Red tops White 16-3 in NC State spring game

It was not a display of particularly efficient or effective offense on Saturday afternoon, but NC State's spring game was competitive, young guys were able to get a lot of reps, and nobody got hurt. The Red team, made up of the first-stringers on both sides of the ball, eventually pulled away from the reserve-laden White team to win, 16-3. Highlights here.

Redshirt freshman QB Jalan McClendon got off to a quick start by leading the White team down the field for a field goal right off the bat and finished his White team tenure 13-24 for 117 yards. He switched to the Red team for the second half and finished the afternoon 16-35 for 144 yards overall.

Jacoby Brissett was no better, as he completed only 13 of 32 attempts for 164 yards, but he did connect with Jaylen Samuels on a 50-yard bomb. He also tossed the only touchdown pass of the day, to Benson Browne.

The Red squad finished with 400 total yards and an average of 5.2 per play, while the White group got next to nothing done after its first drive. That's nice work by the first-team defense. There were 18 combined punts in the contest, but hey, the punters need work too!

Afterward, Dave Doeren kept his eyes on the big picture:

"On offense, we didn't turn the ball over. We stayed healthy. A lot guys played. Jaylen Samuels made some explosive plays, so did Reggie Gallaspy II. Matt Dayes had a good run. There were some good things out there. When we get our full team out there where everyone is healthy, it creates a few more things we can do on offense, but we got out of it what we wanted. We stayed healthy and a lot of guys got worked."

True freshman Reggie Gallaspy got the majority of the work at running back, and responded with 131 rushing yards spread across both teams. One hundred and twenty of those came while he was playing with the first-string. Matt Dayes had a nice afternoon, finishing with 98 total yards of offense. Jaylen Samuels ran for 28 yards in addition to picking up 65 through the air.

And thus concludes spring football in Raleigh. Say goodbye to football, everybody. See you again soon, football!