On Saturday, the NC State football team left Chestnut Hill with a 24-45 loss to a Boston College team that, earlier this season, lost to Kansas by 24 points. That is not a good look. In some ways, the game was probably closer than the score would indicate, but that is what happens when you have an inability to score touchdowns (or anything) after getting to 1st and goal on multiple occasions. The injury situation this team is going through certainly didn’t help the Pack’s chances on Saturday, either.

One of the lone bright spots in a situation like Saturday, is getting a chance to see some players that haven’t gotten to play as much. This week’s Pack Participation Report is here to help give an idea of who got more playing time and what they did that that opportunity.

INJURY SITUATION

First, let’s address the injury situation since it changes the dynamics of who is playing.

Out for the season:

• Senior OT Tyrone Riley
• RS-Junior WR C.J. Riley
• RS-Junior TE Dylan Autenrieth
• RS-Freshman CB Taiyon Palmer
• RS-Junior OT Justin Witt
• Junior CB Chris Ingram
• Sophomore CB Teshaun Smith

(starters in bold)

One of the toughest things about these injuries is that they seem to be hitting the team in the most difficult spots. The cornerback position is one of the thinnest on the team and there are now three out with season-ending injuries along with a fourth who hasn’t played since week 1. This team is also young and injuries have been hitting the older leadership hard with the team captains missing a collective 13 games so far.

OFFENSE

QB

• Bailey Hockman started, but had a rough game (that’s being kind).
• Devin Leary replaced Hockman in the 2nd quarter and by most accounts had a debut that at least inspired some confidence moving forward. That completion percentage below 50% should certainly give pause to those who are ready to crown him, but that 3 TD and 0 INT stat line should make him the starter coming out of the bye week.
• The staff tried Matthew McKay at goal line QB. It didn’t work. Using McKay as a goal line QB is certainly worth considering, but the OCs need better ideas on how to use him.
• Leary is now tied with McKay for the team lead in TD passes (3) while McKay still leads the team in rushing TDs (4).

RB

• This RB group is going to be a handful for defenses in the next few years, but right now they are going through some growing pains.
• NC State had 56 yards rushing against BC. The running game just isn’t working right now and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it started to drop off after Dylan Autenrieth had an injury end his season after 3 games.
• There were several times in the BC game where pressure got to the QB because RBs missed blocking assignments.

WR

• Entering the season, the WRs seemed like they would be the strength of the offense. The issues at QB, offensive line, and OC have limited their ability to impact games.
• Some of the lack of production from the WRs has been self-inflicted. It seems like dropped passes have come at the worst times. Joe Giglio has been tracking targets and dropped passes all season. According to his yellow pad stats, Emezie leads the team by a wide margin with 8 dropped passes including 2 against BC. He has been targeted 67 times so that’s a drop on every 8.375 targets. The next most drops are by Tabari Hines with 3 on 32 targets (A drop on every 10.67 targets). Thayer Thomas only has 1 drop on 51 targets.

TE

There is not much to say that I haven’t already said in other participation reports. It is still nice seeing Angeline used in the passing game and the team still misses Autenrieth.

OL

• When Tyrone Riley’s season-ending injury was announced before the season opener, I looked at the depth chart and it concerned me. A lot. Only three guys on the 2-deep across the whole line had much experience (Witt, Fedd-Jackson, Sculthorpe) so the idea of another injury was scary. Well, here we are with Justin Witt missing the rest of the season.
• Justin Witt’s absence seems to coincide with a drop in effectiveness of the offensive line.
• In the 2018 recruiting class, NC State landed a pretty good set of o-line recruits - Jalynn Strickland, Kahric Belle, and Gabriel Gonzalez. I know that Strickland had to retire early due to injury. Does anyone know the situation with Belle and Gonzalez? Belle doesn’t seem to be on the roster and he has #JuCoProduct in his Twitter profile. Gonzalez is on the roster.

DEFENSE

DL

• Big Murch led the way, as usual
• James Smith-Williams was out again. He has missed 3 games this season - West Virginia, Ball State, Boston College. Anyone want to guess in which 3 games the Pack have given up the most rushing yards this season?
• Josh Harris played 26 snaps at DT and had 3 tackles in his first non-ST action.
• Xavier Lyas only played 3 snaps and still had a tackle for loss. No one on this team gets more production out of limited snaps as he does. He has a starter stat line with the least number of snaps amongst the regulars in the rotation.

LB

• Louis Acceus had another game with double-digit tackles.
• Payton Wilson was right there with another 9 tackles.
• Drake Thomas and C.J. Hart got the most amount of playing time they’ve seen in a Wolfpack uniform and both responded with 5 tackles.

Nickel

The nickel situation continues as it has all season. Stephen Griffin and Tyler Baker-Williams are splitting the snaps and producing similar numbers.

Safety

• I probably should have moved De’Von Graves to the CB section for this week since he started and played every snap at corner against BC.
• Tanner Ingle was tied for the team lead with 10 tackles. It was his highest tackle total since the ACC schedule started, but that was probably because of how often the BC RBs were getting into the secondary.
• There’s been a lot of talk about Morehead not looking like he was trying against BC, but he was near the team lead with 8 tackles. I did see a shot or two on TV where he did look exhausted.

CB

• Chris Ingram, Teshaun Smith, and Taiyon Palmer are all out with season-ending injuries. I’m not sure the Pack have the depth at CB to handle that kind of attrition.
• I have Jakeen Harris listed as a CB, but he may have been playing safety against BC. Everything on GoPack.com has him listed as a generic DB. He did have a very nice game in his first significant playing time with 8 tackles on 30 snaps.
• Considering the injury situation at CB, I was shocked that Shyheim Battle got another DNP this week.

REDSHIRT WATCH

• I think we have a good idea now of who will and will not be redshirting - depending on what happens the rest of the year in terms of injuries. Right now, Josh Harris looks like the only other legitimate candidate for burning a redshirt.

Sources:
Box Score
GoPack.com Statistics page