NC State football countdown to kickoff: 65
The NC State football season opener for 2022 is at East Carolina on Sept. 3 — or 65 days away from Thursday. The Wolfpacker continues its countdown for the season with a note about the number 65.
65: Significant moments involving the number 65 in NC State football history
• One of the best and most acclaimed players for head coach Dave Doeren at NC State successfully wore No. 65 — center Garrett Bradbury.
Bradbury was recruited as a tight end, switched to defensive line and then finally found his home on the offensive line. He started 39 straight games from 2016-18 and became an elite center. Bradbury was named first-team All-ACC in 2017, but he really made a name for himself the following year.
That is when Bradbury became the first NC State football player to win the Rimington Trophy given to the nation’s top center. He was also a semifinalist for the Outland Trophy and was named a consensus first-team All-American.
That led to Bradbury being a first-round draft pick in 2019 for the Minnesota Vikings.
• In 1965, former NC State defensive lineman Dennis Byrd made the first of three consecutive first-team All-ACC honors. Byrd made history as the first ACC football player to accomplish that. The College Football Hall of Famer also became NC State football’s first consensus All-American two years later.
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• That 1965 team was the last of three consecutive NC State football squads coached by Earle Edwards to at least tie for first place in the ACC. They did so after a 1-4 start with its lone win coming at home over Wake Forest. The Wolfpack won the last five games of the regular season with a stretch of three consecutive shutout victories embedded in that streak.
• The NC State football school record for touchdowns in a season is 65, set in 2003 during potential NFL Hall of Famer Philip Rivers’ final season in Raleigh. Rivers also led the offense that year to set school records for points with 489 and points per game at 37.6.
The last game the season, NC State destroyed Kansas, 56-26, in the Mazda Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla. One of the defensive assistants on the other sideline from NC State for the Jayhawks was none other than future Pack head coach Dave Doeren. From 2002-04, Doeren was Kansas’ linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator. In 2005, he was elevated to co-defensive coordinator before leaving for the same title at Wisconsin in 2006.
A year after the prolific 2003 offense, NC State would have the No. 1 defense in the country.
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