RALEIGH, N.C. — Virginia delivered a reality check in the season opener to NC State and head coach Dave Doeren. Now the Wolfpack is trying to make sure the 34-8 loss at Virginia doesn’t linger.

“I own it publicly, but our players, man, they own it in the locker room,” Doeren said Monday. “Those guys are on each other about what they should have done better and same with my assistant coaches. All you can do is take a negative situation and not relive it.”

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NC State (0-1) hosts Richmond (2-0) on Friday, Sept. 11 at Carter-Finley Stadium. The team will wear special “Wolfpack Warrior” black camo uniforms in observance of the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Doeren said his father was supposed to be on one of the two American Airlines flights from Boston that morning that crashed into the World Trade Center. But his father missed his flight because his cab never showed up, Doeren said. It took hours, however, before Doeren — who was an assistant coach at Montana in 2001 — and his family realized their father wasn’t on the plane.

“Thank God, right, that he missed that flight,” Doeren said. “But I’ll never forget that day because for four or five hours we thought we had lost my father in a plane crash.”

Doeren said he and other staff members at Montana just stared at the television, in shock, after watching one and then a second commercial airliner crash in New York City. Hijackers took control of four planes that September morning with one crashing into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and another in a Pennsylvania field. More than 3,000 Americans died.

“How could something like this be happening in our country?” he said. “I try to describe that to the team, and when you’re 18, 19, you’re like, ‘Yeah, it’s a good story.’ But for those of us that witnessed it, I mean, it was intense.”

Entering his 14th season at NC State, Doeren and the Wolfpack drew some buzz as a potential sleeper team in the Atlantic Coast Conference. NC State met the preseason hype with a dud against the veteran Cavaliers, who outgained NC state 413-168 and dominated along the lines of scrimmage.

“It’s a reality check,” Doeren said. “I think maybe sometimes you hear people talk about you all summer and you forget how hard it is to win a football game.”

One of the biggest reasons for optimism was the return of third-year starter CJ Bailey at quarterback. But he was limited to just 84 yards on 12-of-23 passing and one interception. NC State didn’t score until late in the third quarter with Virginia already leading 24-0.

“He’s pissed off at the world, just like I am,” Doeren said. “He’s a competitive dude. He owned it after the game, which you would expect, and like I told him, all you can do now is go make up for it.”

Linebacker AJ Richardson suffered a season-ending biceps injury in the game against Virginia, Doeren said. It is the second straight year that Richardson has suffered a season-ending injury against the Cavaliers. “He’s going to make a great recovery,” Doeren said.

NC State has lost just two nonconference home games under Doeren (32-2) and are 12-1 in home openers, with the lone loss to Notre Dame in 2023. The game marks the 28th consecutive sellout at Carter-Finley Stadium.

NC State is hosting Richmond for the first time since 2013 and is 18-1-1 all-time against the Spiders.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. on ESPNU or 101.5 FM in the Triangle.