NC State was no match for #2 Florida State on Saturday as they were romped 49-17.

To be honest, the final score is even a little forgiving to the Pack, who was down 42-0 in the first half. Luckily, FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher pulled the Seminole starters only one series into the second half. That is when NC State started to get things going.

A recap of this game won’t really do you any good. It was a ton of Florida State and barely any NC State highlights. Pack QB Brandon Mitchell, who was coming off of a broken foot, looked nervous, rattled and rushed, while FSU QB and Heisman hopeful Jameis Winston was on fire from the get go.

It was literally all FSU until they pulled their first string. At that point it was already 42-0 and the game was well in hand. After that, there was a lone bright spot for NC State. Shadrach Thornton rushed for 173 yards and 2 TDs (most of which came in the 2nd half). He looked quick, strong and seemed to have his burst back against FSU’s 2nd team.

So, Pack fans, let’s just wipe this one away. There really isn’t much to learn here. This was maybe the top team in the nation and State is still trying to find out who they really are. The real prize can be had next weekend when State takes on rival UNC at 12:30pm at Carter-Finley.
Postgame Quotes

Dave Doren
Head Coach, NC State

“Obviously really disappointed in the start of the game. We put our defense in the opposite position we wanted to
with the turnovers and they did a good job maximizing those opportunities with the short fields and that was the
opposite of what we wanted to do. We thought we could run the football which we were able to do in the second
half and try to keep the ball away from an offense which we could not do early on. They are a good football team;
we made it easier than we needed to early on. I think Brandon’s (Mitchell) first game back obviously didn’t start
the way he wanted to and he pressed a little bit, tried to make too many plays then settled down and started to play
better as the game went on.”

Can Florida State compete for a national championship…
“Yea, I said that to Jimbo (Fisher) afterwards – go win the whole thing. He’s got a quarterback playing at a high
level, their offensive line is protecting him, their receivers make plays, they have good backs, their defense is
playing at a high level. They are not missing anything ingredient-wise. They’ve got a lot of good things going right
now for them.”

Is Jameis Winston as good as advertised…
“Yea, going into the game everybody has been bragging about him all week and it’s well deserved. He’s accurate,
he’s got good players, they run a good scheme, they protect him … that’s what I told our guys in there – that’s what
a championship team looks like. They played well in all of their phases of the game – we need to aspire to play
better and play like that.”

Do you take anything out of outscoring them for the final three quarters…
“I challenged our guys to win the second half. I know they had their back-ups in at some point in there but until the
last reverse they ran for a touchdown I felt like we played a good half defensively. We did some better things on
offense, we had had some explosive plays, it was obviously a much better performance after the first quarter.”

Did Florida State’s fake punt throw you off …
“No, I’m just mad we didn’t stop it. We had a guy there and we missed the tackle. We were in a sound defense
right there. We actually had an extra guy to that side and didn’t make the play.”

On Shadrach Thornton’s performance…
“He’s just been really steady for about four weeks. He’s practiced really hard. He’s been focused. I knew this was
going to be a big day for him if we blocked what we said we were going to block and we did. When you are a
consistent guy in practice, you show up and you are the same guy every day, then you are going to continue to get
better and better and better, and that’s what he has done for the last month.”