RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Excitement fills the air as college football is slated to return to the Triangle later this week.
First out of the starting out is the North Carolina State Wolfpack, which kicks off the 2024 season on Thursday against Western Carolina. N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren and his squad are making last-minute preparations ahead of their season opener.
“The longer you coach, the more you appreciate the opportunity,” Doeren said. “Coming out the tunnel with the guys, seeing the excitement, the energy, the anxiety – all of it.”
The No. 24-ranked Wolfpack will have that opportunity once again as they host the Catamounts, a team that Doeren stresses they can’t underestimate.
“When you’re playing these games, you can’t take anybody for granted,” he said. “You have to understand that they’re coming in here with nothing to lose.”
Some people might be calling this matchup a tune-up game for N.C. State, especially with a top-25 showdown in Charlotte with No. 15 Tennessee looming over the horizon next week. But that isn’t the case for Doeren, who’s been on the other side of these FBS vs. FCS games, as he knows the type of energy that teams like Western Carolina will come to play with when pitted against Power Four programs.
The Catamounts bring in new coordinators on both sides of the ball, most notably on offense where they ranked fourth in scoring (37.5) and first in yards per game (504.1) among FCS programs last year. This unit even returns quarterback Cole Gonzales, who won Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors after throwing for 2,803 yards and 28 touchdowns, breaking the program’s single-season record.
“I think their quarterback is a very good player,” Doeren said. “You can see he’s a game operator, manages things, makes quick decisions, accurate, doesn’t turn the football over.”
Gonzales, the preseason pick to repeat as the league’s top offensive player, will have his hands full with the same defensive group that’s been giving N.C. State quarterback Grayson McCall fits throughout training camp.
Under sixth-year defensive coordinator Tony Gibson, the Wolfpack defense continues to be a reliable unit, regularly closing out recent years in the top 30 nationwide in scoring and total defense.
“They have good conversations after practice, Grayson and Tony, on what they saw and what was hard today,” Doeren said. “There’s not a coverage that [McCall] is going to see all season that he doesn’t see in training camp.”
After spending the entire month of August going against each other, N.C. State is chomping at the bits for a real opponent.
“We practiced all spring, we go through winter conditioning, summer conditioning, fall camp, and the guys are ready,” Doeren said. “They want to play a game.”
The Wolfpack open their 2024 campaign at Carter-Finley Stadium on Thursday at 7 p.m.