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Not one, not two but seven red jerseys failed to stop Louisville running back Keyjuan Brown, who had nothing but green grass and the end zone ahead of him.
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Then came Harvey Dyson.
The edge rusher exploded from the backfield at the Cardinals’ 35 yard-line, cutting toward N.C. State territory after noticing the busted play. Dyson sprinted over 40 yards, just past the Wolfpack’s own 25. He wrapped both arms around Brown and forced the ball loose as they slid to a stop inside the 15. Dyson’s play,single-handedly saved the game.
“The play broke out, and it’s all about who’s gonna make the play,” Dyson said after the Wolfpack’s 31-28 win on Saturday. “Everybody’s gotta give 100% effort, and I just felt like, why not me? We preach that every play, every day in practice. It was my time to make a play, and that’s what I did.”
NC State’s Popo Aguirre recovered the fumble at the 13-yard line. It was his third fumble recovery of the game, setting a program record.
Dyson’s effort ultimately set up the game-winning field goal. He also contributed a drive-ending sack on the next series. The Cardinals faced third- and 9, before Dyson wrapped up Cardinals quarterback Lincoln Kienholz for a loss of 11 yards and a punt.
N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren said Dyson shouldn’t have made that play — and he didn’t mean that negatively. It simply wasn’t supposed to be his play to make. The linebackers and the safeties failed to fit their gaps.
“He played like a senior guy that just won’t let the team lose,” Doeren said. “ Really good play call, I thought on the twist game that we had there on the third-down sack. Big play by Harvey, and a really good play call by Coach (DJ) Eliot, and the guys executed it perfectly to set it up. … But the effort play, man, that’s different. The sack is one thing, but their tailbacks are NFL players, both of them. You run a kid down like that as a defensive edge player and rip the football out — I mean, what an unbelievable play.”
Dyson told reporters last Wednesday he was disappointed in how he’s played. The Tulane transfer led the nation in sacks a season ago, but he’s struggled to find that same efficiency in the pass rush. Before Saturday, he only had half a sack, a play assisted by LaCorian Hodge.
He had a missed sack against Appalachian State. The mistake came late in the game, when the Mountaineers came back from a 17-point deficit and put pressure on the Pack.
“I’m gonna take full responsibility there. It starts with me,” Dyson said. “I gotta make that a point of emphasis for the whole team, and if they see me doing the right thing and making the plays, then I feel like everybody else will fall in line.”
Dyson still had a missed sack in the first half against Louisville, but he came up when he had to.
Paired with Aguirre’s quick thinking on the recoveries, N.C. State won the turnover margin 3-1. Aguirre said mental endurance was the team’s focus coming into the game, and it paid off.
“Last week or the week before we wouldn’t have recovered that, because we would have been mentally out of it,” Aguirre said. “We strained for four quarters, and that’s what we’re talking about. Who’s gonna play the longest? Great offense over there. We’ve got to do some things to get us right, but we knew it was gonna come down to the end of the game. We just kept playing longer than they did.”
The Wolfpack had far from a clean game. It still had too many penalties and there were times when the offense was a bit conservative. The biggest challenge, however, remains the defense and tackling.
Seven players finished with PFF tackling grades sub-30. Elijah Satchell, who has been a young star for the Pack, had a game-low 19.3 out of 100. Even Dyson had a bad game in that area, finishing with a grade of 29.3.
N.C. State’s defensive corps finished with 62 total tackles, including five for a loss, but it missed 19, according to PFF. Additionally, the analytics state N.C. State gave up 135 yards after the catch.
This could be a problem against Wake Forest.
The Demon Deacons are led by quarterback Gio Lopez, the North Carolina transfer, and wide receiver Carlos Hernandez.
Hernandez has accounted for 603 receiving yards and a nation-leading 368 yards after the catch, or 61% of his production.
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Among players with at least 31 targets, Hernandez is averaging 16.3 yards per reception (tied for 13th in FBS) and 9.9 yards after the catch per reception (No. 4). This means, Hernandez adds nearly a first down on every catch made.
N.C. State, meanwhile, holds a season tackling grade of 59.3 and ranks 101 out of 138 FBS teams.
The Pack’s pass rush and coverage are better, so putting pressure on Lopez and making sure passes are contested could limit damage.
Louisville was held scoreless in the first quarter and only had one touchdown in the first half. The Cardinals, however, capitalized on defensive mistakes to score 14 points in the third and seven in the fourth, erasing a 14-point deficit to tie the game.
Jeff Brohm’s squad entered Carter-Finley Stadium as the most explosive offense in college football. They are now up to 63 plays of 20 yards or more. They’re also up to seven plays of 50 yards or more, including Isaac Brown’s 70-yard touchdown.
“Don’t like how we played on defense in the second half,” Doeren said. “We got to fix a lot of things in our tackling, and it will get fixed. But we found a way to make a play when we needed, and that’s what it’s about.”
Wake Forest’s offense is no slump. The Deacs boast 22 plays of 20 yards or more, including three plays of at least 70 yards. They’re averaging 36.6 points and 445 yards per game.
Lopez, back under his former South Alabama offensive coordinator, has nearly doubled his offensive output from a year ago. He is averaging nearly 314 passing yards per game, ranking No. 8 in the country and second behind SMU’s Kevin Jennings, after averaging 170 yards per game in 2025.
According to ESPN, Lopez finished his lone season with the Tar Heels holding a QB rating of 51.4, ranking 98 in FBS. As of Sunday, Lopez has a 79.2 QBR and ranks No. 24.
Wake Forest will come to Raleigh fresh off a 57-3 win over Stanford, giving the Demon Deacons their largest margin of victory in an ACC game ever. They’re also desperate to crack the AP Top 25 rankings after finishing 27th in the voting this week.
Teams: N.C. State Wolfpack (3-2, 1-1 ACC) vs. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (4-1, 2-1 ACC)
Where: Carter-Finley Stadium, Raleigh, NC
Date: Saturday, Oct. 10
Time: 12 p.m.
TV: The CW
Stream: fubo TV, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV Stream
Betting information: Wake Forest opened as a 3.5-point favorite, according to Vegas Insider. The Demon Deacons opened as a 3-point favorite on ESPN Bet and received a 67.4% chance of winning.
Series history: The Wolfpack leads the all-time series 70-43-6 and has won three of the last four. There have been periods in which one team dominated the other, but it has been far more competitive in the last decade.
It is 1-1 in the last two meetings in Raleigh, and 5-5 in the previous 10 games overall.
The most recent win took place last September, when N.C. State picked up a 34-24 win in Winston-Salem. The game featured defensive end Isaiah Shirley’s famous “thick six.” N.C. State trailed 24-17 at halftime but held the Demon Deacons scoreless in the second half to complete the comeback.
The team’s last home game against Wake took place in 2024, when Grayson McCall sustained a head injury on the first offensive drive of the game that led to his medical retirement. It was also the game that forced CJ Bailey into the starting quarterback role after intending to play behind McCall as a true freshman. The Pack fell to the Deacs, 34-30, despite Bailey’s 272 yards and two touchdowns. N.C. State could not stop the run, giving up 183 total yards on the ground and 139 to former Wake running back Demond Claiborne.
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