NC State football countdown to 2023 kickoff: 55

The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 — or 55 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 55 in Pack history.

NC State Football And The No. 55

• Wearing No. 55 for NC State football is redshirt freshman center Rylan Vann.

Vann is the younger brother of likely starting defensive lineman and fourth-year junior Davin Vann. Rylan is unlikely to join his sibling as a starter. The Pack is expected to go with fifth-year redshirt junior Dylan McMahon at center, but the younger Vann will be fighting for a spot on the two-deep.

• The school record for most wins by a coach in ACC games is 55. From 1954-70, Earle Edwards helped NC State go 55-45-5 in conference games.

• In 1996, college football adopted the overtime to eliminate ties. The first overtime game for NC State football came a year later in the 1997 season opener, when the Wolfpack surprised No. 13 Syracuse on the road by going for two in the first overtime and winning, 32-31.

The last official tie for NC State came in 1992, when the No. 21-ranked Wolfpack and Virginia Tech ended regulation in a 13-13 stalemate. That was tie No. 55 in NC State football history. The Wolfpack’s overall record since its first football game in 1892, a 14-6 home win over Raleigh Academy, is 633-595-55.

The first of those 55 ties came in 1895, in the first-ever meeting against Wake Forest. The score? 4-4.

• NC State football legend Dick Christy burst onto the scene in 1955. He rushed 85 times for 602 yards and four touchdowns. Christy’s average of 7.1 yards per carry remains a NC State record for a single season. That is perhaps the longest-standing major individual record in the Wolfpack record books. No other running back (minimum 50 attempts) has eclipsed 7.0 yards per carry.

Christy went over 100 yards rushing three times in 1955, and never needed more than 13 carries to get there.

Whether or not Christy was a culprit, that 1955 squad set a school record for most fumbles lost in a season at 24.

Also noteworthy about that 1955 team: in a game against North Carolina the Tar Heels did not complete a single pass, the last time that has happened for an opponent vs. NC State.

• During his NC State career, which lasted three seasons before he turned pro, Mario Williams reset the Wolfpack record books for career sacks and tackles for loss. The latter was 55.5 tackles for loss.

That and his 25.5 sacks held up until Bradley Chubb broke both records.

• The most passing yards in a single game by a junior at NC State is Jamie Barnette’s 469 yards in a loss at Baylor in 1998. It took Barnette 55 pass attempts (he completed 24).