NC State’s Payton Wilson focused on keeping Wolfpack as ‘one unit’ after Louisville loss
Shortly after NC State’s 13-10 loss to Louisville on Friday night, graduate linebacker Payton Wilson stood in front of the team inside the locker room at Carter-Finley Stadium. He delivered a postgame message that Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren thought was important.
Wilson, the red and white’s longtime defensive leader, was there to pick his teammates after the tight loss to the Cardinals. The Hillsborough, N.C., native maintained his consistent play with 10 tackles, including two sacks, a pass breakup and a first down on a trick punt.
But that didn’t matter after the game to Wilson. He was focused on leading as well as he has played during his final season in Raleigh.
“We’ve been here before, we just have to stick together as a team,” said Wilson, who was still wearing his white undershirt less than an hour after the loss. “There’s no team out there that wins when it’s offense vs. defense. We have to stay together as one, that’s been our identity, that’s been our culture here — through good, through bad, we’re always one unit.”
For Doeren, who said there’s not much to say after a loss like this one, seeing Wilson take initiative is almost the same intensity of execution as was his play on the gridiron.
“Payton’s playing at a high level,” Doeren said. “And you’re right, he does whatever we ask him to do. He said a lot of great things on the sideline during the game encouraging his teammates. In the locker room, he said some powerful things down there to the team. He’s playing at a high level, and he’s leading at a high level.”
Wilson’s postgame speech to the team in the locker room leaned on the premise of sticking together as one. He’s been the Wolfpack’s heart and soul within the defensive unit, but after Louisville edged NC State, he tried to become the embodiment of the team.
Yes, the defense made almost every play it needed to in the win, and held Louisville’s offense to a season-low 20 rushing yards and 13 points. But Wilson wasn’t focused on placing the blame on the offense. Instead, he wanted to get out in front of the finger pointing.
“We just all have to come together as one,” Wilson said. “Everybody’s got to love each other. And at the end of the day, no team wins if you’re separated. So we just have to continue to love on each other and play for each other.”
While Wilson was there to keep the team’s head up after the close loss, Doeren noted that this is the time leaders step to the plate. And on a team littered with upperclassmen, including graduate quarterback Brennan Armstrong and others, now is the time for those players to step up.
“The leadership is going to be tested,” Doeren said. “Like I told the team at the beginning of the season, leadership is most profound during most difficult situations. That’s when leaders really step up. It’s easy to be a leader in good times. So we’re going to need those guys to do that now.”
Wilson’s leadership will be needed over the next few weeks, including a three-game stretch that the Wolfpack will play at Duke, and against Clemson and Miami at Carter-Finley Stadium, and he did all he could on the field to keep NC State in the contest.
But even though he led the team in tackles for the fifth straight game of the season, he wasn’t pleased with his showing since the Wolfpack lost.
“At the end of the day, we lost, so I didn’t do enough,” Wilson said. “I critique and grade myself as hard as I possibly can. When we don’t win, I feel like I didn’t do enough and left plays on the field. I just have to get back in the lab and I have to continue to get better in some of the plays that I missed or some of the plays that I could have made that affected the game.”
The upcoming stretch of games won’t be a cakewalk for the Wolfpack, including next week’s game against a surging Marshall team, but sticking together as one continued to be a common theme after NC State’s loss Friday night.
That included sophomore wide receiver Terrell Timmons Jr., who led the Wolfpack with three receptions for 71 yards — both career best marks.
“We just have to stick together and keep going, keep playing hard,” Timmons said. “We all played hard, we just have to stick together and keep going. We can’t let this loss get between us.”
Doeren, who is in his 11th year at the helm of the Wolfpack, said how the team grows from the loss to the Cardinals could impact the rest of NC State’s season. But the one thing that he won’t do is point the blame onto any singular unit — even some outside of the locker room might.
“These guys are going to have a lot to do with what happens next,” Doeren said. “Like I told them in there, good teams stick together in tough times. It’s easy right now for people to want to point fingers because that’s what everyone on the outside’s going to do, and I understand why. But as a team, you can’t do that. You have to stick together, you have to pull for each other, and we have to get better in areas.”
The post NC State’s Payton Wilson focused on keeping Wolfpack as ‘one unit’ after Louisville loss appeared first on On3.
