Dave Doeren will have a cooler seat and some breathing room in 2015, after beating dominating and demoralizing Carolina and finishing his second regular season 7-5.
There were frustrating stretches this season — most notably, the seven-quarter stretch after we led Florida State 24-7 where we were outscored by Florida State and Clemson 91-17, followed by the dreadful outing versus Georgia Tech — but the realistic among us recognize that we met — and probably surpassed — all realistic expectations for the season.
We were the only ACC team that played all four of the league’s Top 25 teams (all four of which beat their SEC rival today) — #3 FSU (12-0, 8-0), #16 Georgia Tech (10-2, 6-2), # 21 Clemson (9-3,6-2) and #22 Louisville (9-3, 5-3) — and the only swing game we lost was Boston College (7-5, 4-4).
Now, one season removed from 3-9 (0-8), after beating dominating and demoralizing Carolina, we’ll have a chance for an eight-win season. Where and against whom, exactly, is still uncertain (we’ll likely end up the first ACC team screwed over by Notre Dame’s partial-membership; their loss today at USC means they can’t go to Orlando, but can go to Charlotte).
Absolutely great comments by Doeren after the game today.
Like I said all along, we are getting better. And we are moving towards where we want to be.
And this is a blue-collar school. This is a work-ethic, hands-in-the-dirt school. It’s an agricultural school, it’s a textile school, it’s an engineering school. It’s founded by tough people and that’s what this football team will be, and that’s what we were today.
And I’m very proud of our guys for representing NC State and our alumni the right way.
And I loved our game plan and I loved how it was executed.
