By Mark Pszonak
Preseason hype comes with sports. It happens every year and can make each preseason somewhat entertaining. It can also become annoying, but either way it gives fans something to talk about. However, preseason hype can also make the season very painful if the hype doesn’t become reality. That has quickly become the situation at NC State and Virginia Tech, which were both trendy picks only a month ago and are now fighting to remain relevant this season.
NC State
Even with an offense that lacked much spark, aside from true freshman wide receiver Kevin Concepcion, the Wolfpack impressed with a 9-4 season in 2023. So, when they added veteran quarterback Grayson McCall, running back Jordan Waters, wide receivers Noah Rogers and Wesley Grimes and tight end Justin Joly to the offense through the portal, the hype train went full throttle.
But after crushing losses to both Tennessee and Clemson by a combined score of 110-45, that train has completely derailed. There were no positives from those two losses, but almost as troubling is that their two wins against Western Carolina (38-21) and Louisiana Tech (30-20) came with a great deal of effort.
Head coach Dave Doeren is good at his job and has been for years. Now in his 12th season in Raleigh, the Wolfpack usually win 8 or 9 games and make a bowl. Most schools would kill for such consistency. But this year was supposed to be memorable. And it still might be but for all the wrong reasons.
The offense has failed to find any consistency, and while McCall has dealt with an injury, he didn’t look great while healthy. The defense has been equally disappointing, because after carrying the team last year and returning a good portion of their productivity, they have completely fallen apart.
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The remaining schedule is not overly intimidating, especially without Miami and Louisville, but with the team’s confidence wavering it will take some serious overtime from the coaching staff to get this train back on the tracks. And even if they do, they’ll never reach the lofty goals that many envisioned during the summer.
Virginia Tech
The hype for the Hokies made sense to me. While they only finished 7-6 last season, they won five of their last seven games, won a bowl game, returned most of their important players and added a few nice pieces through the portal. And as with NC State, playing in mediocre ACC gave them a better opportunity to shine.
So how did they respond? By showing up lifeless in their season opener at Vanderbilt, being down 17-3 at halftime and eventually losing 34-27 in overtime. Relatively non-eventful, yet uninspiring wins over Old Dominion and Marshall followed before their next big game took place in Blacksburg on Saturday against Rutgers. Once again, the Hokies looked unprepared from the start and were down 14-0 in the first quarter. They rebounded a bit in the second half, but ended up losing 26-23, which dropped them to 2-2 on the season.
The fanbase is frustrated, mostly with head coach Brent Pry and his staff. Pry is now 12-16 since he took over prior to the 2022 season. More notable is that the Hokies are 1-9 in one-score games and 0-15 when trailing at halftime under Pry. And everything may go from bad to worse quickly with a trip to Miami quickly approaching on Friday.
With a 2-3 start staring them in the face, the Hokies will be going from a supposed darkhorse contender for the playoffs to fighting for a bowl qualification the remainder of the season. And with that, Coach Pry will go from dealing with off-season hype to being firmly on the coaching hot seat.
