Winning two straight at Wake Forest was the weirdness this NC State visit
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- N.C. State secured its first back-to-back wins at Wake Forest since 1995.
- The Wolfpack overcame a shaky start with strong second-half defense and composure.
- Coach Dave Doeren improved to 3-4 at Wake Forest, reversing past road struggles.
Given all the wild, weird stuff that’s happened to N.C. State in Winston-Salem over the years, a list too long to recap in a reasonable amount of time, what happened Thursday night against Wake Forest barely qualifies as unusual.
Certainly, allowing Wake Forest to return the opening kickoff for a touchdown was the kind of thing that so often happens here. Answering with a 41-yard interception return by 280-pound defensive lineman Isaiah Shirley was actually the kind of thing that so often happens to N.C. State here, so that was a reversal of fortune. After a questionable targeting foul kept Wake Forest alive in the fourth quarter, the Wolfpack picked off the next pass to put things away.
By the standards of this rivalry, it was all oddly ordinary. Fate even seemed to lean in N.C. State’s favor, for a change in this vicinity.
Then again, the first quarter was also played under a blanket of smoke from a burning food truck at the south end of the stadium. So that’s a new one.
But relatively normal doesn’t mean relatively easy, either. The Wolfpack was tested. It had the answers.
N.C. State gave up two touchdowns in the first quarter to a Wake Forest team that barely scratched double digits against Kennesaw State and allowed more than eight yards per play in the first half, threatening to send Dave Doeren’s ACC record even further underwater before the Wolfpack finally took its first lead early in the fourth quarter while holding Wake Forest to 44 yards of offense in the second half.
“I don’t think this team has a ceiling,” said tight end Justin Joly, who had a pair of touchdown catches. “We’re walking outdoors. As high as we want to jump, we can. We have the people to do it.”
So, yes, this was another strenuous N.C. State win, after the narrow escape against East Carolina and the narrow escape against Virginia. There’s certainly a pattern here. But there’s also something to be said for coming back from the Triad with a win when better Wolfpack teams couldn’t (albeit against better Wake teams, but nevertheless).
It doesn’t always have to be pretty if you can figure out a way to make plays when it matters most, which ironically was what so often seemed to hold back teams with higher aspirations and more apparent talent than this one. Winning ugly is still winning. Flirting with disaster isn’t disaster, even if it feels that way sometimes.
“The thing you love, we’ve been tested,” Doeren said. “We’ve been down a few times. These guys know how to fight back. They don’t flinch.”
Which is the way it may have to be for N.C. State. The offense ran a double-reverse flea-flicker screen pass that lost five yards, but C.J. Bailey also threw for three touchdowns. The defense couldn’t tackle Wake Forest in the first half, but buckled down in the second and gave up almost nothing. Football yin and football yang, the tao of the Wolfpack.
Take the win and like it, to make one of Doeren’s more famous phrasings PG for public consumption.
Not only did Doeren improve his record to 3-4 at Wake Forest, N.C. State has now won consecutive games in Winston-Salem for the first time since 1995. It only took three decades to do it again. So there’s some real weirdness for you, just not the kind the Wolfpack usually encounters here.
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This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 11:51 PM with the headline "Winning two straight at Wake Forest was the weirdness this NC State visit."
