For the NC State football team Saturday can't get here fast enough.
Coming off its first loss of the year, 30-20 to No. 5 Clemson - an opponent that had won 36 straight home games - the only way for the Pack to eliminate the bad taste of losing would be a win.
Luckily for No. 14 NC State (4-1, 0-1), bouncing back from a defeat has been its specialty recently.
In the last two seasons under Dave Doeren, the Wolfpack is 3-1 in games played after losing to a ranked team.
NC State looks to right the ship against Florida State (4-1, 2-1) under the lights in Carter-Finley Stadium. In the past, games like the one against Clemson would linger, but this veteran team has shown they have a very short memory.
"This is just an opportunity to respond," Doeren said. "I think in life you find out who you are when you're knocked down. It's easy to be who everybody wants you to be when things are good, but the best way to get over that feeling is to go back to work, put your head down and focus on what led to success earlier. We know what the formula is for that here."
History and momentum are on NC State's side. Not only has it shown the tendency to bounce back, but the Wolfpack has won two in a row against the Seminoles and four of the last five. Looking for some extra motivation? No NC State team has ever beaten FSU three times in a row.
Not that this team needs any motivation week-to-week this early in the season. It's just October and the ACC Atlantic Division is still anybody's to win.
Last year's Atlantic representative in the ACC title game - Wake Forest - made it to Charlotte with one loss. There is no reason the Wolfpack can't pull off the same feat.
"There's a lot to play for," Doeren said. "We've got eight weeks and seven games, and that's kind of how we've broken it down. We've got a seven-game season here. As you know, the landscape of college football changes dramatically every week."
Doeren added that the guys were "mad, frustrated, disappointed, tired" but more than anything, ready to move on.
Linebacker Payton Wilson pointed out how the coaching staff does a great job of not letting stuff dwell; that they took it on the chin, but won't let it haunt them the rest of the season. By the time the team met for the first practice of the week, the Clemson game was a thing of the past. It was already on to an improved Florida State team, the best FSU team he's faced, veteran center Grant Gibson said.
NC State has gotten off to fast starts over the Seminoles, out-scoring FSU 82-17 in the first quarter of the last eight games of the series. Playing angry, in front of a fired up home crowd, should help the team avoid any slow starts.
Both Gibson and Wilson were around in 2019, when NC State went 4-8 overall, dropping six straight to end the season. That year, Gibson said, the team "just wanted to win a game." He knows very well that one loss isn't the end of the world.
"We understand that we can't let this game take over the rest of the year," Gibson said. "We still have a lot of games to play."
