NC State QB CJ Bailey reflects on intentional safety attempt gone wrong: 'I just was trying to get all the clock out'

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North Carolina State head coach Dave Doeren told ESPN this summer that he believed his quarterback, CJ Bailey, “could be the best in the country.”

With a 6-foot-6, 218-pound frame, Bailey’s potential is unquestioned. His resolve, however, is under the microscope this week, as the junior’s tasked with bouncing back from one of the more head-scratching college football blunders in recent memory.

Bailey infamously fumbled away an upset this past Saturday at Vanderbilt, where Doeren’s intentional safety play call backfired. Ahead by three points with six seconds remaining and the ball at the Wolfpack’s own 5-yard line, the plan was for Bailey to take a safety, which would have killed clock but not cost NC State the game.

Except, when Bailey was in the end zone, he absorbed a hit and coughed up the rock. The Commodores’ Miles Capers jarred it loose, and Cayden Daniels recovered it for the winning touchdown with one second left.

Speaking for the first time since that stunning 35-31 setback, Bailey took accountability for the mistake.

“I just was trying to get all the clock out,” Bailey told reporters. “That was my thought.”

He continued: “The biggest thing was just holding the ball. That was the biggest thing. And I was just trying to run around, make a play, being competitive, like that’s who I am — I’m a competitive guy. I was just competing to the final second.

“It happens. I fumbled the ball. I’m gonna pick myself up and keep going.”

Bailey’s undoubtedly a playmaker. He threw for three touchdowns and totaled 310 yards of offense that day, putting NC State in position for its first road win versus an SEC opponent since 1977.

In that moment, though, Doeren wasn’t looking for Bailey to make a play.

At the podium Saturday, the longtime Wolfpack frontman described the sequence as one “that breaks your heart more than anything.”

“It’s just a play where you roll and you don’t get tackled,” Doeren said postgame. “You try to burn as much time as you can and then fall on the ground and protect the football. And he got hit, and he didn’t protect the football.”

He added at the time: “The plan was to take a safety. We’re trying to run out the clock if we can. But there was no intent to run the football and get hit on that play.”

When asked Wednesday what the coaches told him to do, Bailey referenced “a lot of communication.”

“They told me a lot of things. Like Coach Doeren said, we worked the play a couple times but never in that situation. That was my first time ever in that situation. And it didn’t go the right way I wanted it to. I fumbled the ball, is what it is. I gotta move forward.”

Regardless, Bailey still has the support of Doeren and his teammates as 1-2 NC State gears up for a Week 4 matchup with App State.

“The guys got my back, Coach Doeren, everybody in the facility,” Bailey said.

“They’ve been leaning on me, and I’ve been showing up. I’ve been waking up on the right side of the bed every morning feeling good.”

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