The Battle of CJs

In this episode, I will be reviewing the upcoming Notre Dame football, Clemson soccer, and Wake Forest volleyball in a slew of competitive weekend matchups. 

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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.

00:00
Logan Brumley
Hello and welcome to WKNC official sports podcast in the den. Today we'll be going over the Campbell football game and the upcoming Notre Dame football game. We'll be going over men's soccer as they head off against Clemson and we'll finish up by talking about the volleyball doubleheader with Wake Forest. So get your headphones on. Let's get straight to it. Well, I mean there's a. There's no beating around a bush that NC State took care of business against Campbell, which is, you know, what they should do, as I keep mentioning with the lower level FCS opponents for the first time since early September. So this is first win in a while. They're now up to 4 and 2 on the season. NT State dominated Campbell Fitz 5610 with backups in by the fourth quarter. I mean just kind of for comparison.

00:57
Logan Brumley
I mean I'm pretty sure. Didn't the UNC Clemson game have backups in by the second? I digress. NC State. They averaged 11 yards of pass and 9 yards a run and held Campbell to 2 yards of rush and 3.8 yards of pass. CJ Bailey scored four touchdowns and had an 86% completion. Accuracy. While Hollywood Smothers only had four carries. He ran for 123 yards and backup Jaden Scott got himself two touchdowns and 89 yards. Jolie anderson both caught touchdowns and our freshman receiver Teddy Hoffman got two fumbles and lost one on a punt return. Which is kind of a little worry. But as you can see the grand scheme of the game, it didn't really matter too much. Some defensive stars, Sebastian Harsh got himself one and a half sacks. Ronnie Royal the third got eight tackles and a pass deflected.

02:05
Logan Brumley
Tre Thomas got half a second to tackle for a loss and a tackle leader, Kenny Soares got nine. However, despite the presumed dominance, there were some issues with the team that could give me some concerns for Notre Dame. That three and eight on third and fourth downs, you know, going sub even 75% third and fourth downs is a little fishy for me. And going below 50% is just, in my opinion, that's just awful. I will say this, I will give a little bit of clemency. Four and 18 on third and fourth downs for Campbell and all five of those failed third and fourth conversions were by the backups. So yes, this is mostly a backup problem. This is not something NC State had to worry about in this game.

03:07
Logan Brumley
I was just like kind of looking at the box score for that and I was like don't Love it, don't love it. Special teams is always going to be an issue, you know, with the punt return, fumble kicking, still not that great. A punter is decent and some other kind of backup turnover. Will Wilson throw an interception? Not a big deal, but that's something kind of worth mentioning. And the last thing I'd like to mention, seven penalties for 76 yards and one even overturned a 78 yard punt return. And I mean, it was kind of a split between offense, defense. I just. That's a whole drive. I mean, if it's like if you kick a ball for a touchback, I mean, that's a whole touchdown in terms of yardage, you know, cut down the penalties while you can.

04:10
Logan Brumley
Maybe I'm kind of being a little too nitpicky on things bad, trying to find ways to talk about stuff, but I'm just. I don't love it. If we could afford it, please do so. So, I mean, I guess that's really all there is to say. Just happy to see our starters working well and getting ready for next week. Smother is still a beast. Bailey's good young quarterback defense is doing just enough. Notre Dame is ranked 16th at the time of recording. They are 3 and 2, having won multiple consecutive games after a loss to at the time, number two, Miami, Florida, and at the time, top 10 Texas A and M. They're fighting a break into the college football playoffs and just one loss could play spoiler to their season. In the last few games I had. It's a blowout if it's double right?

05:17
Logan Brumley
Because I think it was like 2814 for the Boise State game and of course, obviously the blowout Arkansas, they got Sam Pittman can't. And crazy enough, Bobby Petrino is back as Arkansas head coach. Hey, if you think anything is impossible, just look at the fact that Bobby Petrino's back of Arkansas and you know, you can do anything. That's like the most motivational thing I can think of, but I gotta keep myself from the tandems. You know, Jeremiah Love is one of Notre Dame's great running backs. That's kind of another thing to notice. C.J. Carr and C.J. Bailey, they're both kind of like those young inexperienced quarterbacks are still making a good amount of errors but have strong weapons to support them. You know, strong running backs, some pretty good receivers. Notre Dame's offensive line is like absolute peak. Like, yes, C.J.

06:28
Logan Brumley
Carr does get sacked, he does get pressure, he does make mistakes, but they are given so Much to CJ Carr to help him develop. Like, I swear, every time I watched them, it really. It felt like they just had everything covered. And this is like I was watching the Boise State game and then also the Texas A and M game. That's what I usually do when I try to scout these. I'm not great at scouting games. I watched their most recent win or the most recent loss, compared them. So before I kind of start tandem in again, let's kind of get into the matchups. NC State passing offense vs. Notre Dame passing defense. Kind of going into that battle of the CJ Sting I mentioned. You know, I'm kind of not in love with our receiver core. I think it's deep.

07:27
Logan Brumley
I think it's versatile. We got a lot of good guys and every week there's someone who kind of shows up. I just wish that we could get more from. We don't have a star. Our closest thing to a star would likely be, I think. Yeah, Terrell Anderson. But okay. Jolly also, he's been kind of catching up even though he was the expected number one guy. You know, Hollywood's Mothers also has a good impact in the receiving game as well, which is interesting. Noah Rogers kind of there too. I think ultimately they have a lot of guys that they can kind of move around and try to make work. And I am very intrigued to see how they take it.

08:26
Logan Brumley
I'm assuming that I'm trying to figure out what the right strategy would be to trying to take advantage of Notre Dame because Notre Dame secondary. That's kind of why I'm a little hesitant to say that NC State has the advantage on this level. Because, you know, C.J. Bailey was I mentioned, you know, he's clean, he's playing clean. Just, you know, he makes some mistakes every now and then. I mean, just look at, you know, he was a part of losing in that Virginia Tech game, for instance, I think. And he's had some bad passes that became interceptions. And he's has shown some struggles with pressure. And Notre Dame, as I mentioned before, they have won the strongest secondaries in college football. They have their safety, studentmedia Schuler. He leads team and tackles. Look at. And with, you know, two past deflections.

09:39
Logan Brumley
Just look at Christian Gray. Four pass deflections. Winter studentmedia, other corner, three interceptions. There are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 players who have gotten an interception. One C State has only really given up two. That's kind of the thing. I mean, NC State's passing defense is not great at force and turnovers, except in desperate Situations suggest the end of that Virginia game where it's kind of just a heave to try to get the win for Chandler Morris, or you have to look at Wake Forest. I believe the Wake Forest interception was a game clincher too. Yeah, because they had the two consecutive game clinching touchdowns or interceptions. And I don't think, correct me if I'm wrong, I think NC State's only gotten like one fumble in their favor. So where am I getting with this now?

10:50
Logan Brumley
Defensive line is really good at forcing pressure on the quarterback. I mean, I saw the pocket collapse a lot in that Boise State game, and I think a lot of the interceptions were just from really strong man coverage and from the quarterback not having as much time in the pockets, which are both things I think C.J. Bailey's got to watch out for. I don't think he's had this strong of a secondary faced against him. I don't want to say in his career in college, but it'll be a while before we see something like this again. So on that note, advantage Notre Dame. Now look at C.J. Carr. No, true. Is he a true freshman or is he a true redshirt freshman? Oh, no, I should have done my research before. Okay, yeah, he's a true freshman. Came in.

11:54
Logan Brumley
You know, he's the grandson of Lloyd Carr, former head coach, and he's been playing well, too. 11 touchdowns, two interceptions. See about completes about two thirds of his passes, which, hey, C.J. Bailey completes more. What can I say? As I mentioned before, that really strong offensive line for Notre Dame has given CJ Carr plenty of time to develop. And they're receiving core led by Jordan Faison and Malachi Fields are a very high quality duo because, I mean, once they're able to get open, there's really no catching them in. Of course, the flexibility with Jeremiah Love, where he has also received a lot of yards and he's gotten three receiving touchdowns. I think that if I am NC State's defense, I got my work cut out for me.

13:08
Logan Brumley
I think that they just need to kind of do that high safety defense, just kind of sit back and just. I don't want to say just let these plays develop before you force anything, but you just can't let the trickery kind of get to you because I feel like it's just those small gaps of separation that they really need because, like, that's first receiving touchdown with Boise State. I mean, that was like over the head, back shoulder pass and then like the corner was literally on that receiver whose name I am blanking out on. It's just. I don't know, they got a really strong receiver, they got a really strong offensive line. Let me, I want to give some shout outs. Okay. Yeah, I gotta shout out their offensive line at some point because they got some really good guys on their line.

14:17
Logan Brumley
I mean remember we got C corral from them last year and you know, obviously he. Oh and he's still in. He's in a league now with Minnesota. So Notre Dame can produce strong offensive lines. I think their quarterback does make mistakes, but so is C.J. Bailey. It'll be a really ugly passing game for both but ultimately Notre Dame advantage again. Just because I don't really. I have trust issues with this secondary moving on. I would also like to give a brief shout out. We're going to start the Russian game. Hollywood Smothers. I think he's second in the country with Russian yards at almost 700 in five games. He's probably gonna break spacing out. He'll break a 1500 yards.

15:18
Logan Brumley
He's not going to have an Ashton Genty season but he's playing really strong football and I don't think anyone expected him to be running the way it is. And with of course CJ Bailey also carrying the ball and he's been helpful pretty early in the season in a running game. Jayden Scott's a really strong backup. I think that yes, I do think that they kind of have to rely a little bit more on east west than I would like. I think once they're able to get north south it is really hard to stop either of these running backs. And to have that kind of that running option with CJ Bailey just opens up the playbook a lot more than what you can get from the. I mean like C.J. Carr, I mean he only has 26 rushing yards and a long of 28.

16:21
Logan Brumley
You know, cannot just leave that there. But I think that the Russian offensive vantage does go to NC State because they have a really strong. I keep blanking out. Hollywood smothers Jaden Scott. They have really good offensive line as well. I think that a lot of the mistakes can be prevented. I mean just, I mean of course like you know, you got Teague Anderson, Jalen Grant. These guys have been playing really strong football this season and I don't know. I just, I think that nt say we just find in the Russian offense Notre Dame's defensive line do have about. Where's their tackles for loss. I mean I think with some creative play baked Notre Dame is able to stop it. I just don't think they will.

17:28
Logan Brumley
I mean, I think no team has really been able to stop Hollywood Smothers, and Notre Dame's not an exception. One thing I am excited for, however, is to see how Jeremiah Love handles our defensive line. I think that as I mentioned before, the kind of early fluke with ECU is kind of gone now. I think that after Jamari Taylor and after Anderson Castle, the Russian defense is iffy and. Well, I would. I would really like to believe that. Well, I can't. I really want to believe that NC State can stop a running back. I don't think it's possible anymore. I think, you know, they couldn't get Jamari Taylor and he's really good. I. I keep mentioning the same freaking running backs over and over, but it's just that's the kind of precedents they set. That's. That's why.

18:36
Logan Brumley
I mean, when you face off against these really good teams, you have to impress. That's why NC State, they did almost lose against Virginia. And I think that is something that I should have honed on a bit more when that happened because it should have seen the signs come in, should have seen that they couldn't stop Jamar Taylor, that they couldn't stop Chandler Morris until it really mattered. They had to out HD their opponents. They couldn't out HD Daria Mensah and Duke. Well, I mean, obviously they could out HD Wake Forest, and they were. The defense was really strong against Wake Forest, but then again, it is Wake Forest. Same Wake Forest. I went to overtime against Georgia Tech. That game's always going to be kind of iffy to me. Now, where was I? Just Jeremiah Love is going to get tons of yardage.

19:37
Logan Brumley
He's going to get some touchdowns. There's going to be that dual threat with receiving and catching. Just tackle him. Do what you can to diminish his effectiveness because I feel like he's going to break through to soft defensive line. He's going to get yards. It's going to come down to Sean Brown, Kaden, Fordham. Get the tackles okay, and they can stop it. Advantage Notre Dame, though, I guess kind of the last thing I would like to kind of ramble on about is, of course, reminder that another team has a pretty decent kicker. They have been kind of jumping around with kickers. They haven't really used theirs much. They've only gotten like four attempts on the season.

20:30
Logan Brumley
Well, we only got, what's it called, 6 Kanoa Finishet kind of jumped up to about Two thirds of his field goals made nothing beyond the like 39 yard line, 95% extra points. It seems like if I look at the Notre Dame game, the Boise State game, I think that's probably the kicker they're gonna stick with even though they use both. I don't know who's. Because I've used three different kickers. I don't know. It's going to be, it's going to be iffy. So I'm just going to go with who they used last week. They used Marcelo Diomed Jr. He's gotten both of his extra points in the last game. He hasn't kicked a field goal yet this season. But let's take a look at last season. He's only attempting one field goal in his career.

21:50
Logan Brumley
They might not use him actually, but they did, they were using Eric Schmidt. Okay. They just have not been kicking field goals much this season. So it's kind of like a small sample size for both. Can't really tell what the kicking game is going to be for both of these teams. I think Noah Burnett is probably their best shot. So he's from Raleigh, so look at that. I'm just gonna move on puntin wise. There is of course our punter still playing pretty well. He didn't get much action until, you know, the, about the fourth quarter west game and let's see. He will. I just, I, I feel good about our special teams. I think we have the advantage there. See their punter stats. James Rendell, their punter has about a 45 yard average, only 4 in the 20.

23:03
Logan Brumley
So yeah, we got a better punter and well, like I said, a fanta genc State. I think it's kind of close because I'm going a bit too long. The way to win this game is just to shut down Jeremiah Love, the best he can, put the pressure on CJ Carr, force him to make any mistakes that he can and just try to again out HD the opponent. C.J. Bailey, Hollywood Smothers need to bring their A game if they want to play. Spoiler. That's just, that's just what they have to do. So that kind of concludes today's segment. I think that Notre Dame will probably win, but I think if NC State can just put on a strong, decent fight, then they could eventually either prove themselves as a team that could contend or as a team that could get itself in the top 25.

24:09
Logan Brumley
Coming up next, men's soccer versus Clemson. All right, well, Virginia gave NC State their first lost of the season all the way in October, which I think is the last month of the regular season. Funnily enough, I'm not even upset about this. Nicolas Simons, he would get a header within the first 20 minutes, but then afterwards kind of all the offensive activity stopped. It was really a stronger defensive game. Both teams had strong defensive performances with Virginia only giving up two shots on goals and NC State giving up four. Logan Erb, he went 3 for 4 giving up his second goal of the season and Virginia goalie Casper Moles helped to shut out NC State.

24:58
Logan Brumley
Ultimately, Virginia had the edge, improved, the ability to continue its upset trend and therefore I don't think we've gotten the rankings update yet, But I'm assuming NC State okay, yeah. NC State drops to 10th. Whoo man, that's a little harsh. And Virginia jumps up to eight other ACC teams ahead of us Duke, Stanford, so oh well, Donovan Phillips, of course he got Sean goal with a header. Drew Lovelace was also able to get one. It's unusual to see an NC State stifled offense, but it's something that I hope is just kind of like a bad fluke and won't come up again. Looking at the highlights, I think both teams executed their plays pretty well. It was just that the defenses were stronger that Virginia just had that stroke of good fortune to get the goal in NC State.

26:08
Logan Brumley
It was just a bad game, couldn't get a goal in, some bad luck, some very strong defense by Virginia. There's nothing they could really do about it, but they can just look ahead. This Friday, NC State would face off Clemson to prepare for their road trip to face off against number seven Duke. The theme of that game is going to be a white out for mental health awareness. I feel like I should kind of start mentioning themes of the games a bit more. Clemson entered a preseason poll ranked number nine, but as of time of recording they doesn't look like they have a single vote on the United Soccer Coaches rankings. They They've won three straight games against Cal, former ranked Wake Forest and Elon after three consecutive ties and losses from Virginia, Commonwealth, SMU and Queens of North Carolina.

27:21
Logan Brumley
We faced before and blew out. Clemson is one of four ACC teams with a goal margin of plus one which is one extra goal per opponent goal at 1.2. They score an average 2.5 goals per game versus NC State's 2.64 but have a low save percentage at 67% while NC State's at 93. What? What? Even though I would argue that Ogunner doesn't get many opportunities because our defense so good but whatever some other notable team stats they weigh the ACC with two red cards and allowed a fifth most total goals at 13 while NT State has scored more than double that all season. So not really sure why I put that there, why that matters. I think that Clemson gives up a lot of goals and NC State scores a lot of goals. There it is.

28:27
Logan Brumley
They have really good one two punch with Ransford Guyan and Nathan Richmond who both have eight and seven goals respectively. But Ransford has seven assists which is second in the acc. Wahabou Moussa, he is questionable after a leg injury, but he scored five goals with a 42% shot on goal accuracy. So he's been kind of like their number three guy in the offensive front. Joseph Andima has 26 saves and 13 goals as well as two shutout games and 10 total versus Lindsey. State's like what, eight and 10. So they do have some good offensive guys.

29:12
Logan Brumley
It'll be kind of like the FAU game where it's like okay matchups, let's get our strong defensive guys like Hefes or Markovich and get them lined up against these guys and just try to force turnovers, try to make them look weak, try to shut down Gantz Gyan and they should be fine. Philip is carrying the offensive load and I'd like to see some more support. Anyone who can show up must show up if they kind of want to get the competitive edge defensively. I mean, like I said, just kind of put the pressure on them, keep up what they've been doing. Both teams have played a lot, have a lot of fouls, so I would like a little bit of a cleaner game. Even though kind of the yellow and Clemson kind of has a disadvantage with the yellow and red cards.

30:08
Logan Brumley
Just keep another potential spoiler by out offending their opponents and forcing another win. Final score prediction 3 to 2 NC State now for the last part, our women's volleyball doubleheader. NC State got their butts handed to them, losing in three sets. The first set was pretty much a blowout as Miami led as much as nine scores and NT State had a negative shooting percentage, which in case you don't know, in order to get a negative shooting percentage, it's more errors than kills. Scoring momentum came from a blend of plays and errors from Bryant Ring who led the offense during this game.

30:53
Logan Brumley
Yeah, it's just like when those two weren't able to step up because Miami does have a pretty strong defense and they were able to really stifle Our strongest offensive performers and therefore they were able to kind of carry the load with their star player. Player, let's see Nadia Mine with her three service aces was also really good. Especially I think it was three in that second set. It was a back and forth but Miami just broke through. Rebecca Ring tried a way to come back but Miami was able to close it out and close this interstate. Got to win in that six. That was near the end at 24:20. The third series was also competitive but then Miami, of course they kind of break through eight. I think that's what happens.

31:41
Logan Brumley
It's like it's almost like the volleyball team kind of gets their tires tread by like the halfway point in a set and unless they have a major lead, they just can't do anything. I feel like I'm a broken record kind of saying that they just can't come back. But I'm just, I'm not sure what it is. I don't know if it's just kind of like getting down and that kind of kills out of momentum or if it's just they are just not that good and they just keep getting out competed. It was a blend offensive success, all facilitated by Ariana Rodriguez that put Miami up by seven. But studentmedia correct closes out the set to complete the shout out win for Miami Florida. Oh well, old habits die hard.

32:37
Logan Brumley
Defense isn't strong enough to keep track of high power offenses and we just have a bunch of role players and a coach whose hands are tied by bleeding timeouts and trying to figure out what to do. Obviously like a kind of a young and experienced head coach or no, Kearney, I support her but you know the first season is always going to be tough and this season is no exception. For the first time this season they've fallen below.500 and I hope they are able to get back. Just that should be the goal. Just try to get back, get some quality wins, get some momentum, try to continue to prove a dark horse candidate, try to create some kind of men's basketball March Madness run. But just with each passing game it feels less and less likely.

33:31
Logan Brumley
But they do have a double header against the low quality Wake Forest that could potentially help them out in that front. Wake Forest as of recording is also coming off a loss against Miami Florida. They are 7 and 8 on the season which is a similar record to NC State. They have notable wins with Duke, Maryland and Navy, but have lost unc, Bama and Florida State. Just kind of like some kind of big names, big matchups just to kind of look at they have a bottom five defense being within that tier but never last and blocks, opponent hit percentage and opponent kills. Defensively the biggest blocks in Diggs producers are Emma Farrell who is second the ACC in blocks or Diggs and the blocks duo of Kellis Hawkins and Sanaa Williams. Offensively they're also lackluster. So look at that.

34:30
Logan Brumley
It's kind of like a very two very, I don't want to say mediocre teams heading off against each other the middle of the road. In most major stats such as kills and hint percentage, Becca Bellows has about 0.37 service aces per set which is 10th in the conference paired with her 5.5 assists per set. But the offensive higher power comes from Paige Crawford and Riley Whitekettle with 3.13 and 2.45 kills per set each. I'm playing away home series against Wake Forest during this weekend to try to build any sort of momentum and get back to.500. Do I think they'll win both games? No. Would I win one game? I think NC State should win at least one of these two matchups, but it feels like the two pair up perfectly if I'm making sense at all.

35:38
Logan Brumley
I hope that our guys Bryant and Ring, I hope they can kind of shake off the rough game and take down that blocking duo. I do like that we have two players that are decent setter ups with Mullens and Folar which I think will be helpful and I think we'll kind of try to introduce a little dynamic offensive front, especially if Dorsey kind of starts getting back in rotation more. Susia Daniels, Folar. I mean we do have a work cut out defensively when it comes to dismantling this offense. A lot of the effort comes from Becca Bhatia and shutting her down would help a lot in trying to shut down Williams and Hawkins. I think it's kind of just the same formula. Yes, try to stop this offense, stop the flow of Becca Bellows and that Hawkins Williams duo just out hit, get high.

36:48
Logan Brumley
Just make sure that they can never really get to the ball because once they do that's easy points. Especially since NC State's really good at providing mistakes. They can't, they can't be producing mistakes. And this is why I worry that they're gonna lose both of these games because just that's what happens. These big scoring streaks are started by mistakes and once Hawkins or Williams are able to get their hands on the ball, I think I'm worried it's just going to kill everything for NC State. But as long as they can do that and as long as Ring and Bryant can kind of shake off their rough games, they should be fine. I think they'll lose the first game away and probably four sets, win the second one in five. Anyways, that concludes today's episode. I hope you enjoyed listening.

37:47
Logan Brumley
Hope you all have a good day. Next week we begin our women's basketball coverage. What? What? Of course, the cross country season finale, Clemson volleyball and men's soccer because NC State football has the bye week. Anyways, have a good one and go pack.