NC State football coach Dave Doeren on Caden Fordham’s injury status, UNC’s Tylee Craft

N.C. State football will be without linebacker Caden Fordham for the rest of the season, head coach Dave Doeren announced Monday during his weekly news conference. The Wolfpack Radio Show had reported Fordham was likely to miss the rest of the campaign after the team’s loss to Syracuse on Saturday.

Fordham sustained an undisclosed injury during practice last week and will need surgery, Doeren said.

The redshirt junior led the team in tackles (48) before his injury. Fordham added one sack, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery.

Doeren said Fordham will continue to be a leader in the building, on the sideline and in meetings. His participation on the sidelines will be dependent on his recovery process post surgery.

“Once he gets back to being healthy, he’ll be as active as he’s allowed to be,” Doeren said. “I mean, that guy cares deeply about his teammates, his coaches, his team, his university. He’ll do anything he can to help this place. I know that.”

Kamal Bonner started his first career game against Syracuse. He was listed behind Devon Betty at strong-side linebacker on previous depth charts. Betty moved to middle linebacker in Fordham’s absence, while Sean Brown continued to start at weak-side linebacker.

Bonner finished with a career-high nine tackles in his starting debut.

“Bonner’s an active player, got good instincts. It’s good to see him be able to play 76 plays — that’s the most he’s played in a long time, since high school — and to be able to sustain that,” Doeren said. “He’ll continue to get better. Obviously, there’s gonna be things from watching the film that he can do better, but I thought for his first game, he went in there and battled. He made some really nice tackles.”

Doeren said Betty did good things in the middle spot. There are coverage areas that the graduate student needs to fix as he transitions back to the role — he played middle linebacker last year — but Doeren was pleased overall.

“(It was) a good game for him to get in there, and he is a good leader,” Doeren said. “Man, he takes charge. It’s very important to him. Plays hard, and he’s got reps in the middle of our defense. At least we’re not having to break any guy that’s never played in there.”

The Wolfpack has struggled this season with injuries. Graduate quarterback Grayson McCall is the most obvious, but the defense hasn’t been completely healthy.

Brandon Cisse has missed two games due to a left forearm injury. Devan Boykin remains out. He has missed every game this season after sustaining an ACL injury last fall in preparation for the bowl game.

N.C. State also lost Red Hibbler earlier this season after he opted to redshirt and enter the transfer portal. Hibbler led the team in sacks last year.

The Wolfpack heads to Berkeley this week to face first-year ACC foe Cal. The Golden Bears are tied with N.C. State and North Carolina at 0-3 in the league standings.

Doeren acknowledges UNC football after Tylee Craft’s death

Prior to speaking about N.C. State football, Doeren began his Monday news conference by sharing a message of sympathy for North Carolina football. Former Tar Heels wide receiver Tylee Craft died Saturday after a two-year battle with lung cancer.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to their family, their team. It’s way bigger than football when you talk about losing a student-athlete to a battle like that,” Doeren said. “It was the first thing I saw when I came off the field walking in the locker room; that was up on the monitor in our coaches’ locker room. It’s just perspective. Thoughts and prayers go out to coach (Mack) Brown, his staff and their team.”

Doeren has not spoken directly to Brown — “He has a million things he’s dealing with” — but Doeren texted Brown after N.C. State’s game was over Saturday.

Craft died before the Tar Heels took the field at Kenan Stadium to play Georgia Tech in their annual cancer awareness and health care appreciation game. The team honored Craft and his family between the first and second quarters. Brown did not officially find out about Craft’s death until after the game.

“[Tylee Craft’s mother, September] hugged me and cried so hard and was squeezing so hard,” Brown said. ”I figured it wasn’t good.”

N.C. State defensive tackle DJ Jackson and Craft were teammates for Sumter High School in South Carolina, playing together in 2018 and 2019. Jackson, two years younger, previously shared updates about Craft’s health on social media.

Loss of UNC football player Tylee Craft to cancer leaves Heels coping with ‘life’s lessons’