Wolfpack Hosts Ball State Under the Lights

#SetTheExpectation | Game Day Central | Thursday Football Notebook

	NC State (2-1) vs. Ball State (1-2)
Date	Saturday, Sept. 21
Time	7 p.m.
Location	Raleigh, N.C.
Stadium	Carter-Finley Stadium \| A to Z Stadium Guide
TV	ESPNU
Streaming	WatchESPN
Radio in NC	Wolfpack Sports Network
National Radio	Tunein, Sirius 94, XM 210
Live Stats	GoPack.com
Social Media	Twitter: @PackFootball \| Instagram: PackFootball

RALEIGH, N.C. - In wrapping up the non-conference portion of its schedule on Saturday night, the NC State football team will also try to bounce back from its first loss of the season.

Ball State (1-2), out of the MAC, will be the opponent at Carter-Finley Stadium. Kickoff on Saturday is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPNU.

In the aftermath of last weekend's 44-27 defeat at West Virginia, NC State head coach Dave Doeren got the response he was hoping for during the week in practice.

"Tuesday was very focused," Doeren said. "There's always going to be mistakes on Tuesday because you're introducing game-plan stuff to the guys, but their energy was excellent. Wednesday was the best Wednesday that we've had this year. We'll see how it translates.

"I expect to see a very angry football team. Now we have to put that into execution and go out there and do our jobs."

A young team coming into the season, the Wolfpack has become even younger due to injuries that have sidelined key veterans on both sides of the ball. Redshirt junior WR C.J. Riley and graduate OT Tyrone Riley were both starters during the offseason, and are now both out for the season.

On defense, graduate DE James Smith-Williams has missed the last game and a half after being injured in week two, while senior CB Nick McCloud hasn't seen action since going down in the opener against East Carolina.

"It's hard," said Doeren. "Two of your calming forces on defense and tremendous players, Nick and James, could have helped us in that game quite a bit. Joseph Boletepeli couldn't play (last week at WVU), so now you're two defensive ends down against an up-tempo offense. Now you're playing Savion [Jackson] a true freshman in his second game because he didn't play in the opener. That was a lot for him. Savion is going to be great because of that experience and it's going to help him in the long run.

"It's the same thing on the other side of the ball. We're playing a lot of young guys and they're going to get better and better. I told the team in January what we are in the first three or four games is nothing like what we'll be at the end."

Chances are, the receiver rotation will get younger this week. After seeing junior Emeke Emezie play 81 snaps and watching redshirt freshman Devin Carter on the field for 79 last week, Doeren wants to build depth at the receiver spots as the season progresses.

"They were out there too much," Doeren said. "That's one of the things we discussed. We need a better rotation at receiver. Tabari [Hines] and Thayer [Thomas] need to play multiple positions for us, which they do. We need Max Fisher, Keyon Lesane and Jasiah Provillon to help us. Max had a great week this week. I'm hoping to get him in that rotation and take some of those reps off of those guys."

With 86, the NC State offense ran a high volume of plays at West Virginia, but could never really find a rhythm in the second half, putting up just two field goals after scoring 21 points in the opening half.

"We had the rhythm in the first half," said Emezie, who had a career-best 12 receptions last week. "That's huge for our offense. Once we get clicking, it's easy for us to get going. When you lose that in the second half and you have some three and outs, that makes it tougher."

NC State will try to get clicking on Saturday against a Ball State defense that has allowed an average of 34 points through their first three games. But like many teams in the offense-heavy MAC, the Cardinals can move the football.

Behind capable quarterback Drew Plitt, who's completing 70 percent of his throws, Ball State averages 37 points and 488 yards of total offense per game.

Before taking over as head coach at his alma mater in 2016, Ball State's Mike Neu spent a few years as Drew Brees' quarterback coach with the New Orleans Saints.

"They do some good things," Doeren said. "There's a lot of complimentary passes off of their runs. We're playing a very good offensive football team this week. They're in the top five in the nation in passing. Their quarterback has been lighting it up. There's really good skill on that team."

This will mark NC State's first ever meeting with Ball State. Doeren was 2-0 against the Cardinals when he was the head coach at Northern Illinois, and 18-1 all-time against MAC schools.

Pregame coverage on the Wolfpack Sports Network begins at 5 p.m. on Saturday with the Lowe's Foods Countdown to Kickoff. Shortly after 6 p.m., Network analyst Johnny Evans will field questions from fans on Ask the Analyst. Questions can be submitted through Twitter @packradio or by going here.

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Players Mentioned

Joseph Boletepeli

Devin Carter

Max Fisher

Keyon Lesane

Nick McCloud

Jasiah Provillon

C.J. Riley

Tyrone Riley

James Smith-Williams