Notre Dame Football: NC State Wolfpack Q&A with Trinity Road Times

Well friends, it took until Week 6, but our beloved Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team has officially made it above 0.500 on the season after that ref show that featured a few moments of football last

weekend, with Marcus and the fellas taking down the Boise State Broncos 28-7 at Notre Dame Stadium.

With some teams ahead of them dropping out of the rankings due to some…ahem…ROUGH losses (cough James Franklin cough Steve Sarkisian cough), the Irish now sit at 3-2 and ranked 16th in the country, hoping to continue to improve that march back into Playoff consideration by hosting the 4-2 NC State Wolfpack in South Bend on Saturday afternoon.

The Wolfpack come into this one as kind of a weird team — they beat a Virginia Cavaliers squad that’s now ranked and looking pretty solid, but they also lost to a Virginia Tech Hokies team who fired their coach. They have some very nice talent (especially on offense), but also some gaping holes that make a lot of people (including Vegas with that spread that exceeds 20 points) think the Irish should handle them easily.

Still, we know from recent experience that no opponent can be taken lightly anymore — not after some of the embarrassing losses this team suffered in 2022, 2023, and 2024. So, I reached out to an old friend of the blog, Essad Malik, who’s the co-founder and a columnist for Trinity Road Times, an NC State Athletics blog and community.

Essad, just like in 2023, gave us some AWESOME and super detailed answers about topics such as Dave Doeren being NC State’s Kirk Ferentz, CJ Bailey’s development under center, the Wolfpack defense’s struggle against explosive rushing attacks, go-to Cookout and Bojangles orders, whether Wake Forest needs to move, some solid #TreeTalk, and much more.

Let’s dive right in, as there’s a ton for us to learn before we get to Saturday’s matchup between these two teams.

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1. Dave Doeren is now 91-67 in his 12+ seasons as head coach at NC State, including 10-9 since the start of the 2024 season. Are Wolfpack fans still in full support of him as head coach, or is the consensus that it may be time to look for someone new?

Also, what do you expect to see from Doeren’s Wolfpack the rest of this season — they’re 4-2 with an early win over a now-ranked Virginia squad, but also suffered back-to-back losses to Duke and a Virginia Tech team who fired their coach. With ND, Georgia Tech, Miami, and FSU all left on the schedule, do you think they’ll find a way to get to .500 or better at the end of the season?

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: Ah, the age-old question of what to do with Dave Doeren. It feels like a time loop where any time we talk to fans from other teams they always ask about this. I have done similar Q&A’s and this is always the first question, dating back to at least 2018.

The truth is, Dave Doeren will likely get to decide when he leaves. He is NC State’s version of Kirk Ferentz, just without the two conference championships. NC State fans can get a bad rap for being too demanding. I think this is EVERY place, everyone wants to win. But by and large, State fans understand the investment level required to take that step up, and that isn’t part of the reality for where the school is at right now. Virginia Tech just committed a boatload more funds to football, maybe NC State will follow suit, who knows. That isn’t to say NC State hasn’t done well with NIL, they absolutely have, that’s why they’ve been able to keep a lot of their top end players in place this year. 

But there’s still a monetary gap with top end teams, and *most* fans understand that. The fan base is segmented right now. A lot of people are happy with a well-run program, Doeren hasn’t had a whiff of impropriety in all these years, he runs a program fans can be proud of. They provide a fun product to come watch on Saturdays, and he has a very good home record. He has also done VERY well against rival UNC, which will help any NC State coach avoid the hot seat.

But other fans just want a change and feel like he’s maxed out what he can produce. There’s also the thought that he’s an old school type coach, and might not be built for this current NIL-based world, and maybe it’s time to find someone better suited for that. The pendulum of sentiment seems to be swinging in this direction, and losing to a VT team that lost its coach and a lot of players to the transfer portal may be the last straw.

We’ll see how the rest of the season goes, but with 4 ranked opponents in 5 games, it is not looking good. Their best chance of getting above .500 likely means beating Pitt, UNC, and one of those ranked teams, with Georgia Tech being the lowest hanging fruit. At this point, I think 6-6 is the most likely finish. For more on this nuanced discussion about what is clearly the tail end of the Dave Doeren era, I highly recommend this piece by our own Jackson Williford: https://www.trinityroadtimes.com/post/it-s-time-to-make-a-change

2. Sophomore QB CJ Bailey seems to have had a nice start to the season, completing a ridiculous 75% of his passes en route to 1,660 yards and 13 TDs while throwing only 4 picks to-date.

What does he do well, and what limitations does he have that the ND defense could take advantage of?

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: CJ Bailey has been a bright spot this season. We were expecting/hoping he would take a big step up this season, and for the most part he has. It helps that he has a plethora of targets to throw to, and for the most part the offensive line has been good in pass protection. The one area we were looking to see him improve was progressing through reads during a play, being patient to make a play rather than bailing and taking off running. He did this very well through the first two games, making us think he had put that habit to bed. Then came Duke and VT, and some of those habits seemed to come back. He’s still young, so this type of up and down performance might continue to be part of what you get with a true sophomore QB.

An area he still struggles with is identifying disguised coverages. Obviously, this is an advanced skill, but any time teams have shown man-to-man and dropped to zone or vice versa, he doesn’t identify it. Also, we are begging the coaches to stop asking him to do RPO’s and switch to straight play action. The most important part of the RPO is being able to read what the defense is showing and make the right call, and Bailey seems to always pick the opposite of what he should.

All that being said, we’re still highly enjoying the CJ Bailey experience, and hope he stays in Raleigh for a long time.

3. Who are the key skill position guys for Bailey to get the ball to this weekend — which names should Irish fans be familiar with heading into the game?

Also, how has the NC State offensive line looked so far? Do you think they’ll be able to hold up well and keep Bailey in a clean pocket against an Irish defense starting to find its footing?

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: Two words you will be hearing over and over and over: Hollywood. Smothers.* He’s currently on pace for nearly 1,400 rushing yards, which would be NC State’s best performance at running back in over a decade. He’s already eclipsed his number of carries and total yards from last year when he was criminally underutilized. If NC State has any shot at success this week, he needs to have a big game.

The rest of the receiving corps is pretty stout, made up of Terrell Anderson, Wesley Grimes, and Noah Rogers. Oh, and NC State has one of the best pass catching TE’s in the country with Justin Joly. A lot of options to work with, and NC State is 6^th in the country in 30+ yard plays from scrimmage, so they’ve been good at generating explosives.

*Editor’s Note from Pat Rick: the name Hollywood Smothers RULES

4. Does the Wolfpack defense have the personnel to slow down an elite Irish backfield with Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price? What about to contain CJ Carr and the ND passing game?

Along with those questions, who are the key names to know on the defensive side of the ball for NC State?

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: No.

Oh, were you looking for more words? You might have been wondering why NC State is 4-2 if they have so much talent on offense… well, it’s because they really enjoy giving up explosive plays, especially in the run game. They are currently 114^th (out of 136 teams, mind you) in number of allowed 30+ yard plays from scrimmage… 122^nd in 50+ yard plays, and absolutely dead last in 70+ yard plays.

It’s a boom or bust defense, either they stop the run or if the RB busts through to the next level then any play can go to the house. As for the secondary, the Wolfpack lost their starting safety to injury, and he’s likely not returning at this point, and with other young pieces it’s been quite dicey.

The key names to know are LB’s Caden Fordham and Sean Brown, along with DL’s Cian Slone, Sabastian Harsh, and Brandon Cleveland. The defense relies on these five guys to have good games to be successful.

5. Fan-Submitted Twitter Questions from Harry Joe aka @Joseph_Socks aka a buddy of mine from ND who got his MBA from UNC and now lives in North Carolina, I believe:

a. First Question:

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: I shouldn’t be surprised that a UNC grad would try a trick question like this (I kid, I kid). Yes, the state of NC is known as the Land of the Pines, and the pine is the state tree. There’s a crap ton of pine trees. Pinehurst has hosted the US Open four times, and that whole course is beautifully lined with pine trees.

And yet, Raleigh itself was found to be densely packed with oak trees when it was established in the late 1700’s when the nickname was coined. Both things can be true, there is a mix of both types around town. Not so much anymore what with all the development in the area, sadly.

But if we had to pick, it’s Team Deciduous. Raleigh owns the oak tree, and even drops a 10-foot tall copper acorn every year at New Years: https://downtownraleigh.org/public-art/the-acorn

b. Second Question: 

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: Wake Forest can move their campus to the moon for all I care. Whatever it takes to not have to play another game in Winston-Salem, it’s a dreadful experience going to [insert bank name] Stadium to play in front of more bleachers than people. It was NC State’s “house of horrors” for over 20 years until Dave Doeren has won two straight there recently.

It wouldn’t really work for them to move back to the town of Wake Forest, anyway. That site is a Baptist Seminary now. Plus, Wake Forest isn’t really a proper town, just an extended suburb of Raleigh.

c. Third Question: 

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: The classic go-to order at Bo’s is the cajun chicken biscuit sandwich combo with fries and sweet tea, and you ask them to give you the cajun shaker so you can double up the seasoning on your fries. Other acceptable orders are the cajun sandwich (it’s on a bun instead of a biscuit), or if you’re looking for bone-in chicken you go with the 3-piece dinner that comes with a leg and two thighs, with a biscuit, cole slaw and mac and cheese on the side.

For Cookout, it’s much tougher. Their menu is famously large, comically so:

Cookout is most reliably a place you go to at 2am when nothing else is open and you’re looking for the best tasting meal that you know is terrible for you. I would always get the burgers, but others would get the pulled pork plates. There are better versions of these options in town, but at that time of night it always hits the spot. Oh, and you can not say you went to Cookout if you didn’t get the hushpuppies and Cheerwine (a soda native to NC).

But everyone knows the main attraction is the wide variety of milkshake flavors. Just look at how one-third of the menu is taken up by this. The best thing to do is mix together different flavors. I usually get Oreo and Hershey’s chocolate. I’ve never been a fan of the “there is a wrong answer” question setups, because people are allowed to enjoy whatever’s on the menu, that’s why those choices are there. Unless you say mint chocolate chip ice cream is your favorite. That is objectively incorrect, and has been scientifically proven.

6. Fan-Submitted Twitter Question: 

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: Fantastic question, and always great to bring light to this issue.

The NC State Veterinary college (the biggest such school in the state) has done outstanding conservation work in the last few years to bring this species back from the brink. I would encourage everyone to read more about these efforts here: https://cvm.ncsu.edu/outreach/red-wolf-conservation/

7. Power-rank the names of these former NC State and ND head coaches:

– Perrin Busbee (NC State: 1892, 1896-1897)

– James McWeeney (ND: 1899)

– Red Salmon (ND: 1904)

– Victor M. Place (ND: 1908)

– Frank Longman (ND: 1909-1910)

– Knute Rockne (ND: 1918-1930)

– Buck Shaw (NC State: 1924)

– Clipper Smith (NC State: 1931-1933)

– Hunk Anderson (ND: 1931-1933, NC State: 1934-1936)

– Doc Newton (NC State: 1937-1943)

– Beattie Feathers (NC State: 1944-1951)

– Ara Parseghian (ND: 1964-1974)

– Al Michaels (NC State: 1971)

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: Since no criteria for the power ranking was given, I will rank them based on how cool I think their names sound:

• Doc Newton (NC State: 1937-1943)
  • If you’ve ever met a doc, they instantly become trustworthy: Doc Brown, Doc Hudson from Cars, Doc from Snow White, etc.
• Hunk Anderson (ND: 1931-1933, NC State: 1934-1936)
  • Hunk isn’t a word we use enough anymore, but I bet back in the 30s this dude PULLED.
• Knute Rockne (ND: 1918-1930)
  • Obviously he’s a Fighting Irish legend, but the name evokes someone you don’t want to mess with if a bar brawl broke out.
• Ara Parseghian (ND: 1964-1974)
  • Kinda sounds like aura, I dig it.
• Frank Longman (ND: 1909-1910)
  • Only if he was tall, though. You can’t be short with this name, then it’s straight to the bottom of the list.
• Buck Shaw (NC State: 1924)
  • Similar to Doc, I think I would trust anyone named Buck if there was some adventurous task at hand.
• Clipper Smith (NC State: 1931-1933)
  • Only if he was good with the boats.
• Beattie Feathers (NC State: 1944-1951)
  • Why don’t we have fun names like this anymore?
• Red Salmon (ND: 1904)
  • Not a pleasant visual.
• (tied) Perrin Busbee (NC State: 1892, 1896-1897)
• (tied) James McWeeney (ND: 1899)
  • The absolute opposites of Hunk, these guys were probably the biggest dweebs.
• Victor M. Place (ND: 1908)
  • Your name is not an actual place, it’s just Place. Boring.
• Al Michaels (NC State: 1971)
  • He probably wasn’t interesting to listen to tell any stories while sports was happening in the background.

8. People are saying that NC State will never be able to defeat the likes of Wyoming, Akron, Rutgers, Holy Cross, Catholic, George Washington, Carnegie Mellon, Transylvania, Detroit, Camp Davis, and North Carolina Navy Pre-Flight (combined 0-17 against those teams, historically).

Do you think the Wolfpack will ever be able to change that narrative? North Carolina Navy Pre-Flight fans have been especially loud about their dominance over the Wolfpack, which I’m sure rubs NC State fans the wrong way. What’s that rivalry like?

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: We’ve decided to let those pretend programs hold onto their precious victories since they clearly have nothing else going on for themselves.

9. Alright, let’s get down to it — who wins on Saturday, what’s the final score, and how does it happen? Bonus points if you can make some wolf/wolfpack puns as you answer this.

Essad Malik, Trinity Road Times: Notre Dame will be giving NC State a whole pack of problems in the ground game this Saturday. They’ll have the Wolfpack howling at the moon.

I think they’ll put up so many points, they’ll be giving the fans from Raleigh howl-lucinations** on their way to a 47-21 victory.

**Editor’s Note from Pat Rick: hell yes to this pun

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Alright folks, I want to give a massive shout-out to Essad for all his time and talents he gave in answering our questions. I highly recommend you head over to Trinity Road Times to check out all their excellent coverage of this NC State program, and also toss Essad and TRT some follows on Twitter for some excellent commentary about Wolfpack sports as well as college sports in general.

With that said, we’re done here — per usual, GO IRISH, BEAT WOLFPACK!!!