NC State’s captains don’t just wear the patch, they own their responsibility
Almost every college football team’s captains have a “C” on their jersey. NC State is no different — five players don the letter on their chest.
But what sets the Wolfpack’s chosen few apart is their ability to show their leadership, both on and off the field. NC State coach Dave Doeren has instilled a culture where players want to be in Raleigh, but it’s also created something bigger: a team that cares about one another.
It was evident the entire week leading up to NC State’s game against Marshall — and it continued shortly afterwards.
The Pack lost in a sloppy 13-10 defeat to Louisville a week ago. After that game, graduate linebacker Payton Wilson, one of two defensive captains, stood in front of the team in the locker room and urged them to stick together. Why? The team’s defense played lights out, but its offense didn’t.
Not only was it obvious on the field, but NC State’s fans booed towards the end of that game and cheered for sophomore quarterback MJ Morris to be put in the game.
It’s a tough part of high-level college football, but the expectation is to play a winning brand, and the Pack didn’t. That led to Doeren making a change at quarterback and he inserted Morris as the starter Monday.
While graduate quarterback Brennan Armstrong, a captain who is in his final season of college football , could have given up on the season after being benched, he didn’t. He, by all accounts, took the news with grace and became one of Morris’ biggest supporters.
Armstrong has helped the young quarterback continue to learn offensive coordinator Robert Anae’s offense throughout the season, especially this week.
But his biggest impact might have come from what he said. Armstrong, who wears the captains’ letter on his jersey, spoke up in an offensive meeting this week. He wanted the Pack to rally around Morris
“He told the offense they need to go play their butts off for [MJ],” Doeren said of Armstrong this week. “That was a huge moment from a character, leadership standpoint to see that from Brennan. To hear that he did that was a huge thing.”
It speaks volumes about Armstrong’s personality. He’s a player that has played in 43 games over his six seasons between his time at Virginia and NC State, but he hasn’t appeared to sulk after his demotion.
He watched from the sideline as Morris led NC State to a 48-41 win over Marshall on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium, and he was rooting for his teammates to play well. He was also ready in case the Pack needed his services.
And at a point in the fourth quarter, the coaches called Armstrong’s name.
Morris took a shot from a Thundering Herd defender, and he came up wincing while he held what looked to be his ribs.
Once that happened, Armstrong began warming on the sideline just in case. Morris returned on the next drive, but Doeren played Armstrong for 2 snaps when the Pack got inside the 10-yard line.
The decision was the right one. It gave NC State an extra runner that could power his way to the end zone if the opportunity presented itself while Morris was in some discomfort.
But the play call was not the best for the southpaw. When Marshall sacked Armstrong after three defenders had free run at him, the NC State fans booed. Some may say it was the play calling that received the negative reception, but it didn’t seem like that in the moment.
Once Morris trotted back onto the field, the red and white faithful cheered. So yeah, it was Armstrong that did not get a friendly welcome in his home stadium — not the coaching staff.
It was not just those in the press box that noticed that. The players on the field did too.
Wilson, who took his leadership role to heart after the tough loss to the Cardinals last week, stepped back into his position again. After he finished his postgame press conference, Wilson walked away from the podium but quickly returned with an unprompted message for NC State’s fan base.
“Do not get me wrong, I love them to death,” Wilson said. “They’re the best fans in the country. And I love MJ to death, he played some of the best ball from a quarterback I’ve seen at this school today, but we’ve gotta stop booing Brennan. He’s a hard nose. He’s a great person. Just imagine if that was your kid out there on that field in front of 70,000. Get behind him, Wolfpack nation, when he’s in there. He’s a good-hearted kid. He loves God. He does nothing but pat everybody on the back and play hard for us every single day. So continue to uplift him, Wolfpack nation.”
While Armstrong has been gracious all week about his demotion, Wilson was there to back his teammate up. The linebacker was not asked to give the statement by anyone in the media and it did not seem that the NC State communications staff set it up, either. Instead, the mature veteran stared into the camera and delivered what he thought was right.
And the 110 words that he uttered were indeed the correct ones that needed to be said after the Pack found the win column for the fourth time this season.
The Wolfpack roster has preached its family-like environment all season. And on Saturday evening, it was on full display with Wilson’s moving statement.
It was heartfelt. It was genuine. And it was what a leader does.
That is the NC State culture at work, and it starts with the Pack’s team-voted captains.
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