren held a team meeting with a simple message: «I told them, I've lost a lot of games, I've won a lot of games, but I haven't left a lot of stadiums feeling the way I did that night and I don't ever want to feel that way again. So we had a really transparent come-to-Jesus meeting.»

He asked his players and staff to find a way to regroup, to pull together and play together. NC State won five straight to close the season and now has a chance to make history. A win in the Pop-Tarts Bowl over Kansas State on Thursday (5:45 p.m. ET, ESPN) would give NC State just its second 10-win season — a remarkable turnaround considering where it sat Oct. 14.

«We showed incredible resiliency,» Doeren said following a bowl practice in Orlando. «They love each other, they stuck together when a lot of things were against them and just found a way to come together and not only win games, but improve. We got better and better as the season went on, and really peaked the last three weeks.»

Doeren became the winningest coach in school history this season — his 11th with the Wolfpack. NC State is one of only five teams in the Power 5 that has won eight or more games in each of the past four seasons (this includes 2020 in