NC State Beats Cal 31-10 in Todd Goebbel's Debut as Davion Gause Runs for 104 Yards

Eight days earlier, NC State had walked off the field at Stanford with a 31-28 loss and a head coach who would be fired the next morning. The week that followed was not about football so much as everything around it: a coaching search, a new defensive play-caller, Philip Rivers rumors, a homecoming crowd that did not know what kind of team it was about to see.

It saw a pretty good one. NC State beat California 31-10 on Halloween at Carter-Finley Stadium, scoring the last 21 points of the game in interim coach Todd Goebbel's first game in charge. CJ Bailey threw two touchdown passes, Davion Gause ran for 104 yards with the team's leading rusher sidelined, and a defense that was a big reason for the change pitched a second-half shutout. The Wolfpack moved to 4-4 and 2-3 in the ACC. Cal fell to 3-6 and 2-4.

It was the first time since 2012 that NC State took the field without Dave Doeren as its head coach. For one afternoon, at least, the transition looked smooth.

A fast start, then a long stall

NC State did not waste the emotion. On the first possession of the game, Bailey hit Deandre Desinor on a catch-and-run that covered 49 yards for a touchdown, capping a four-play, 65-yard drive that took all of 1:31. Carter-Finley was loud and the Wolfpack were up 7-0.

Then the game got messy. The NC State offense went quiet for the rest of the first quarter, and the 10-0 lead it built in the second quarter was mostly a gift from the defense. Cal went for it on fourth-and-3 near midfield, and the pass was broken up. NC State turned the short field into a 43-yard Kanoah Vinesett field goal with 9:28 left in the half.

Cal answered with its best drive of the day. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele marched the Bears 75 yards in seven plays and found Chase Hendricks for a 30-yard touchdown, a score that survived a replay review with 4:58 left in the half. Moments later, Bailey lost a fumble at his own 19 after a 6-yard loss, and suddenly the Wolfpack were on the wrong end of the momentum.

Cal's missed chance

This is where the first half could have turned into a nightmare. Cal had the ball in the red zone with a chance to take the lead. Instead, the Bears went backward and Towns McGough missed a 40-yard field goal. Cal got the ball back once more before the break and went 50 yards in nine plays, and McGough made good on a 38-yarder with one second on the clock to tie it 10-10.

So after a first half in which NC State scored on its opening drive, forced a stop on fourth down and still gave the ball away, it was a tie game. The Wolfpack had 76 passing yards at the break. Gause had 43 rushing yards.

The turning point: two drives after halftime

NC State found it. The opening drive of the second half was nine plays and 73 yards, and Bailey finished it by finding Chance Robinson for a 38-yard touchdown with 9:40 left in the third quarter. It was the first lead of the day that felt earned rather than borrowed.

The next drive was even better, because it was the kind of drive that wears a defense down. The Wolfpack went 75 yards in 10 plays and burned 5:38 off the clock, with Gause doing much of the hard work between the tackles and a 28-yard run that flipped field position. Darius Johnson punched it in from 2 yards out with 11 seconds left in the quarter, and it was 24-10.

That stretch decided the game. Cal came into Saturday ranked 137th of 138 FBS teams in rushing offense, according to Pack Insider, which meant falling behind by two scores was close to a death sentence. The Bears had no way to grind back into it.

Gause carries the load

Gause put it away early in the fourth quarter. NC State took over at its own 10 and went 90 yards in seven plays, with Bailey hitting Victor Snow for 36 yards to get the Wolfpack across midfield. Gause finished it himself with a 6-yard touchdown run with 9:05 left. That made it 31-10.

The running back room was a question mark coming in. The team's leading rusher, who had 358 yards and four touchdowns, was out, and Gause had carried 15 times for 49 yards at Stanford. Against Cal, he was the offense's engine, finishing with 104 yards on 19 carries and the touchdown that ended any doubt. NC State ran it 40 times, and that patience is exactly what a team in transition needs.

Bailey was efficient rather than spectacular, and that was fine. He threw for 192 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions, and both of his scoring throws came on plays that went for 38 yards or more. The fumble was the only blemish. Robinson led NC State with four catches for 76 yards, and Snow added four for 48.

A defense with something to prove

The headline of the week was Doeren's firing, but the subtext was the defense. Defensive coordinator DJ Eliot was dismissed along with Doeren, and Charlton Warren took over the play calling for this game. NC State came in ranked 14th in the ACC in scoring defense at 28.1 points per game, per Field Level Media, and had allowed 477 yards at Stanford.

Against Cal, Warren's unit allowed 10 points, and none after halftime. Popo Aguirre was everywhere, leading everyone on the field in tackles and adding two tackles for loss. Ziggy Moore had a sack, and Jaren Sensabaugh added an interception late, a rare sight for a defense that came in with three picks all season. Cal converted just 5 of 18 third downs and 1 of 3 on fourth down, and the failed fourth-and-3 from its own 42 midway through the fourth quarter ended any thought of a comeback.

Sagapolutele, the sophomore who passed 5,000 career yards faster than any Cal quarterback except Jared Goff, completed 29 of 45 passes for 196 yards, with the touchdown to Hendricks and the late interception. Hendricks, who had led the Bears in catches for six straight weeks, did it again with seven for 67. But the Bears ran for 73 yards on 27 carries, and when you cannot run and cannot convert on third down, you spend the afternoon punting. Angus Davies punted seven times.

What it means

For NC State, this is a reset that matters. A loss would have dropped the Wolfpack to 3-5 with four games left and put a bowl trip in real danger. Instead, they are 4-4 with Duke coming to Raleigh on Nov. 7, and two more wins would make them bowl eligible. Players wore helmet stickers honoring the late Chuck Amato, the former Wolfpack player and coach whose death the school announced on Oct. 19, and the program honored its past while giving its next chapter a decent first page.

Goebbel, an eighth-year assistant, had spent the week talking about the players. "The players have been unbelievable in support," he told Field Level Media before the game. On Saturday, they backed it up. The coaching search, meanwhile, rolls on, with Philip Rivers in serious talks according to ESPN, though nothing is close.

For Cal, the pattern is getting hard to ignore. A week after leading SMU at halftime and losing 59-20 after a 42-0 second half, the Bears were tied at the break again and got shut out over the final 30 minutes again. Over its last two games, Cal has been outscored 63-0 after halftime. Tosh Lupoi's team has lost five of its last six and now gets a bye week before visiting Virginia on Nov. 14.

The last word

There will be a lot of talk about who coaches NC State next year. That is fair. But on Saturday, the Wolfpack did the thing teams in this situation often fail to do: they showed up, absorbed a bad first half, and won the second one decisively. Goebbel did not need a miracle in his debut. He needed his best players to play like it, and Bailey, Gause and Aguirre did. That is a solid first step, and for a program that spent the week answering questions about its future, it was a reminder that this season still has some football left in it.

All the numbers are in the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab).

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play, Field Level Media, WRAL, Pack Insider, Sports Illustrated's NC State site, Cal Athletics and NC State Athletics. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: NC State Athletics (Carter-Finley Stadium file photo).