NC State fell to 4-4 on the year today, getting absolutely demolished by Wake Forest 44-10 up in Winston-Salem.

At the end of the year, there is a good chance that no more wins will be added to the win column, and 4 more losses will be added to the other side.

I guess you could make an argument that the Wolfpack can beat Georgia Tech on November 21st, but that’s no guarantee.

I expected NC State to lose to Wake Forest today, but I didn’t expect them to lose by 34 points.

I understand that the Wolfpack have been decimated by injuries. I understand that the team is really young. I understand that all of this has resulted in a huge lack of experience, leadership, continuity and consistency.

But honestly…

Wake Forest is one of the most experienced teams in the ACC, but they also have the least amount of talent on their roster according to 247Sports Team Talent Composite. What that tells me is that Dave Clawson deserves to win the ACC Coach of the Year Award.

The Demon Deacons were destined to score a junk-load of points, and that they did. Even though NC State was injury riddled, the Wolfpack were only able to put up 265 yards of offense on a team that has given up a clean 500 per game in ACC play.

NC State had zero answers for stopping Redshirt Junior Quarterback Jamie Newman, who was basically perfect once again, throwing for 287 yards and 3 touchdowns (155.7 Passing Efficiency Rating), and also rushed for 2 more.

Redshirt Freshman Wolfpack Quarterback Devin Leary earned his first career start, and maybe fans who were clamoring for him to be the starter all year are quiet this afternoon. Leary looked like a 3rd string quarterback, which is what he was at the start of the year. He completed 17 of 45 for 149 yards and 1 touchdown, to go with 2 interceptions. He honestly could have thrown a handful of other passes to the other team.

To add insult to injury, Freshman Running Back Zonovan Knight left the game with an injury, and didn’t return.

The 1st quarter was one of the worst quarters of football I’ve ever watched.

This Wake Forest team is better than I thought. This NC State team is way worse than I thought.

Glass half full moment. Redshirt Freshman Linebacker Payton Wilson is a bad man, logging a career high 11 tackles, and his good friend Freshman Linebacker Thomas had 8 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.

There are a lot of good pieces on this Wolfpack team. The future isn’t dismal, but fans need to brace themselves for a very bumpy ride the rest of the way.