What Wake Forest Said After the NC State Win
· Yahoo Sports
Wake Forest got one of those wins Saturday that will get notated through the remaining weeks of the season as an important win. Coaches will tell you they are all important. Everyone else will acknowledge that there are some games that stand out on the schedule more than others. North Carolina State had beaten Wake Forest three of the last four years. So, Saturday’s 38-14 beatdown of the Wolfpack feels a little more significant. Here’s what Wake Forest had to say after the game.
What Wake Forest Said After the NC State Win
Jake Dickert
Wake was down 14-10 at the half. That’s not usually a crisis moment. But Dickert said after the game that he did not like the way the offense was operating. “They were beating us at the line of scrimmage. I thought our offensive line responded. I thought our front game came to life,” he said after the game.
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During the week, Dickert talked about how NC State quarterback CJ Bailey had a big game against Wake last year. He said they went into last year’s game thinking of him as a good runner and did not give enough credit to his passing game. Saturday, Bailey threw 16 straight completions before he had his first incompletion of the game. He went into the half 16 of 17 for 173 yards and a touchdown.
He talked about the halftime adjustments on NC State’s offense. “We came into halftime saying, ‘I think we can stop the run with five guys.’ So let’s be more aggressive. Let’s rush the passer. Let’s disrupt him. We made him one-dimensional in the first half. But that one dimension was beating us.” Dickert said that by being more aggressive on Bailey, it disrupted the flow of the Wolfpack offense. NC State managed only 60 yards of total offense in the second half, and half of that was in “garbage time” when the outcome had long been decided, and the fans had left the stadium.
Dickert said he was pleased with the mental makeup he saw from his team in having a killer instinct in the second half. “It’s a tough environment,” he said of playing at Carter-Finley Stadium. “Our guys had the right type of intensity just to go out here and finish the game. Even when the fourth quarter started, nobody was satisfied.”
Wake is now 5-1 overall for the first time since 2022. Dickert talked about the makeup of this team relative to the record. “That there’s still a lot more out there for us,” he said. “Our connection is really strong. I felt that coming into the season.” Dickert said the leadership from the veteran players has created a culture that makes the team player-led.
Gio Lopez
The starting quarterback talked about the big game receiver Jack Foley had (eight catches for 156 yards and a touchdown) and what it means to add that option alongside Carlos Hernandez in the offense. “I’ve got huge confidence in both of those guys,” Lopez said. They play really hard; they practice hard and do well in practice. You see it five days a week; you’re going to see it the sixth day when it’s game day.”
Lopez talked about the difference between the first half and the second half of the game and being able to pull away the way Wake did. At halftime, he said, “It was like, hey, this is on us. We’ve got to pick it up in the second half. We had to win a four-quarter game against Purdue, against Louisville.”
Braylon Johnson
The defensive back had a big game Saturday. He picked up the CJ Bailey fumble on NC State’s first drive and ran it back to the Wolfpack two-yard line, setting up Wake’s first touchdown of the game. He also had a pass deflection to go with five total tackles on the day.
“Coach [Scottie] Hazelton does a great job of sequencing plays,” Johnson said of the halftime adjustments. “So we might come out in the first half and show something and then come out in the second half and show something totally different.” Johnson said he was not worried about the team’s performance in the first half. “I knew that we were probably going to come out in something totally different in the second half. We were just trying to change his eyes,” he said of changing up the looks that NC State quarterback CJ Bailey was getting.
Johnson said the sequencing that the defensive coaching staff does goes to building success upon success. “It’s a momentum game, right? Not as much as basketball. But that’s energy, free energy for the team.”
Johnson addressed the Deacs being 5-1. “I lowkey think we should be 6-0,” he said, thinking back on that first half of the Miami game.
Matt Lusardi
It was a day of firsts for Lusardi. He had his first catch as a Demon Deacon, which also was his first touchdown. And that resulted in his first postgame press conference.
In the first quarter, after Vinny Firenze stripped Bailey of the ball and Johnson picked it up and ran it to the NC State two-yard line, it was Lusardi’s moment in the spotlight.
Lopez rolled out to his left and saw a wide-open Lusardi who had leaked out from the left side of the line. I just kind of popped open. And I was just like, throw the ball…come on…come on…” he joked after the game.
“Coming out after halftime, we were just hungry to get a win,” he said of the adjustments in the locker room. “The coaches made great adjustments, and we appreciate the coaches. It just fired us up.”
Wake goes on the road to the other side of the country next weekend to face Cal in a game that will start at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
Main Image: Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images
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