NC State football has lofty goals: 5 things to consider entering 2024 season

Kickoff for the 2024 football season takes place in less than two weeks, and the excitement surrounding N.C. State after its terrific offseason remains high.

The Wolfpack ranked No. 24 in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 poll and was picked to finish No. 4 in the ACC behind Florida State, Clemson and Miami. The team, which received eight first-place votes, hopes to see its national ranking climb as the season progresses and surprise the rest of the league.

The expectations are high for the 2024 squad, especially considering the expanded College Football Playoff. N.C. State finished six places shy of what could have been a CFP berth last year when it entered bowl season ranked at No. 18 after winning five straight games to end the regular season.

Now, it looks to make the jump higher in national prominence and success. It starts the quest at 7 p.m. Aug. 29 when it hosts Western Carolina, before getting a major test in Week 2 when the Pack plays Tennessee in Charlotte.

N.C. State says several players boast new habits and are showing a level of intentionality they haven’t shown in the past. Defensive end Davin Vann said head coach Dave Doeren emphasizes stress management and recovery. N.C. State is focused on itself and what can be controlled, hopefully creating a winning environment.

“The biggest thing is the culture,” said safety DK Kaufman when describing the best thing about the program. “There’s a real good culture here; the best culture I have been around while I’ve been in college.”

Here’s what else to know, questions that remain and major storylines fans should keep in mind as we head into the season.

Is this actually the 10-win year?

Doeren has guided his team to a .500 record or better in nine of the last 11 seasons, but the program has never won 10 games in its history. It was on the cusp of the accomplishment but fell short in the 2023 Pop-Tarts Bowl.

N.C. State only has one 11-win season, which took place in 2002 when Philip Rivers was the starting quarterback, and it’s one of eight power programs without a 10-win season in 20 years or more. Virginia is the only other ACC team unable to reach the double-digit mark.

The Wolfpack hasn’t won an ACC Championship since 1979.

With the new transfers and freshmen, the Pack thinks this could be the year for both. Now-linebacker Sean Brown called it during the news conference following the bowl game loss.

“We’re gonna get it next year,” he said.

That confidence hasn’t wavered, with every player buying into the vision of a conference title.

“The ceiling is very high,” running back Kendrick Raphael said. “I think we’re going to win an ACC Championship.”

“One pack, one goal, one united mission to winning the championship,” Kaufman added.

N.C. State’s schedule is favorable for reaching its goals. It leaves the state just three times — two within 400 miles of Carter-Finley Stadium. It’s only expected to play two teams ranked in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 — Clemson and Tennessee. It also does not play anyone besides Clemson that was picked to finish higher than eighth in the ACC.

Based on everything this calendar year, it’s the year of the Wolfpack. The team appears to have the pieces to get it done. The question is whether it will. It should.

How will the specialists look?

The Wolfpack has two and a half returners in its four major specialist spots.

Graduate student Colin Smith handled all kickoff duties in 2023, while redshirt junior Caden Noonkester handled all punting duties. Both are expected to retain their respective roles this fall.

Noonkester, a former walk-on, averaged 42.6 yards per punt last season.

Redshirt sophomore Kanoah Vinesett will be the starting place kicker, Doeren said this week, with Smith being his backup. Vinesett is entering his third season with the Wolfpack and has practiced alongside 2022 Lou Groza Award winner Christopher Dunn and graduate transfer Brayden Narveson. Vinesett’s stat line includes one made PAT last season against VMI.

N.C. State will have a completely new face at the long snapper position after Joe Shimko graduated. Doeren said there is good competition between redshirt freshman Aiden Arias and redshirt junior Jake Mann.

Mann, from Chapel Hill, played at Oklahoma in 2021 before heading to Appalachian State. ESPN listed Mann as the top long snapper in the 2021 class. He appeared in one game for the Sooners and 12 in 2022 for App State. He did not play last season.

“There’s high standards in that room,” Doeren said. “As you guys know, we’ve had a lot of talented specialists, and so they know coming in there, it’s their job to continue that and not let that standard drop. They’ve done a nice job.”

Big expectations for Grayson McCall

There’s plenty of excitement about Grayson McCall, the Coastal Carolina transfer, but that was the case with Brennan Armstrong. He’d left Virginia as its top passer and thrived under offensive coordinator Robert Anae’s system.

Instead, Armstrong struggled early in the season, was replaced with MJ Morris, then returned to the starting role in the final weeks of the season.

McCall’s resume looks similar. He is the only player to receive Sun Belt Player of the Year honors three times in league history. He also holds Coastal records with 106 touchdowns, 88 touchdown passes and 10,005 passing yards. McCall ran for 1,113 yards and 18 rushing touchdowns.

Comparatively, Armstrong finished his UVA career with 9,034 passing yards, 78 touchdowns and 58 touchdown passes.

“The whole offense in general, it always starts with what is the quarterback going to do, right?” Doeren said at ACC Kickoff. “We feel great about what Grayson can do.”

N.C. State’s new leading man in the backfield was listed as a four-star transfer QB by 247Sports and Rivals. On3 lists him as a three-star transfer. The Wolfpack hasn’t averaged more than 400 yards of total offense per game since 2021. It hasn’t averaged more than 450 yards since 2018.

Every year with McCall at QB, Coastal Carolina averaged 400 yards of offense per game. The Wolfpack hopes he can continue that streak in Raleigh.

“He’s a good quarterback. He knows what he’s doing,” wide receiver Dacari Collins said. “He’s been in a great offense at Coastal, threw for a lot of yards. He’s a great mobile quarterback running out the pocket, so I’m excited to play with him.”

Concepcion slated for big sophomore season

Back for his second season, wide receiver KC Concepcion is back and N.C. State expects more greatness from the young player.

Concepcion did a bit of everything last season. He caught passes, ran the ball, threw a few passes and assisted with blocking. The Pack boasts a number of new weapons to take some of the load off, but Anae said the team still expects him to be a do-it-all kind of player.

“No, that role is not going to diminish,” Anae said. “He is that game-time leader guy. That is his contribution to the team.”

Doeren said the competition among the players, especially the receivers, embodies an “iron sharpens iron” culture. It’s been there through spring practice and has only increased through fall camp. The desire to be the best and earn playing time should pay dividends for the Wolfpack and Concepcion.

Meanwhile, McCall said having the diverse set of players should help the 2023 ACC Rookie of the Year continue shining.

“I think it’s just gonna make our lives easier with all the other weapons around him. The defenses aren’t just gonna be able to cue in on where he is; we’ll be able to spread the ball around,” McCall said. “But when KC gets the ball, good things happen, so we’re gonna continue to try to get in the ball as much as we can.”

Staff continuity

While making staff changes can be necessary for a program’s success, stability is also important for players. N.C. State can boast that.

Every single coach from last year returned to N.C. State for the upcoming season, and the staff holds a combined 340 years of coaching experience. Nickel backs coach Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay is the only coach with fewer than 20 years in the profession. He has 18.

The offensive staff enters its second season together, while the defensive staff has been together for five.

Having a set scheme on defense translated to three straight seasons finishing in the Top 25 for scoring defense. It hasn’t found the same consistency on offense in recent years, but the program hopes that changes in the second year under Anae.

“One of the strengths of our program has been continuity,” Doeren said in an offseason statement. “Players want to get what they signed up for and we’ve been able to be different in that space. In what is an unstable profession, we’ve been a model of stability.”