I was just about to write a piece about the Doak renovation going down.

Feb. 17 is right around the corner and #TheDoak is looking nice 👀 #Pack9 #GoPack pic.twitter.com/w64471DPFj

— NC State Athletics (@PackAthletics) January 25, 2023

But while I was over on Twitter, I saw a ton of comments on it, all of them NC State fans, and almost all of them critical of the new look.

Look, I don’t know what’s going on here. Maybe it’ll look a lot better once it’s done, or maybe the grass will match up a lot better when it greens up. But right now, it’s a little jarring. Here is how it used to look…

And here is how it’s looking right now…

Doak Field renovation coming along. Sod and turf almost completed #accbaseball #pack9 #ncsu pic.twitter.com/SYKgmSQZhi

— Allen (@BigalnRaleigh) January 19, 2023

Again, I’m going to wait until it’s really done before I cast judgement, but I think the official tweet from the school marketing it and drawing attention to it, has people thinking it’s in it’s final form. And maybe it is. But I hope it’s not.

I remember this being shared a while back…

This shows grass in foul territory and dirt in the 1st/3rd baselines. So I’m not sure when this turf thing came along. And while we’re on the subject, aren’t we a turf management school? Shouldn’t we be turning up our noses at artificial turf?

Apparently, this is a thing now, where foul territories are artificial turf and fair territory is grass. Here is Mississippi State’s baseball field doing the same thing.

🔜 #NewDude pic.twitter.com/dCoqhCKxLI

— Mississippi State Baseball (@HailStateBB) February 15, 2019

Can’t say I like it there either, honestly. It just seems like one of those fads. Remember when everyone was going crazy with field/court colors?

School with a grey field and school with a glow in the dark basketball court meet on blue turf. Winning coach gets dumped with French fries. College athletics at its absolute best. https://t.co/crEKoeLKbX pic.twitter.com/Bpeod50Sy4

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 4, 2022

Good time to remind everyone that Memphis’ basketball court should be fired directly into the sun. https://t.co/jXpDbPQ7Iw pic.twitter.com/htyMv4sAXD

— Jim Weber (@JimMWeber) November 10, 2021

The worst basketball court in the history of the sport. Thanks a lot, Oregon. pic.twitter.com/842T5CYmIc

— Craig Miller (@junior_miller) January 30, 2022

Did anyone ever really like those? Do people like them now? Have they ever gotten a recruit to come to the school? Have they ever scared a recruit away?

I don’t know. You tell me. I’ll hold final judgment, but things NC State fans don’t seem like they’re going to follow along.

D1Baseball released their 2023 College Baseball Preseason Poll this week, and NC State is sitting at #21.

(NCAA)

ACC Teams in the Preseason Top 25

6. Wake Forest

12. UNC

14. Virginia Tech

16. Louisville

19. Virginia

21. NC State

22. Miami

The Wolfpack will kick off their 2023 season with a 3-game series at home against Wagner on February 17th.

The NC State 2023 Baseball schedule is officially out!

The Wolfpack finished the 2022 season with a 36-21 record, with a 14-15 record in ACC play, finishing 5th in the conference. NC State made it to the finals of the ACC Championship, and was criminally snubbed from appearing in the NCAA Tournament

NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media for his postgame press conference tonight after NC State lost to Boston College 20-21. You can watch it here, or check out a BULLETED breakdown below.

• I don’t know really what to say. I’m pretty down for these kids.
• Obviously we didn’t play well enough to win. We didn’t coach well enough to win. I’ll always put that on me.
• Turning the ball over 3 times in the 2nd half changed the game in their favor.
• I hate it for these seniors. It’s a great group of young men. We didn’t get it done. Give Boston College some credit.
• At the same time, we had plays there.
  • We got stuffed on 4th-and-1 on the goal line in the 1st half.
  • I thought Drake [Thomas] made a fantastic play.
    • I’m disappointed that a flag was thrown on a play like that. I thought it was a bang-bang play to win the game.
    • I don’t know how you throw that flag. It’s a really disappointing call by that official.
  • But there were other plays in the game that we could have made that it wouldn’t have come down to that, and we didn’t.
    • Other calls we could have made. It’s going to be a tough night. We’ll get back together tomorrow and regroup and work hard to finish.
• We were 2 of 12 on 3rd down. I think that was the biggest thing.
  • They were doing a good job in coverage.
    • We had a hard time getting open. We tried to get open a couple of times down the field and gave up some sacks.
  • Their defensive end [Donovan Ezeiruaka] beat us multiple times.
  • If you turn the ball over 3 times and can’t convert on 3rd down, it’s hard to find a rhythm.
  • We were in negative-yardage situations several times in the 2nd half.
  • We did a poor job after those first 2 scores.
• It hurts [Grant Gibson’s injury late in the 1st half].
  • Grant has played more football on this team than anybody on our roster.
  • He’s a leader. He’s a 3-time captain.
  • It hurt not having him in the middle. Dylan [McMahon] had to move inside. That’s obviously a key loss in the game.
• I just told him [MJ Morris] that he’s going to learn a lot from this film. He’s going to learn a ton watching it tomorrow.
  • He’ll grow from it. He’ll be better as he moves forward.
  • These kinds of mistakes are going to happen with a young quarterback.
  • There were a lot of them, but not just on him. It wasn’t just things that he did.
  • There’s things that could have been done to help him more.
    • That’s a thing we’ve done really well the last 2 games. We helped him. We protected for him. We got open. We made plays.
    • It just didn’t happen tonight. He’ll definitely learn from that experience. He’ll grow from it and be better because of it.
• They’re incredible people [this Senior class]. Incredible.
  • I love every one of them. I’m thankful that they’ve been in my life. I’m blessed to be their coach.
  • I hate that we didn’t get that win for them tonight.
  • They’ve done a ton for NC State and this program.
  • They’re going to have very successful lives because of the people that they are, not just the players. They are incredible people.