NC State RB said practice has been 'hell' after less-than-impressive win over ECU

RALEIGH — NC State football did very little celebrating after last weekend's nail-biting 21-20 win over East Carolina.

Yes, a win is a win, as quarterback Devin Leary pointed out postgame, but the displeasure of that performance was still etched on the face of coach Dave Doeren earlier this week.

“In a lot of ways it didn’t feel like a win," he said Monday. "obviously because of our second-half performance."

The Wolfpack led 21-7 at halftime before going scoreless in the third and fourth quarters. The Pirates had a chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter before ECU kicker Owen Daffer missed the extra point. Daffer missed on a 41-yard field goal with nine seconds remaining, giving NC State a narrow win.

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That second-half performance has led to some punishing practices this week, according to sophomore running back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye.

"The last two practices were, like, hell," he told media on Thursday. "We've been out there working, grinding our ass off, for real."

Sumo-Karngbaye was a bright spot for a struggling offense against ECU. The backup running back rushed for a team-high 81 yards on 14 carries with a 24-yard second-quarter touchdown.

The No. 18 Wolfpack (1-0), which dropped five spots in the AP Poll after a 21-20 win over ECU, will host Charleston Southern (0-1) on Saturday (12:30 p.m.) at Carter-Finley Stadium in their home opener.

"In terms of wanting to play so bad and wanting to do things so well that we forgot the details to it,” Offensive coordinator Tim Beck said earlier this week. “Sometimes when those things didn’t go right, it just didn’t go right for us at times. There were some good things, early on especially. We have to finish.”

The offense will be without starting H-back Trent Pennix this week after the redshirt junior was ruled out for the next 4 to 6 weeks due to a nonsurgical injury. Redshirt freshman Cedric Seabrough will make his first college start at the position this weekend.

"It hurt losing Trent and he was having a great, great game with blocking and catching,” Beck said. “We got Chris Toudle, we got Ced, we got Fred (Seabrough) and we got Kam (Walker). I feel really good about the guys we have coming. They’ve had a great week of practice.”

David Thompson is an award-winning reporter for the USA Today Network covering NC State and Duke athletics. He can be reached at dthompson1@gannett.com, at 828-231-1747, or on Twitter at @daveth89.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Practice has been 'hell' for NC State football after close win over ECU