The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1389905
JULY/AUGUST 2021 ■ 19 TRACKING THE PACK QUOTING THE PACK PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN PHOTO BY ETHAN HYMAN, THE NEWS & OBSERVER/COURTESY ACC MEDIA 4 Four-star football recruits in the 2022 class committed to NC State in the month of June using star ratings from Rivals.com. Two of the four-star Pack pledges are from the state of North Carolina: line- backer Torren Wright of Brown High in Kannapolis and running back Michael Allen of Rose High in Greenville, N.C. The other two as of June 28 are quarterback MJ MORRIS of Carrollton (Ga.) High and defensive end Brandon Cleveland of Tampa (Fla.) Carrollwood Day. NCSU hasn't had four Rivals four-stars in a class since 2019. 8th Is where former NC State quarterback RYAN FINLEY'S landed on ESPN.com's ranking of the 10 best graduate transfers in college football since Russell Wilson in 2011. Finley played for the Wolf- pack from 2016-18 after transferring from Boise State, where he spent the first two seasons of his college career. His 10,501 career passing yards rank second only to Philip Rivers in the program record books. He also holds the school record for career comple- tion percentage (64.5) and ranks fourth all time with 60 passing touchdowns. During Finley's time in Raleigh, NC State went 25-14 and claimed two bowl victories. Knight has a solid returning offensive line and flashed on film in 2020, so I expect big things from him this sea- son. While he's still learning how to run with consistent pad level and correctly pace his runs, he has flashes of brilliance all over his tape. The explosiveness he runs with for a 5-foot-11, 206-pound back is tremendous. "It's why he had one of the best forced missed tackle rates in the country last year, with 48 bro- ken tackles on 143 attempts. Now we just want to see it on a bigger workload after he got only 137 carries as a freshman and 143 carries as a sophomore." — Pro Football Focus NFL Draft Analyst Mike Renner on NC State sophomore running back ZONOVAN KNIGHT, who was ranked No. 4 on Renner's 2022 NFL Draft positional rankings among running backs The biggest thing was that cohesion, that togetherness. We always competed in every- thing. Thunder [strength and conditioning coordinator Dantonio Burnette] and [nickels coach] Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay will tell you, we would play Madden 2002. So y'all are 20 years ahead of us in the Madden games — they weren't quite as good as they are now — but we competed like crazy. You would have thought we were competing for the Super Bowl when we were playing, or when we were playing cards, spades or whatever we were playing. "We were getting after it, always competing. Ping pong, shooting pool, we were always compet- ing. So that culture of always competing and always being together, you grow. There's a love that you have amongst the team that's unique. It's hard to explain that to people that aren't on a team because you can't really explain it. "I'm not here to suggest all 100 of you are going to be best buddies, of course not. But there still is a unique bond when that guy has that helmet on with the logo on it and that Wolfpack jersey. There's a bond there that's awesome, even if it's not a guy you hang with all the time. They see you working, you see him working, there's a respect and love that grows non-verbally." — Former NC State quarterback Philip Rivers talking to the 2021 football team about how his Wolfpack teams came together during the offseasons PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM