Every second of every day, we make tens of thousands of little decisions that boil down to these things called responses.
You can plan and strategize where you’d like your life to go all you want. The second you take that first step down your path, and the universe throws something back in return, it’s on you to decide how to respond. “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” An aggressive, but accurate summation of the importance of response.
Saturday afternoon, my personal response to one of the worst late game losses in college football history was to crumple to the floor into the roly-poly position. My eyes and my brain were fighting what I saw and what I was forced to process. There was no way that just happened. And yet, as an N.C. State fan, it was familiar.
A UNC friend texted me and asked, sincerely (I think) if this was one of the most painful losses I’ve experienced as a State fan. I responded with a link to an article from the Athletic that featured this outcome as one of the most painful endings to a college football game in history. It really was that insane of an outcome.
N.C. State had a 99.9% solid win condition: take a safety in the endzone successfully. If the clock runs out, you win. If there’s time left, you are asking Vanderbilt to score on a kickoff. It was just short of lose-proof.
Just short.
So if all of that went into my response as someone with no tangible connection to the program…how did that feel to the hundreds of people who live, breathe, and work year round for this program?
With all due respect to the Mountaineers football program, this week is not about Appalachian State in any way. This team is the 94th rated team in the country, out of 138 FBS teams per SP+. They did beat 90th rated ECU on the road, and turned around the next week struggling to beat 133rd rated Charlotte.
State is a projected two touchdown favorite over App State. Regardless of whether or not State covers that Saturday, that’s an indicator of what the markets and models see: a team at home that is significantly better than the visitor.
No, this week is about the type of response you get from every player, coach, and staffer inside of a locker room that just had its collective soul crushed.
I find myself still in awe at how small the margins are in this sport between heartbreak and elation. State was in a position last week where they leave Nashville 999 times out of 1,000 with a top 40 win on the road against an SEC opponent. Something this program hasn’t done in decades.
Instead, the ending to this game will be featured on “Bad Beat” YouTube compilations as long as the platform is around. Coaches will use it as teach tape indefinitely as “How Not To” when it comes to closing out late game situations. Life has a funny way of reminding you how close you are to disaster.
I couldn’t feel much optimism in the hours following the loss, and I’m not sure that’s the word I’d use to describe what I’m feeling now. But I do feel different one day out from State’s next contest. Call it undying and naive optimism if you’d like. I’ve just seen so many of Dave Doeren’s teams get off the mat and fight in spots that most might not expect.
I think back to a frustrated Carter-Finley exit last year after a different kind of heartbreaking loss to Virginia Tech, where fans would be rushing the field a month later after an upset over Georgia Tech. I think back to the resurgent second half of the 2023 campaign, how State still managed to win games without Devin Leary in 2022.
Night games played at 4600 Trinity Road are different. What an incredible opportunity to cleanse the palette and get take a step closer to getting back on track.
State will be a home underdog to Louisville in 8 days, but again: the margins in this sport are small. Perhaps the road loss to Vanderbilt somehow sets up this team to punch back in a big way, this time against a conference opponent who will be ranked when they come to town. After that, you’ve got a solid but gettable Wake Forest team at home. Can you figure out a way to rattle off three straight wins - and a 2-1 conference record - before the bye?
So much of this sport is tactical, x’s and o’s, schematic. This week - and perhaps the rest of this season - has much more to do with how State formulates a collective, capital R Response to Saturday.