NC State football opens camp with a simple lesson in mind: Take nothing for granted
N.C. State football players learned valuable life lessons in real time in 2021: Players dropped with injuries, seemingly one after another and almost weekly, and the team’s biggest game of the season was canceled within hours of its start time.
The team’s biggest takeaway from all of it? Never take anything for granted.
There was an extra level of excitement as the players took the field for the first practice Wednesday on the first official day of practice ahead of the 2022 season, excitement that moved at least one player to tears.
“The little things,” linebacker Payton Wilson said about what got him so emotional. “Putting on my practice pants, walking up to meetings with my book bag on and my notebook, stuff I didn’t get to do a year ago. Everything about today was amazing to me.”
Wilson played all of six quarters a year ago before suffering a season-ending injury. He said Wednesday he was holding back tears as he was going on the field.
“It makes your heart feel good, being back on the field and doing what your love of life is,” head coach Dave Doeren said. “It’s a great feeling as a coach to see those guys and just the emotions that some of them had.”
Last year seven defensive starters, including Wilson, suffered season-ending injuries. In December, hours before kickoff, N.C. State’s Holiday Bowl game against UCLA was canceled because of a COVID-19 outbreak on the Bruins.
Despite all the preseason hype — with 18 starters returning — being back on the grass, as Doeren likes to say, for day one, was precious to this group.
N.C. State was picked to finish second in the Atlantic Division by the media. Quarterback Devin Leary was voted as the ACC preseason Player of the Year. It’s all lined up to be a big year, but it also all can be snatched away in an instant.
“Tragedy and injury in football, those kind of things put life in perspective,” Doeren said. “They make you take inventory of what you have and how much you really appreciate certain things you take for granted, like practice. These guys who probably were more excited about games, now it’s like every day I get to be out here and it’s a blessing.”
Photos: NC State football opens fall camp ahead of 2022 season
Back in the fire
Only two players, excluding quarterbacks, had on green jerseys on Wednesday, which means they are recovering from injuries.
That’s a far cry from the spring, when several key players watched from the sidelines or wore the standout green top.
Fagan was in a red jersey on Wednesday. Like Wilson, Fagan only appeared in two games last season before suffering an arm injury that required surgery. He looked back in regular-season form during day one, at one point jumping up and snagging an interception with one hand.
While some players may dread the heat of day one, Fagan was thankful to be back out there again.
“I missed being in the fire with them,” Fagan said. “Just actually being out there, I missed that.”
Cyrus Fagan added that Ruffin McNeill, special assistant to the head coach, mentioned to him how important it was to share his message to the rest of the team.
“It’s a blessing to be out,” Fagan said. “I just have to keep taking it day-by-day, because one play took me out.”
Staying healthy
Between now and Sept. 3, the Wolpack’s opener at East Carolina, the team’s goal is to stay healthy.
Doeren knows if he can keep players out of the green jerseys, the defense has the potential to be the best he’s had. As they moved around the practice fields on Wednesday, the pace was evident this was a group that’s done this before.
The next four weeks will be a grind; more practices in the 90s, with pads, as the team sorts out the depth chart, but there will be little complaining.
“Every day is not given,” safety Tanner Ingle said. “We as a team have done a really good job understanding that. Those people who have come back from injury are even more grateful. It just gives us that much more motivation to go out there and play harder.”
