Hollywood Smothers was the Best Player on NC State’s Offense Last Night. How was the Ball Not in His Hands at the End of the Game?

NC State Redshirt Freshman Running Back Hollywood Smothers had the best game of his college career yesterday in the Wolfpack’s 21-26 loss to ECU in the Military Bowl.

Smothers rushed for a career-high 139 yards, averaging 9.3 yards per carry. He also had a 42-yard touchdown reception. Combined, Smothers compiled 181 all-purpose yards, which is the most by any player on the Wolfpack offense this season.

Before Week 8, Smothers averaged 13.2 snaps per game in his first 5 games (missing 2 games due to injury). In Smothers’ first 5 games, he averaged 26.4 rushing yards per game (5.1 yards per carry), on 5.2 carries per game.

After Redshirt Senior Jordan Waters missed the Cal game due to injury, Smothers stepped into the starting job and has maintained that position ever since. What probably locked him into the starting job wasn’t his rushing performance against Syracuse the week before, but his 3 receptions for 87 yards.

After taking over the starting job, Smothers averaged 7.0 yards per carry (439 yards) through the final 6 games. In those 6 games, Smothers rushed for 100+ yards twice and compiled 100+ all-purpose yards in 4. In those 6 starts, Smothers only received 10+ carries in 3 of them. In the games Smothers had 10+ carries, he averaged 107.3 yards per game, averaging 7.3 yards per carry (14.7 carries per game).

Before the Cal game, Raphael was averaging the most yards per carry of the Wolfpack trio of Running Backs, averaging 6.0 yards per carry, but since the game against the Golden Bears, Smothers has been NC State’s best Running Back, and it’s not even close. Over the past 6 games, Smothers averaged 7.3 yards per carry, while Raphael averaged 4.9.

I say all this to say, after rushing for 89 yards, averaging 8.1 yards per carry in the first half, how on God’s green Earth did Smothers not get a single carry in the 3rd Quarter last night? In the Wolfpack’s 10 offensive plays in the 3rd, CJ Bailey was 4 for 6 passing for 38 yards and rushed the ball 4 times for 10 yards.

After watching the first half, I assumed NC State would start the third Quarter by putting the ball in Hollywood’s hands, but what do I know? Why would you continue to do what was working? Why would you put the ball in the hands of the player who was the best player on the field in the first half?

With 11:22 left in the 4th Quarter, NC State put the ball in the hands of Smothers again for the 1st time in the 2nd half. They used him on three consecutive plays. The result? He rushed 2 times for 27 yards, and caught a pass for a 33-yard touchdown, giving NC State a 21-20 lead.

On the Wolfpack’s next drive, beginning at the 6:59 mark, NC State did the logical thing, putting the ball in Smothers’ hands for the first two plays, resulting in 2 rushes for 23 yards. After a 22-yard run, I guess I can understand taking Hollywood off the field for a breather, but did he need to sit out the following 4 plays? Over the next 4 plays, Raphael rushed the ball once for 2 yards, Bailey rushed once for 6 yards, and threw 2 incomplete passes, resulting in a turnover on downs.

With 3:49 left on the clock, NC State found themselves with the ball in their hands again after Redshirt Freshman Nickel Tamarcus Cooley intercepted his 2nd pass of the game.

Surely…I mean surely if you’re the NC State coaching staff, since you’re dead set on conservatively running out the clock to put the game away, you’re going to put the ball in the hands of Hollywood after what he did in the past 5 plays (83 all-purpose yards), since he’s had plenty of time to catch his breath?

Wrong.

They rushed the ball twice with Raphael for a total of 3 yards, and Bailey ran it once for 3 yards. Three carries, not by someone with the last name Smothers, resulting in a 3-and-out.

The offensive play calling in the 2nd half, deciding to not feed the ball to the player on your team who clearly was the most productive player on your roster for the day, especially when the game was on the line, is the definition of insanity.

On the year, Smothers’ averaged 6.42 yards per carry, which is the 6th best single-season average in the history of the NC State football program. I know he is a Redshirt Freshman, but how did the coaching staff not realize he was the best player in the Running Back room? I’m not a football coach, but in the Spring Game in April, it was obvious to me that Smothers’ was the most electric Running Back on the Wolfpack’s roster.

One can only wonder what would have happened last night if NC State fed the ball to Smothers in the 2nd half, especially in the final two drives. You also have to wonder what would have happened if the coaches gave him 10+ carries in the losses against Duke and Georgia Tech. Smothers averaged 7.7 yards per carry in those two losses but only averaged 6 carries in those two losses.

Doeren and his staff have often favored Seniority in their depth charts, though I know there are exceptions, like KC Concepcion’s True Freshman season in 2023. They also have robotically stuck to rotations at their skill positions, that confusingly leaves the Wolfpack’s best players off the field for too much time. Also, there seems to be a pattern at times of struggling to realize who the best players on the roster are, until it’s late into the season.

I don’t get paid millions of dollars to coach NC State’s football team, but if it were me, I’d ditch the concept of Running Back-by-Committee in 2025, and make Smothers the feature Running Back. He’s the most explosive player on the Wolfpack’s roster, and it isn’t even close.