Jacoby Brissett’s 3 second half TD’s lead the Pack past Georgia Southern in dramatic fashion 24-23.

Wolfpack fans everywhere had their excuses and rants queued up and ready by the time halftime rolled around. This was the year Doeren and the Pack started their rebuilding process, but after 2 quarters State trailed Georgia Southern 17-3.

Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was conservative play calling with a new QB, or maybe it just took this group a little time to gel. Whatever it was, it wore off after halftime. Jacoby Brissett, the guy who has been dubbed the savior of what was an anemic offense just a year ago, didn’t seem to have the antidote early on. At halftime he was 10-18 for 78yds and an interception.

Midway through the 3rd quarter as it seemed this game was getting away from the Woflpack, things started to click for Brissett. It seemed like as soon as the coaches really opened things up for him and let him rip, he took control. He hit guys in stride, slipped passes into tight spaces, and looked poised while doing so. The transfer from Florida connected on 3 TDs in the second half, the last being a game winner over the top with some nice touch to Matt Dayes.

While the offense was the big talk during the postgame, the defense deserves some credit too. They looked pretty soft at times in the first half, but when they needed to step up and get stops they did, and that was a huge part of this victory.

A win like this is gigantic. I know a lot of fans are probably thinking State should have blown out Georgia Southern, but a win is a win. These guys weren’t that bad. They are a good team and really confuse defenses with a lot of misdirection. The Pack showed the ability to adjust, the ability to fight back and the ability to finish. These are all key things for a young team. This was a big victory for this teams confidence and a very important outing for Jacoby Brissett. He’s now got his first win under his belt and also a new fan favorite.

This game might not have gone the way many fans had hoped, but the lessons learned can’t be replicated and will go a long way for this young team.

‘Our Take’

– This team showed a lot of fight today. Honestly, they looked pretty bad early on and you could really feel the pre-game excitement drain pretty quickly when Georgia Southern took that halftime lead. But the people calling for Doeren’s head on twitter are nuts. This is O’Brien’s mess he’s cleaning up. Years of poor recruiting, lack of true athletes and low expectations have taken it’s toll on this program. It’s going to take a LOT more than a patchwork recruiting class (from last year) and a group of freshmen (this year’s class) to turn this thing around. This isn’t going to happen overnight and might not even happen this season, but it’s important to look for positive steps in this process….today you saw one.

– Hopefully Doeren’s learned that Brissett gets real confident when you just let him grip and rip. When they got down and had to throw, you saw Jacoby really get into a rhythm. Maybe he was nervous early on, but it just seemed like the play calling didn’t allow him to get going. In the 2nd half it was pretty obvious that if State was going to win it was going to be up to Brissett and he really stepped up. He just looked good back there. Nice footwork, quick release, confident in his reads…it just all seemed to be there. He has the zip and accuracy that had been advertised and he put it on display as he lead the Pack to victory. Huge game for State, but even bigger game for Jacoby Brissett’s career.

– Looks like Bo Hines is for real. The freshman wideout caught 9 balls for 85 yards, and while he didn’t get in the endzone today, it’s obvious that he already has great chemistry with Brissett. Outside of Hines, State really didn’t get much from their receivers. Not to say that they dropped a lot of balls, because they didn’t but we would have liked to see more from Valdes-Scantling (25yds) and Underwood (who didn’t even catch a pass). Instead, it was Matt Dayes picking up the slack out of the backfield. The sophomore RB was Brissett’s second favorite target, catching 6 balls for 70 yds and a game winning TD.