College football is here: 24 things to look forward to for the 2024 season

You made it.

We made it.

College football season is officially here. Or will be, in a matter of days.

For the 2024 season, here’s a complete look at 24 things to look forward to, with a special emphasis on North Carolina schools and the ACC:

1. Opening weekend

Or opening week, as it were. By this time next week, Florida State fans might have an entirely new set of grievances (compared to the tired and familiar ones), depending on how the Seminoles fare in Week 0 against Georgia Tech. How fitting and funny is it that a school with endless complaints about a lack of money will open its season with a not-inexpensive trip to Ireland? Very.

So begins the start of the 2024 season, with the Seminoles and Yellow Jackets in Dublin on Saturday. Locally, it begins with a pair of games on the last Thursday night of the month, with N.C. State hosting Western Carolina and North Carolina traveling to Minnesota. A not-so hot take: We won’t be able to take much away from what happens that night in Raleigh.

What transpires in Minneapolis, though, could tell us a great deal, indeed, about the Tar Heels.

2. The race toward the College Football Playoff

Let’s be honest: No North Carolina college football team ever had much of a shot of making the four-team College Football Playoff. The closest anyone came, among in-state schools, was UNC in 2015, but it’s probably a bit revisionist to think the Tar Heels were even all that close that season — even considering the blown offsides call after a late recovery of an onsides kick.

The new 12-team playoff offers a lot more hope, though. Or at least the illusion of it. N.C. State has been a trendy pick to contend, and certainly could if it passes (or at least splits) its September tests against Tennessee and Clemson. But even non-power conference schools have a chance now. Schools like, say, Appalachian State?

It all should make for an especially compelling November.

3. The Triangle seeks an encore

Trivia question: When was the last time Duke, N.C. State and UNC all won at least eight games in back-to-back seasons?

[Pausing here for dramatic effect.]

The answer: The past two seasons.

But when did it last happen before that? Never.

It says something about local college football history — and not something especially good, or kind — that we’ve been in a kind of college football golden age of late. Can it continue? The bar is fairly low, at least, but eight victories could prove challenging in Manny Diaz’s first season at Duke — and who knows what to expect out of the Tar Heels.

4. N.C. State, with an offense?

The past couple seasons have produced an enduring question in Raleigh: What could be possible for State if only the Wolfpack had a reliable offense? This season could (and most definitely should) provide an answer.

State was one of the big winners nationally during the off-season, and emerged from its foray into the transfer portal (what goes on in there, anyway?) with upgrades everywhere on offense: Grayson McCall at quarterback; Noah Rogers at receiver; Jordan Waters, formerly of Duke, at running back.

The pieces are intriguing, as are the prospects.

Of course, the cavalry has arrived just in time for State’s defense to begin life without Payton Wilson. Still, if the defense can avoid taking too much of a step back — a reasonable expectation — then that elusive 10-win season is well within reach.

5. UNC, with a defense?

Another enduring local college football mystery: What if the Tar Heels could just find a reliable defense? That question will haunt UNC fans for years to come, whenever they think about what could have been possible with Sam Howell and Drake Maye at quarterback, if only the Tar Heels could’ve stopped anyone on the other side of the ball the past several seasons.

Well, there’s reason for hope here, at least. New defensive coordinator Geoff Collins is a clear upgrade. He has some talent to work with — or should, if the recruiting rankings were anywhere close to accurate (and in the case of a player or two, maybe they weren’t).

Of course, the most frustrating possible outcome is also one that’s well within the realm of possibility: that UNC takes a significant step forward defensively, and two or three back on offense, without the benefit of an NFL-caliber quarterback.

6. The Manny Diaz era starts in Durham

After more than a decade of head coaching stability with David Cutcliffe, Duke now has its third head coach in four seasons. Manny Diaz’s arrival, after the departure of Mike Elko, feels even more like a program reset than when Elko succeeded Cutcliffe after the 2021 season.

Under Elko the past couple of years, Duke had the look of a contender. The victory against Clemson to start last season was something of a moment of arrival. At least, it was a moment that showed what could be possible, both in terms of on-field potential and the environment at Wallace Wade Stadium.

It’s difficult to sustain momentum through coaching changes, though, and the Blue Devils are a bit of mystery entering 2024. A late September meeting with UNC looms large for two rivals and programs seeking stability and upward mobility.

7. The Omarion Hampton Show

Yes, UNC is probably in for some significant regression at quarterback. No, the news is not all bad on offense.

How could it be, with Omarion Hampton still around to run through defenses? Only four players in the country amassed more rushing yards than Hampton’s 1,504 a season ago, and he enters 2024 well in the conversation about the nation’s best running back after making the Associated Press preseason All-American team.

The Tar Heels’ uncertainty at quarterback should allow Hampton even more opportunity this season. The downside to that is obvious enough: He’ll be at the top of the list of every defensive scouting report (whereas Maye shared that distinction last year). Still, Hampton appears uniquely equipped to handle the increased attention, and pressure.

He surpassed the 100-yard mark in seven games a season ago. That should only increase this year.

8. The KC Concepcion Show

By the end of last season, N.C. State’s strategy on offense could best be described like so: “Get the ball to KC Concepcion as often as possible, and get out of the way.” Good plan. As one-dimensional as State’s offense was, Concepcion proved difficult to contain during the Wolfpack’s five-game winning streak to end the regular season.

Concepcion was a breakout star during his freshman season, despite having essentially no help. The question, now, is how good he can be with considerably more help. On paper, State has several more playmakers than it did a season ago.

That’s bad news for opposing defenses, which couldn’t stop Concepcion even when he was State’s only option. Given the additions, it might be difficult for him to match or exceed the 1,159 yards he amassed last season (combined, receiving and rushing). It’s a fair bet, though, that the big, game-changing plays will be more common.

9. The true test for “The Year of the Wolf”

A quick recap of N.C. State’s 2024, so far: the first ACC Tournament championship in men’s basketball since 1987; Final Four appearances in both men’s and women’s basketball; a trip to Omaha and the College World Series in baseball.

And now, in football, a rare kind of optimism and hope that maybe, just maybe, State could win the ACC for the first time since 1979. Ordinarily, these kinds of expectations would spell doom for the Wolfpack.

But these are no ordinary times. To be clear, State could fall flat this fall and 2024 would still be the best overall athletics year in school history. But if this is indeed The Year of the Wolf, as the end of the long reign of N.C. State ... Stuff ... has ordained, then it requires at least an ACC title game appearance.

10. And maybe the end of a long drought?

To that end, State appears to offer the Triangle its best chance — for now — of ending a long, impressive streak of football futility. The three local ACC schools have now gone more than three full decades without so much of a share of a conference championship (granted, ties have been impossible since the ACC began playing a championship game in 2005).

Among Duke, State and UNC, the most recent ACC title in football came in 1989, when the Blue Devils tied for it under the leadership of a young, up-and-coming coach named Steve Spurrier. UNC last won it in 1980, when Lawrence Taylor was still in school, and State last won it in 1979.

You’d think that one of these three schools would’ve somehow won at least one league championship over the past 34 years but, no.

11. A new fan experience at Duke

Schools complain an awful lot these days (and have forever, really) about not having enough money (note: overpaying coaches and administrators has something to do with that) but credit Duke for some creativity when it comes to generating revenue. The school announced this summer that it’d removed about 5,000 seats from Wallace Wade Stadium and replaced them with the “Devils Deck.”

With a game ticket and an additional $45 (in paid in advance, and $55 on game days), fans can access the new space, above one of the end zones, and treat themselves to an all-you-can-eat buffet (of tailgate food, granted), lawn games and libations (which cost extra). It’s a forward-thinking idea, along with the DJ and a pregame space called “Club Blue Devil,” and one that will undoubtedly make money.

Yes, it’s easy for rival fans to poke fun at things like DJs and a “club” and taking out seats to put in a “free flowing” space (as described by Duke) where fans can casually watch the game while socializing. But stuff like this is the future, too. And why not find a way to use seats and space that otherwise would sit empty?

12. Party in Greenville on Sept. 14

Six of the state’s seven FBS schools will play at home on the second Saturday of September but, among all those games, ECU’s Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium will be the place to be. There, ECU will host Appalachian State in a non-conference, in-state matchup that should really happen every year.

Yes, the Mountaineers and Pirates are playing each other for the third time in the past four seasons. But still: this is only their fifth meeting since 2009 — and only their third since App State made the jump to the FBS level in 2014.

It’s a no-brainer that ECU and App should play each other all the time. It makes too much sense. They did so often throughout the 1930s, 50s and 70s (and for some reason much less often in the intervening even-numbered decades), but then went 30 years without playing each other.

Note to the people running things in college football: games like these, between in-state schools, make people care about your sport. Embrace them. Pursue them. Don’t run away from them.

13. The return of Salty Dave

Do we know what transgressions, real or imagined, might compel State coach Dave Doeren to unleash one of his now-patented burns, delivered in his own dry sort of way? No, we do not.

But we do know, at some point, that it’s coming.

Throughout his tenure at N.C. State, which has now lasted more than a decade, Doeren has become salty about everything from those embroidered belts fans of a certain rival school often wear to the notion that State is only but a basketball school.

While it’s impossible to predict what will make Doeren salty this season, we can say the saltiness is inevitable, and that it will likely provide entertainment.

14. Grayson McCall makes the jump, but ...

Speaking of Salty Dave, a potential elixir to his angst arrived early in the off-season with the transfer of McCall, who, when healthy, was among the best non-power conference quarterbacks in the country during his years at Coastal Carolina.

His first three seasons as a starter at Coastal were especially brilliant, with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 77-to-8 (not a misprint). Last season, though, was dicey for McCall, who missed his team’s final six games after suffering a concussion that knocked him unconscious during a victory against Arkansas State last Oct. 21.

The concerns surrounding McCall go well beyond football. The long-lasting effects of concussions and other head injuries are only beginning to be more understood, and there’s a lot more at stake for him than the Wolfpack’s on-the-field prospects. McCall has said all the right things about his health but as intriguing as the possibilities are for him and State, the risk is especially high.

15. The new-er ACC

So, in case you missed it: the ACC (and that stands for Atlantic Coast Conference, remember), now includes two schools in the Bay Area of California, and another in Dallas. Well, you can make the argument that oceans are without borders, and that the Atlantic is sort of the same as the Pacific, anyway — and besides, there’s a river that goes through Dallas and empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

They’re all connected, all these bodies of water.

Once you get past the absurdity of the new ACC (and the new Big Ten, for that matter), the inaugural season of this coast-to-coast arrangement is kind of intriguing (if not pretty dumb, still). SMU could contend for the league championship. Cal will be tough. Stanford? Well, it adds a lot academically and in the Olympic sports.

16. Those long trips West (and East)

And the most intriguing element of all about ACC expansion is, without a doubt, what sort of effect the travel will have on the regular season. NFL teams are used to going back and forth like this — and, oh yes, NFL players are also full-blown professionals. College football players are essentially professionals, too, but it’s still different.

Among the ACC’s three Triangle teams, only N.C. State goes to California (to play Cal, on Oct. 19). Stanford, meanwhile, comes to Raleigh for a Nov. 2 game, the week after hosting Wake Forest in Palo Alto. Tobacco Road it is not.

The travel is not terrible for North Carolina schools, especially this season, but it will be bad every year for Cal and Stanford, which are always going to have to make regular trips East. It all feels unsustainable, but you could say that about a lot of things in college sports these days.

17. Watching FSU slog through ACC season

No, the Seminoles have not yet found a way out of the ACC’s Grant of Rights, despite those regular proclamations to the contrary on social media among the uninformed and even less informed. FSU is stuck in the conference for another year (and, very likely, will be stuck for years to come) and it’s worth considering whether the Seminoles will be treated as something of an ACC villain when they go on the road.

They probably should be, given their desire to blow up the league and all. But a problem with the ACC is that fans of ACC schools have never felt all that much loyalty to the conference, itself. This isn’t the SEC, where there’s a kind of universal pride among fans in being a part of that conference. It’s not the Big Ten, either.

Fans of some ACC schools might even be cheering on FSU’s efforts (and Clemson’s) to sue itself out of the league. They can get used to cheering on the cause, because the FSU and Clemson cases are likely both several years away from resolution.

18. N.C. Central, back in the FCS Playoffs?

The highest level of college football isn’t the only one with realignment that’s led to Frankensteinian leagues that are an affront to tradition and natural rivalries. It’s part of life at the FCS level, too — which made N.C. Central’s run to the FCS Playoffs a season ago all the more sweet.

NCCU, left behind in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference by long-time rival North Carolina A&T (which departed for the now-bloated Colonial Athletic Association), made the playoffs for the first time in school history. The Eagles, picked to win the MEAC this season, stand a decent enough chance to make the playoffs for the second straight year, and ...

19. ... NCCU gets its shot in Chapel Hill, too

No, the Eagles likely won’t offer much of a challenge to the Tar Heels when they meet in Kenan Stadium on Sept. 14 (a red alert, if it’s close, will sound along Franklin Street), but competitiveness isn’t necessarily the point here. Instead, it’s this: when Duke, State or UNC must schedule an FCS opponent, it should always be a local school.

This game will mean something, especially, for NCCU players who might’ve grown up dreaming of playing at one of North Carolina’s ACC schools. Now they’ll have that chance, in a sense.

20. Whether Mack can ever get it back

By the end of Week 3 in Chapel Hill, UNC should be either 3-0 or 2-1 (and if it’s worse than 2-1 then, well, something has gone terribly, terribly wrong). It’s only a one-game difference between 3-0 and 2-1, but the swing game – the opener at Minnesota – looms large.

Win that one, and the Tar Heels should put themselves in a position to atone for the late-season meltdowns that have plagued them the past few years. Lose against Minnesota, though, and the tenor of the entire season becomes different, and fast.

In short, Mack Brown and his floundering program desperately need to generate some early positive momentum. Brown, who turns 73 later this month, is the nation’s oldest FBS head coach, and he has a yearning to deliver the grand promises he made upon his return to UNC in late 2018.

Enough talent is there. But are the intangibles, and the coaching?

21. NC State’s “Prove It” game in Charlotte

No, N.C. State doesn’t need to beat Tennessee to accomplish its ultimate goal (or at least its most realistic ultimate goal) of winning the ACC and making the College Football Playoff. Yes, the game at Clemson a couple weeks after this one is probably more important.

Still, Week 2 offers State an enormous opportunity. Beat the Volunteers in Charlotte, and suddenly State’s wildest ambitions would not seem so wild anymore. Lose, and it reinforces the perception that the Wolfpack just can’t get over the hump.

Dave Doeren and his players have talked a lot about taking the next step and breaking through, as a program. Well, here’s a rare kind of chance, and on a national stage.

22. Pack’s possible return in December?

Like for UNC last year, N.C. State enters this season with a “if not now, when?” kind of vibe. The ACC debuted a championship game in football in 2005. Among those schools that were in the league then, and are still in it (only Maryland has left), State is the only team to have never reached the ACC title game.

On paper, the Wolfpack has never had a better chance than it does now. As luck would have it, though, the conference also appears more competitive at the top than ever. FSU and Clemson are CFP hopefuls. Miami, as always, doesn’t lack for players. Louisville will be good. SMU is no slouch.

The ACC Championship Game could be as compelling as it has ever been, given the potential number of intriguing match-ups and storylines.

23. Fall road trips

One of the best parts of college football season: the road trips. (Which, by the way, have become a tad more involved in recent years, though who doesn’t love a nice cross-country trek from, say, Raleigh to Berkeley?)

This season does offer local fans some good road-tripping opportunities, per usual.

A few highlights include N.C. State in Charlotte and Clemson in September, and UNC at Virginia on Oct. 26. There’s few drives better in ACC country than going from Chapel Hill to Charlottesville, along the back roads in late October, the leaves burning bright.

24. For your school, this is the year

It has to be. Your school is due. And if not this year, well ... there’s always 2025.