The NC State football <a href="https://www.on3.com/teams/nc-state-wolfpack/news/nc-state-football-kickoff-times-notre-dame-virginia-louisville/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31</a> — or 45 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 45 in Pack history.



<h2 id="h-nc-state-football-and-the-no-45">NC State Football And The No. 45</h2>



• Wearing No. 45 for NC State football this fall is fourth-year junior defensive lineman <a href="https://www.on3.com/db/davin-vann-32272/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Davin Vann</a>. The Cary (N.C.) High graduate is also one of the most important players on the Wolfpack roster and faces high expectations in 2024.



Vann was the unusual prospect who rose from unranked to a four-star recruit in a span of about eight months. His rise began when, checking in at 6-foot-2, 273 pounds, Vann ran the 40-yard dash in 4.65 seconds at a Nike Opening Regional camp. That came after a junior season in which Vann had 13 sacks and 26 tackles for loss.



Yet, NC State and Louisville were his only Power Five offers when he committed to the Wolfpack in the summer of 2019. Colleges are realizing they missed the mark on Vann. In 2022, Vann had eight tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks in 13 games, emerging as a full-time starter for the Wolfpack defense. Vann led the NC State defensive line in TFLs, sacks and quarterback pressures (10).



• One of the most legendary NC State defenders wore No. 45. Former Pack linebacker Dantonio “Thunder” Burnette was a first-team All-ACC linebacker on the 2002 team that won a school-record 11 games. Burnette’s 476 career tackles are second-most in NC State football history, and his 41 hits for loss are fourth most.



• The last game between NC State football and Davidson came in 1953, which was the year of the formation of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), in which the Wolfpack was part of a group of teams that broke off from the Southern Conference to form its own league. Before that, however, NC State and Davidson played each other 45 times.



The series was lopsided, with the Wolfpack owning a 30-9-6 record against the Wildcats. The number of ties matches the totals from the Wolfpack’s series with North Carolina and Wake Forest for the most in program history against a common opponent.



The last game played between NC State and Davidson was a 27-7 Wolfpack win. That was the only victory in a 1-9 campaign in 1953 for the Pack, a year that marked the end of Horace Henderson’s brief two-year tenure as head coach of NC State football. He was replaced by Earle Edwards, who is the all-time leader in wins with the Pack.

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NC State football countdown to 2023 kickoff: 45

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