RALEIGH, N.C. — Dave Doeren isn’t going to be happy about the number of N.C. State fans who decided not to return for the second half after making that plea the thrust of his weekly press conference on Monday.
Then again, not really giving the fans any compelling reason to come back to watch the second half of a never-in-doubt shutout win is a better problem to have.
It was clear at halftime that everything there was to see Thursday night had already been seen, including three touchdowns from Ricky Person and a smothering defensive performance that allowed South Florida only two decent plays of note.
Even more notably, a football program with a persistent history of doing things the hard way made it look as easy as possible in a season-opening 45-0 win that saw the Wolfpack dominate every single aspect of the game except punting, and even that battle was narrowly fought.
So if the second-half crowd was a little sparse, who could blame anyone who felt like enjoying a gorgeous night and a few beverages in the comfort of the parking lots, having already gotten more than their money’s worth in the first half?
Halftime pass-outs will remain an issue for a while, even as N.C. State continues to upgrade Carter-Finley Stadium amenities, like the new food-truck court and end-zone party deck that debuted Thursday night. Especially at a school with such a strong tailgating culture, some traditions are just hard to break. Doeren has tried repeatedly since his arrival, and he’s never had a better case to make than the way this team is capable of playing.
It’s must-watch football when the Wolfpack plays this well. Too well, as it turned out.
At the least, this team has given fans a reason to be in their seats at the start. On Thursday, with arrival delays caused by N.C. State’s switch to a paperless ticketing system, most fans still appeared to make it into the stadium by the time Person scored the first of his trio of touchdowns on a 44-yard wheel route from Devin Leary five minutes in.
By the time Emeka Emezie steered the Bam Knight convoy into the end zone for the first touchdown by someone other than Person, it was 31-0 early in the third and 38-0 late in the third on Leary’s second TD pass.
South Florida’s defense, left hanging to dry by a completely inept offense (and a smothering State defense) was out of gas and out of answers. The Bulls got 16 yards on the first play of the game and 44 on a pass late in the first half and 32 yards on their other 30 plays in the first half. The second half was … not any better.
There will surely be games to come when N.C. State needs its full home-field advantage to pull it through against a difficult opponent — if not Furman in two weeks, certainly Clemson in three — with the game on the line. This was not one of them.
Doeren picked a bad week to make his pitch to the fans, but for all the right reasons as it turns out.
