NC State football countdown to kickoff: 96
The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 — or 96 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 96 in Pack history.
NC State Football And No. 96
• This past year, NC State saw one of the best kicking performances in school history by Christopher Dunn. He was named the Lou Groza Award winner after making 28 of 29 field goals with a long of 53 and all of his 30 extra point tries.
Perhaps the season that would most rival what Dunn did at NC State came in 1996. That’s when Wolfpack legend Marc Primanti also won the Lou Groza. He made all 20 of his field goal attempts, which remains the most ever made in a season for the Wolfpack without a miss. He was also a perfect 24 for 24 on extra points.
Primanti was additionally a consensus first-team All-American that season.
• Also in 1996, NC State defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Tony Gibson began coaching full-time in college. He was the defensive backs coach at Glenville State, a Division II program in Glenville, W.Va. Gibson was there only one season before moving to Cumberland University.
Gibson has been with NC State football since 2019, and he’s been in his current role since 2020.
• The only position player to appear twice in the top-10 in scoring for a single season is former do-it-all weapon Jaylen Samuels. In 2015 and 2017, Samuels scored 96 points each campaign, tying for eighth most all-time with the Wolfpack.
• The most plays NC State ever ran in a game was 96, done at three times including during the thrilling double-overtime win over Clemson in 2021. The other time was in 2011 in the regular season during an incredible comeback win from down 42-14 in the second half against Maryland.
During the 1989 Copper Bowl loss to Arizona, NC State also had 96 plays.
• The longest punt return in school history was a 96-yarder against Florida State by Alvis Whitted in 1996. Whitted was a two-sport star who was an Olympic-caliber sprinter in track for NC State and still holds the school record for the 100-meter sprint.
Whitted would play eight years in the NFL and is now coaching receivers for Utah.
• The longest pass play in an ACC game was a 96-yarder. Quarterback Marcus Stone found receiver Brian Clark by himself behind the Boston College defense for a touchdown on the road in 2005.
