NC State punter Caden Noonkester will forever be known for his fumble recovery in win over Florida State

NC State senior punter Caden Noonkester will forever be part of Wolfpack lore for his one of a kind fumble recovery Friday.

NC State was leading Florida State 14-11 with 4:01 left in the game and Noonkester had a surprisingly short 25-yard punt, but it bounced off the helmet of Seminoles redshirt sophomore K.J. Kirkland and ricochet back Wolfpack territory. Noonkester pounced on the football at the NCSU 40-yard line and the Wolfpack were able to gain possession.

NC State rate three plays and Noonkester was forced to punt again. This time FSU punt returner Squirrel White fumbled the punt at his own 14-yard line and senior outside linebacker Tra Thomas recovered it at the Seminoles’ 16-yard line.

Noonkester compared getting the fumble recovery to when he played soccer goalie in the past.

“Ball’s in the air, I hear some oohs in the crowd, and then watched the ball hit their player’s helmet and bounce towards me,” Noonkester said. “I guess, instinct took over. I thought I could get there before their guy.”

Noonkester had never seen anything like that before.

“I cannot say that I’ve ever done that before,” Noonkester said. “I’ve watched, a fair, my fair share of fumble recovery, so I try my best to imitate that on the play. You know, it’s a result-driven business, so I got the result done.

“I’m sure a lot of people could criticize my technique, but, yeah, I got the job done.”

NC State sophomore quarterback C.J. Bailey found senior tight end Justin Joly for a 12-yard touchdown and a 21-11 lead with 1:47 remaining.

“To see Caden Noonkester recover a fumble was, like, the craziest thing ever because that’s the one dude on our team that wants no contact,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said. “To see him do that was awesome. Proud of him.”

Doeren had a good perspective on the role Noonkester played in the victory, which gave the Wolfpack bowl eligibility at 6-5.

“Lucky is when a ball bounces off a guy, back to us, and your punter recovers it,” Doeren said. “That was lucky, and that’s God’s blessing is what that is, and so it’s good to get some of those. We’ve had many that didn’t go our way, and football is that way.”

NC State will host North Carolina next Saturday in Noonkester’s last home game. Whenever the Waxhaw, N.C., native returns to NC State games in the future, he’ll always get asked about the Florida State win.

“I think it speaks to the adversity, you know, that this team has been through,” Noonkester said. “Just who we are as people in the locker room. I think we have a bunch of fighters in the locker room.”