RALEIGH, N.C. -- As an underwhelmed N.C. State crowd sat in a hot, humid Carter-Finley stadium, the angst began to build. It was a palpable angst, the kind that manifests itself in almost a low buzzing sound -- not a pleasant kind of buzz, either. It almost feels as if the crowd is waiting to react to anything, positive or negative, and all they were seeing was negative.
Some fans had already left. There were still plenty left over, over half the stadium at least, but it was hard to blame those that did leave. As Georgia Southern marched to the N.C. State 1-yard line, already up 20-10 with just over 11 minutes to play, it looked like it was all but over.
N.C. State fans understand that Dave Doeren -- entering Year 2 at the helm -- is going to need time to turn things around. They understand that there are 51 freshmen (redshirt or true) on the roster. They also understand that things are going to be bumpy at times in the first few seasons.
But after going winless in ACC play a season ago, it was too hard for them to understand how they could lose to Georgia Southern, an excellent former FCS program (that, yes, beat a bad Florida team at the end of last season) playing its first FBS game ever. At home.
The midday, sticky, late summer North Carolina heat was unbearable, but the thought of starting this season off on such a poor note was much worse for the Wolfpack faithful.
And that's not even to mention the team itself.
There are a lot of young players on the roster, who essentially get clean slates as far as college football goes. But there are some who aren't quite so lucky, and are running out of time to show what they can do.
Florida transfer Jacoby Brissett is one of those people. So is sixth-year redshirt senior safety Jarvis Byrd, who has torn his ACL three times. Brissett was named the starter almost as soon as he arrived on campus in the spring of 2013, even though he couldn't play until this fall. He'd gone nearly two years without playing a snap in a real college football game.
Byrd was just trying to prove himself wrong. He even wondered if coming back to college football was the best thing for him to do. But he ached for the game and decided to go through with his final season.
Facing that deficit, they knew what they had to do.
N.C. State got the ball back on its own 1-yard line with a little over 11 minutes to play and facing a 10-point deficit. From that point of the game on, Brissett took over.
Brissett had been anointed as the savior since he arrived in Raleigh. It's a lot for one person to carry around, and he was shaky in the early going, missing a few wide-open receivers for big gains and playing a bit hesitant at times. He was 14 of 24 for 155 yards, a touchdown and a bad first-half interception before he got the ball with 11 minutes to go at his own 1-yard line, down 10 points.
From that point forward, he went 14 of 16 for 136 yards, two touchdowns, no picks and a six-yard rush.
"All quarterbacks throw picks. He threw his first pick and he came over and I congratulated him on throwing his first pick. I said, 'Hey, you threw your first pick. Shake it off, man.' He just looked at me and smiled, and that was it," Doeren said. "He did. He got in a rhythm and receivers caught the ball for him."
It was mostly in small chunks -- five or six yards here, eight or nine yards there, with the occasional big pass play sprinkled in -- but Brissett showed how N.C. State's uptempo offense will work when it's clicking. And for much of the fourth quarter, it was.
"What our offense should be is Jacoby should see how they're playing what we're in and whoever he gives it to should make something happen. That's the offense," Doeren said. "If they pack it in, the receivers have got to do their job. If they spread it out, the backs have got to do their job. No matter what, the line has to do its job and Jacoby has to distribute the ball. And we did that in the second half."
Brissett, then, took his first step to redemption.
But after his second touchdown but N.C. State up 24-23, Georgia Southern would have one more chance.
A three-yard rush and two incompletions set up a 4th-and-7 situation. The Eagles' BJ Johnson streaked wide open for quarterback Kevin Ellison, and Ellison found him for what was sure to be a first down ... until Byrd came over and jarred the ball loose. Game over.
"It was like a dream come true. I can't even explain it. I second-guessed myself for even coming back. I thought about giving up football," Byrd said, in between affectionate pats on the head from his teammates on either side of him, "but the passion and the love was still there, so I didn't want to live with regret.
"So when I made that play, I got to tears, to tell you the truth. It was just so unreal to me to make that play at the end of the game."
To Brissett, that's what this team is about. It had to have been discouraging, after all the preseason build up, to be down 10 late in a game at home to an opponent N.C. State should beat. But the team just kept fighting.
"You've got players like Jarvis Byrd stepping up, a guy that's not even supposed to be playing right now, doing everything you can ask plus more. That's what this team is all about," Brissett said. "Going into the huddle, everybody's looking at me but everybody's looking at each other -- just go out there and fight for the man next to you, put it on our shoulders and go out and play the way we're supposed to play."
