NC State Suffers Terrible Blow To Its Defense

After NC State's disheartening 24-10 loss to Mississippi State this weekend, Fox Sports' Bruce Feldman reports that the team's week just went into the gutter: Star linebacker Payton Wilson just underwent surgery that will force him to miss the remainder of the season. Head coach Dave Doeren also reports that Florida State transfer Cyrus Fagan is also out for the season due to injury.

Goodness.

Doeren sounded down at this morning's press conference:

"It's sad and it's heartbreaking, two guys that obviously are great players but great people," Doeren said. "They've work hard. It's the ugly part of football. The good news is both will be fine, post-surgery and recovery and have a chance to continue their careers."

Wilson was pacing the ACC with 10.8 tackles a game, which was the first time any NC State player has done so since 2000.

Teamranking.com had predicted NC State's defense to rank 33rd in the country going forward, but now that they've lost two key contributors, repeating last year's 7-3 in conference record will be nearly impossible. You have to feel bad for the team at this point.

Here's Doeren speaking last year on Payton Wilson's impact: