Good win but tough loss for the Pack
NC State held its annual Kay Yow Spring Game on Saturday. The format was quite a bit different this year than the standard scrimmage we saw last year and it was certainly interesting. The final score after all the different activities was 32-26 with the red team coming out on top, but the score is mostly irrelevant because the white team was strictly defense and I’m still not sure how they got points.
Sophomore Kelvin Harmon was the player of the day. Harmon has a chance to be one ofthe best receivers to play at State in some time. The catches he can make are just unbelievable. I’m convinced you could send him downfield and then spike the ball and he’d somehow come up with it. The play of the day was a 46 yard bomb from Gavin Locklear that Harmon made a really impressive catch on for the first touchdown. A guy with hands like his is a huge asset for a quarterback.
State’s passing attack should be solid this year. Finley is a plenty good enough quarterback to make all the throws and having guys like Harmon and Louis at your disposal would make things easier for any quarterback. Finley also ran touchdown on a naked bootleg just before “halftime” that was wiped out because of a penalty.
A bunch of different players carried the ball out of the backfield, which were mostly guys not likely to be a part of the backfield rotation. Nyheim Hines was the most notable one, and I assume most of his snaps will come out of the backfield from now on. He played receiver throughout his first two seasons, but was rarely a major difference maker at that spot. With Dayes gone, now will hopefully be his time. I never saw Gallaspy play a down, but he should be a big factor in the rushing attack as well this year and a perfect complement to the running style of Hines.
Kicking was a plus, believe it or not. There were six field goals made in the game out of seven attempts, including a 46 yarder just before half. Seeing some kicks go through had to be nice for Bambard’s confidence, although Doeren seemed set on having graduate transfer Carson Wise handle those duties this fall.
The most important positive to take away from the game was the fact that State did not run any plays out of the wildcat formation. This is extremely good news and hopefully a trend that will continue through the entire season and then on through forever and ever until the inevitable heat death of the universe. #BanTheWildcat (Disclaimer: I missed the very beginning of the game, so if a wildcat play was ran before I got there, don’t tell me. I really don’t want to know.)
Seeing so many made field goals was nice, but seeing so many field goal attempts was not. State’s offense couldn’t really get the ball in the endzone against its own defense, even during the third quarter when all drives automatically started in the redzone. The only other touchdown scored was on a screen thrown by redshirt freshman quarterback Dylan Parham during that third quarter.
There was some minor sorting out to do on the offensive line after the departure of senior center Joe Scelfo. Garrett Bradbury, who played guard last season, moved over to the center spot and redshirt junior Terronne Prescod filled the hole at guard. Will Richardson and Tyler Jones were still starting at tackle and obviously Tony Adams was still rolling with the ones.
The afternoon ended with a scrimmage of the second and third teams. It was a pretty big disaster, which is fine and to be expected when you run a bunch of freshmen out there. True freshman quarterback Matt McKay seems to be a solid runner.
Other Notes
- State doesn’t appear to have a capable quarterback after Ryan Finley. McClendon can still throw the ball like he is shooting it out of a cannon, but the accuracy was not really there. He also left the game with some sort of arm injury in the second quarter.
- State has a handful of options to fill the slot receiver role, but none that are particularly proven. It will be interesting to see who emerges there.
- I would be very much in favor of a return to the regular scrimmage format for next season. This was confusing and weird.
- Most important of all, the Pack and its fans raised almost $11,000 for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
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