Pivotal Week

This episode talks about the importance and notable matchups of the upcoming Vanderbilt game. It also goes into the fun and opportunistic weekend that comes with our soccer squads both facing Southern Methodist University.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Logan Brumley

What is In The Den?

"In The Den" with host Logan Brumley covers everything from the NC State Wolfpack's NCAA, intramural and club sports. "In The Den" is a podcast from WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2 at NC State University.

PivotalWeek.mp3
Meeting created at: 15th Sep, 2026 - 3:32 PM

00:00
Logan Brumley
Welcome to hello and welcome to WKNC's official sports podcast in the den. Today we're going to be doing a review of the Richmond football game, preview of the upcoming Vanderbilt football game and finishing with some men's women's soccer as they both play SMU. So get your headphones on and let's get straight to it. So last week Richmond had the game of a lifetime against NC State and you know, in a bad way they lost. I believe it was like 70 to nothing, 73 to nothing. It's broke records. It was the most amount of points scored by any team in that particular stadium and the biggest blowout win I think NC State has ever had.

00:55
Logan Brumley
And it's definitely been doing what it's supposed to with quieting down a lot of Dave Doeren hot seat topics just because of how dominant the win is and because of how flimsy Vanderbilt looks next week. Let's see, where is it? C.J. Bailey held himself quite a game. He got 281 yards in the air and a touchdown. I mean it's not elite, but it's pretty good. Considering where were last week where we're questioning how good of a quarterback is he really, it didn't really seem too desperate to scramble. He was able to get the ball to his guys, especially Keenan Jackson with 132 passing yards and JoJo Trader with 52. I'll admit I was wrong about the tight end usage in the game.

01:53
Logan Brumley
I thought they're going to lean into it more because of the little offense they were able to generate with that in the Virginia game. But I should mention that Preston Douglas was the only player on the team to catch a touchdown. Well no, that's not true. Hunter Provience caught one from Will Wilson. Victor Snow is a player that we had a lot of hype about going into the game, but he had two fumbles and one catch. So I'm a little worried about what this means for his usage in the future because you can't fumble twice against FCS teams and expect to be starting in the future. So that's kind of how the passing offense has been looking. I think the line has been looking really too with giving Bailey time.

02:48
Logan Brumley
Again, as we mentioned, this isn't the hardest game in the world and there is very little to go with here. But the running back by committee was something that was expected. And Duke Scott I feel like definitely certified himself as the number one guy in this game, had 128 yards, two touchdowns. Will Wilson ran for three touchdowns and 62 yards. So, I'm interested to see what they do with Will Wilson going forward. I'm assuming he's going to stick in this role of being a good end zone package quarterback that can run and throw really well and who knows maybe he could build something enough that he can be able to what's it called transfer find himself a full time starting row with a team which I mean again the possibility is there especially with this run in fatality.

03:53
Logan Brumley
I had another big question going into this last game of who is the number two running back. Dylan McCoy showed that opportunity. 73 Yards and a touchdown. Davion Gause did not have as many. I think he was closer to I think about like 30 yards. Let's see. Box score. Yeah, on five attempts, 38 yards compared to 73 on McCoy's four. Granted 51 yard long but regardless only two sacks were given up. Also not a lot of tackles for loss. Let's see how many tackles for loss of Richmond get. They got. Yeah, about five tackles for a loss, two sacks. It's not terrible. Some defensive shout outs because I mean this game was just nothing defensively they were able to stop Richmond in every opportunity. It's again about what we'd expect. Jackson Vick caught an interception and got a pass breakup. Some lead in tacklers.

05:12
Logan Brumley
I have Brian Nelson II and Omarion Abraham who both had three solo tackles. Elijah Satchell, I gave kind of defensive MVP to for his performance with a forced fumble, a sack and two tackles for loss on his own. Just really good defensive showcase where we get offensive showcase. No complaints. I think they did what they were supposed to do and proved that there is some legitimacy to this team and that there is something starting to form. As I mentioned the offensive room feels way more confident. The receiver rooms a little bit of question mark but maybe this Keenan Jackson is going to be really good. The defense or some players are starting to show out. The secondary starting to look better. The linebacker corner is sort of...existent...but hasn't been bad. The defensive line has been decent.

06:17
Logan Brumley
I mean we got to see how they look against Vanderbilt. I think again each week does feel like its own little test. After that Virginia blowout where they're able to course grit. Now they have to learned from their mistakes against Virginia and faced off against a legitimate team with Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt - they're in a weird position. They just barely squeaked by Delaware and this was a team that had eight wins last year and they're going to need every win they can get if they want to get a bowl game. Especially in a rough conference. They are projected to only win like six games and barely make the cutoff for a bowl game. Same for State at this point. So it's going to be a very important game for momentum heading into conference competition.

07:15
Logan Brumley
And it's just, you know, it's a sort of a neutral site where it's in. Wait is it a neutral site? I think it's just straight up in Nashville. Okay. Yeah. So just must win for both of these teams. But let's see how they pair up against NC State. Vanderbilt's quarterback battle post Diego Pavia has officially ended as of recording. Vanderbilt has announced that they will be starting their five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis. He exited Delaware with a 63.6% completion rate, 200 yards and a touchdown with two rushing touchdowns and goat line packages. Blake Burowitz was the starter week one but he has not been doing too good. He only threw for 29 yards. They got a fumble in the first quarter of that Delaware game. So Curtis looks like he's going to be the future.

08:30
Logan Brumley
He does have a really good receiver in hand with a draft hopeful Junior Sherrill. He's projected I think to be a second round pick. He has 164 receiving yards and nine receptions and Jayvontae Conner looks like to be the number two guy with 117 yards and 10 receptions. So that's two really good wide receivers to work with and I don't think that's something that they had against Virginia but Virginia was really able to blow them out in the air with the few opportunities that they threw. So there's definitely going to be some concern there. Maybe having increased reps as a core is going to prevent something like that from happening. But if Curtis is going to be as good as expected and you also have that additional layer of compared to Pribula.

09:29
Logan Brumley
I think as of right now Curtis has a higher ceiling compared to Pribula and that's going to be very concerning for the secondary if they cannot slow down this first start ever quarterback and just hope that having that inexperience is going to be helpful. I'd like to see some real pressure from the defensive line with generating sacks and doing more than just kind of forcing him to scramble because he can run and he can run for touchdowns. We saw that a little bit in the when they played Austin Peay but there's a lot hanging on bounds. It will probably be the biggest matchup is Jared Curtis that guy and NC State is given ample opportunity to show that. But I mean a quarterback battle of Bailey Curtis does not sound terrible.

10:27
Logan Brumley
Let's see, Vanderbilt did manage to put a plug on a productivity of Delaware's quarterback Minicucci. I think it's pronounced with two interceptions but they both. Where was I? This is the ref and passing offense Vanderbilt has faced yet, but with what they've had previously they've managed to hold both quarterbacks with sub 50% passing accuracy. That is a hundred percent a possibility with CJ Bailey. If we get another week one performance, I'm really hoping that is just Virginia being really dominant defensively and that is not going to be the trend. But we are going to have to see. Watch out for safety C.J. Herd. He got two sacks, 10 tackles. Nick Rinaldi has two sacks as well and he's a pretty good linebacker.

11:28
Logan Brumley
So, they got two really good sack producers on the like linebacker front and the secondary which is going to be concerning because I just. There's definitely the possibility where Bailey's going to have to go full acrobats again and I don't really like the sound of that opportunity. But how about on the run inside of the ball? Vanderbilt has run through a lot of running backs in both of these games, but you know the lower tier competitions when you're supposed to be doing this kind of thing. The running game has been their one big weakness so far, especially when it comes to versatility. They don't really have any great running backs outside of their number one guy Sedric Alexander. He has about 5.7 yards per rush, two touchdowns on 99 yards.

12:26
Logan Brumley
They have a couple guys who have about like 20, 30 yards a game so far. And the running back Curtis can definitely run the ball. Berlowicz too. So they definitely have a quarterback run package now. I don't think either of these quarterbacks seem like they're as mobile as Pribula was and do I expect them to try to push that? I could definitely actually see it especially with Burlowitz. He has been a decent runner so far outside of a fumble. So I mean they could lean into it. They could not. We'll see. Maybe the NC State running defense has kind of certified itself and it's kind of just locked in now for the season. But the running game for Vandy doesn't feel especially strong. Their scoring has him very run heavy. I'll take a note of that.

13:26
Logan Brumley
That's going to be a big factor is the fact that they like to run into the end zone. NC State definitely needs to work on their end zone run defense. But for the rest of those yards from wherever the punter pins them down at to the end zone, there's going to be a lot of variation. There's going to be a lot of stuff they're trying out and I think that a more cohesive defense could maybe do something against a very inexperienced quarterback. And that's what I'm hoping for and that's the only way they can really win. But Vanderbilt and the rushing defense, I'll mention this, they're been doing what they're supposed to. They've hold both of their opponents to sub 100 rushing yards and this includes five tackles for loss in running games. So we'll see how Duke Scott pairs up against that.

14:28
Logan Brumley
It's going to be concerning. I hope that the run in situation becomes a non issue again. Do I see it happening with I don't really see it, but I don't expect Duke Scott to run over him. I think it's just take advantage of all the carries you can get and get as many yards. Rotate guys in and just try to find something that works and abuse it. Let's see. The last thing I want to mention is that Vanderbilt's punter is pretty good with 49 yards per punt and both of these kickers have been really accurate with only one field goal attempt total. But that's all I have for that. Make sure to keep an eye out for it. I've been rambling a lot so I'm going to kind of I'll be quick with talking about men and women's soccer facing off against sm.

15:28
Logan Brumley
So this was recorded before UNC Wilmington's Tuesday night game. So for the men's soccer we do not have the most updated information but we're going to work with what we have. Over the past week the Wolfpack soccer squad demolished Duke 3 to 1. The Otley Bjornsson duo was scoring early for Duke. NC State was able to come back dominate in the second half. Berko notches the team leading third goal and Bush and Payne notched their first goals respectively. Both defenses played well, each goalie getting about two saves and giving a very small number of shotgun goals. Terranova played well and might continue to be the goalie for the foreseeable future. The defense for NC Shas had some foul issues. I found our opponent 4 to 1. It's a quality win, eases some nerves.

16:26
Logan Brumley
Duke looks to be the worst team in the conference so now they're about to go up to something that is a little bit better against SMU. I think at SMU. They have not lost the game yet with six wins and a tie. This includes a dominant 40 win against semifinalist St. Louis Billikens and an in conference blowout win at Pitt. Smu. They have been dominant both sides of the ball. They've only allowed three goals so far this season with goalie Jonathan Evans carrying an 80% save rate.

17:09
Logan Brumley
But 12 save in seven games shows more from the defenders than the goalie because I mean there just haven't been a lot of opportunities for Evans to really show off because you know, they have players like ACCL tournament defender Ryan Clanton-Pimentel carrying a defensive squad that has kept shots from being even close to the goal, which is always nice to see. Offensively though, they've been really good. They have about 33% shot and goal rate. They have scored 22 goals in seven games. Nearly half of their shot on goals go in. They have been anchoring an offense with preseason ACC player Stefan Soghomonian with four goals and Emanuel Mukisa with five goals and an assist. Jaylen Mitchell leads the ACC of an assist with five, their star midfielder so it's going to be a really tough matchup at SMU. It's going to be worse.

18:16
Logan Brumley
I don't know if NC State necessarily wins this one, but I would just like to see some kind of juice, some kind of spark in them that kind of adds on to the promise that we've seen with the Duke. I mean we know that NC State is not what they were last year. It would be great just to have something from this quarter where they're able to just get back to the postseason. And I think having a not necessarily statement win, but a quality matchup against SMU, the team that very well could win the conference, is pretty much just godsend at this point. And it's what they really need to focus on. The women. They've also had themselves quite a weekend. They tied Florida State 2 to 2.

19:15
Logan Brumley
It was a competitive back and forth with Erica Roberts scoring two minutes in, Wrianna Hudson tying in the second half before Duda gets herself a goal and eventually it's tied until the very end. It's nice to see some quality offensive production from a player not named Bordeleau, especially since A now ranked 21st Florida State squad, NC State still does not have a single vote in the top 25 poll. So they really just need to find a statement win as soon as they possibly can. And while this SMU women's team is not necessarily crazy dominant, I mean they could just fight something, anything, somehow, somewhere to pull out the win and to get themselves into serious conversations about making it to the postseason. Some other stuff I'd like to mention. The defense played pretty well. They only gave up one foul.

20:29
Logan Brumley
There's an awkward 71% shot in goal, but freshman goalie Riley Pickles really just showed up for the team. She got five saves on - or three saves on five shots on goal, which is, you know, really good for a true freshman against a ranked former national champion. The defense was able to minimize shot attempts and it's just a good sign, in my opinion, what this team can be. This SMU squad is kind of where NC State was last year, where they have a lot of good young players, but they just have not been winning. They had a close loss to NCAA bidders Vanderbilt and the tie against Texas Tech. And so far in the conference, they have lost to Miami. As the conference is facing into its conference matchups. This SMU offense is really trying to feel ready for it.

21:33
Logan Brumley
They get about 24 goals in the past nine games, 42% shot-in-goal rate. They're led by freshman midfielder Brook Bunton with six goals and their other freshman forward, London Hagan has four goals and assists. It's a great young offensive core. Offensively, defensively, it just hasn't been really that amazing. We'll see what the NC State goalie situation looks like, but for now I'll say that their defense has been great for smu. It's kind of kept them in the middle of the conference. Ish. So there's definitely an opportunity for NC State to exploit that. And then there's the added element of, you know, their offense is really good or goalies kind of a question mark. I want to say they probably go with Pickles for the time being just because she has been playing really good against Florida State. But again, we will just.

22:42
Logan Brumley
We'll just have to see. You know, it could really go any sort of way. I expected to be a high scoring game. It's at home this Thursday. Make sure to show up for it. But that's all I have for you guys today. Next week we have the review of football and some soccer and volleyball. So hope you had a good day and go pack.

Transcribed by https://fireflies.ai/