Not everyone is willing to appreciate it, but I like the fact that college football sometimes resembles the electric football game our ancestors played, where guys just vibrate on each other with no specific goal or goals. Even when there are people in the game, sometimes it just works that way.

NC State’s first defensive outing against Western Carolina on Thursday night was quite something: Caden Fordham lost what could have been a pick-six on the first play of the season, Aydan White had a chance on the next play that went to waste and not long after, Fordham was thrown out for targeting.

These were just some of the things that happened Thursday night. There was an early theme that lasted longer than we would have liked: just a little bit better decision-making, or a little bit better execution, and NC State would be off and running.

Instead, NC State found a bunch of ways to keep Western Carolina in the game, and it was really a game all the way into the fourth quarter as a result. State was better down the stretch, to be sure, but it wasn’t disruptive on defense, and Grayson McCall missed on several throws that could have snowballed into the first half.

Through it all, there was KC Concepcion, who left no doubt as to how good he is, or how he’s going to play in this new, deeper NC State offense. Concepcion went for nine grabs, 121 yards, and 3 scores. The last of which, an incredible individual effort, gave State the lead for good to start the fourth quarter.

It’s that “definitely taking the lead in Q4” part that’s frustrating, but since I have that luxury now, I’m going to focus on the process rather than the execution, the latter of which is really bad overall.

These things happen. What was encouraging about this performance was how open the receivers were down the field, and how many options McCall had—how many different boys he missed, who were very open.

This is encouraging for exactly one week, because it’s a welcome change: If McCall can’t execute, we’re not much better off than we were before, but at least guys are open. The potential for this offense is clearly much greater, but McCall’s going to have to get his head out of his ass and let his teammates help him. He missed layups.

There’s a good chance he’ll be fine, and to be clear, I think he’ll be fine, and he just had a rough debut, but still managed to throw for 300 yards. This offense is obviously different in terms of the athletes it has on hand to throw to other teams, and once everyone but KC relaxes, KC is always relaxed, then State will find the efficiency that good offenses have.

The explosives are there, that’s for sure. That’s the main thing I wanted to see.

We’ll talk about defense later.