NC State football countdown to kickoff: 35

The NC State football season opener for 2022 is at East Carolina on Sept. 3 — or 35 days away from Saturday. The Wolfpacker continues its countdown for the season with notes about the number 35.

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35: Significant notes involving the number 35 in NC State football history

• The most talked about stat from NC State fifth-year redshirt junior quarterback Devin Leary’s 2021 campaign was the new school-record for touchdown passes thrown in a season that he set. Leary’s 35 scoring tosses broke Philip Rivers’ prior NC State record of 34 that had stood since 2003.

Leary threw for at least two touchdowns in all but one game last season, and he had four TD throws in five contests, all of them ACC affairs.

Perhaps more impressive about Leary throwing 35 touchdown passes for NC State is that he accompanied that with just five interceptions.

• One of the most intriguing members of the NC State football recruiting class in 2021 was Chase Hattley from nearby Panther Creek High in Cary, N.C. Hattley now wears No. 35 for the Wolfpack.

Hattley broke out as a junior in high school, making 29 tackles and a state-leading nine interceptions. He also was a big-play threat when involved on the offense, making seven receptions for 161 yards and three touchdowns.

On top of that, Hattley was a good track and field athlete, qualifying for the 4-A state championship in indoors in 2019 in the high jump, triple jump and long jump.

Despite that, Hattley was somewhat of a late-bloomer in recruiting. West Virginia was his lone Power Five offer until Florida State offered in late-April of his junior year in high school. Then came Oklahoma, Boston College, NC State and South Carolina. He would ultimately pick the Wolfpack over Oklahoma and South Carolina.

Hattley was one of the rare recruits in the NC State recruiting class to elect to play the spring season after Covid-19 canceled fall football in 2020. Unfortunately, Hattley suffered a knee injury in his opener that would force him to redshirt this past season for NC State.

Recruiting originally as a safety by NC State, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Hattley is now with the linebackers.

• NC State offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tim Beck is in his 35th year of coaching, including his third in his current position. He started out as a high school coach at Miramar (Fla.) High before a one-year stint at Illinois State.

Beck’s major breakthrough came in 2005 when he was hired as a receivers coach at Kansas. Since then, Beck has also been an offensive coordinator at Nebraska, Ohio State and Texas before coming to NC State.

Also entering their respective 35th year of coaching on the NC State staff are safeties coach Joe DeForest and receivers coach Joker Phillips. DeForest has been at NC State the past three seasons and Phillips is starting his second in Raleigh.