NC State football countdown to kickoff: 82

The NC State football season opener for 2022 is at East Carolina on Sept. 3 — or 82 days away from Monday. The Wolfpacker continues its countdown for the season with a note about the number 82.

82: Significant moments involving the number 82 in NC State football history

• Of all the former NC State football players to wear No. 82, perhaps the most famous if wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery.

When he concluded his Wolfpack career, Cotchery, who was legendary quarterback Philip Rivers’ favorite target while in Raleigh, became the first-ever NC State player to reach 200 career receptions, reaching exactly that number for 3,119 yards.

His best year came his final season, when he hauled in 86 passes, which is currently the third most in a single season for NC State football. Those receptions went for 1,369 yards, which is still second most in one year.

In 2002, Cotchery had 1,192 receiving yards, which is third most in NC State history for a season.

Cotchery’s 21 career touchdown catches are also second most to Torry Holt’s 31. Holt blocked a lot of Cotchery’s paths for holding school records, but not all of them.

Cotchery still holds the school mark for most career 100-yard receiving games (15).

After his playing days at NC State were over, Cotchery spent 12 years in the NFL and finished his career with 524 receptions for 6,623 yards and 34 touchdowns.

• Cotchery was part of a long lineage of high level wide receivers to come through the NC State football program. One of the early wideouts to help establish that legacy was Mike Quick.

Quick caught 116 passes for 1,934 yards and 10 touchdowns from 1978-81 in an era where the passing game was far less prominently featured than in the present. Quick remains one of only two receivers ranked in the top 20 in NC State history in career receptions who played prior to 1990.

When Quick left college, he wore No. 82 in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles for nine seasons. Quick caught 363 passes for 6,464 yards and 61 touchdowns. He led the NFL in receiving yards and yards per game in 1983. Two years later, Quick made a 99-yard touchdown catch.

Quick concluded his career as a five-time Pro Bowler and a four-time All-Pro selection.

• The 1982 season was the last year of former NC State football head coach Monte Kiffin’s three-year tenure. The Pack went 6-5 for the second time in Kiffin’s three seasons, including 3-3 in the ACC.

Kiffin would later game fame as one of the top defensive coordinators in the NFL. His son Lane is the current head coach at Ole Miss.

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