NC State Wolfpack Season Preview | ACC Contender?, Grayson McCall Breakdown and more!

next up in our ACC preview is the NC State wolf pack and Doan this has been a team that's been kind of the model of consistency Under head coach Dave dor who's heading into his 12th season as the head coach of the wolf pack they have won at least eight games in six of the last seven seasons they won nine games last year even with a struggling passing grade they were 103rd in the country in offensive grade on passing plays last year now the good news is they bring in some transfers to help out in that pass game Grayson McCall the Coastal Carolina quarterback we'll talk about just a second Justin Jolly a really really good tight end they brought in from Yukon and Noah Rogers a receiver from Ohio State who was a very very highly rated recruit coming out of high school obviously got lost in a shuffle what was a loaded Ohio State receiving Corp excited to see what he can do for NC State this upcoming year also Kevin concepion who we talk about in just a second as well Superstar true freshman last year I'm excited to see what he can do as a sophomore the defense lost some key players up front on but I think the secondary should be able to pick up the slack and that might be the biggest strength of this team right now yeah absolutely you got a guy like a star corner and Aiden white and a really good group of safeties right a couple of them that are coming back from last year a couple of them transferring in but NC State I think is started to get this reputation of having a really really good defense and the focus last year was on pton Wilson you know as as a potential first round linebacker during the season wound up going a little later in the draft because of injury concerns but this year this NC uh secondary is really the unit to watch with their defense and they're going to keep them in a lot of games yeah they added it like they brought back you know Aiden white three other DBS who played five snaps and then Donovan Kaufman and Jihad Carter they brought in from the portal as well I really like with that secondary biggest weakness and the biggest question that you I'm sure you'll get into just a second how well will Grayson McCall transition to the AC he had a 93 overall grade at Coastal Carolina over the last four years that was tied for the best in the country among active F FBS quarterbacks in that span but there are questions with him right his best play when he was kind of operating a spread triple option offense at castal Carolina something he won't be running with the wolf pack this upcoming year and you saw last year dwn with Jam Chadwell left to become Liberty's head coach they didn't really run the same offense he had a 79.9 grade last year it's still good but it's not like the elite play that we saw from him in the years before um he also played one of the easiest schedules in the country in the Sun Belt Conference now you're playing an ACC schedule as well so he's certainly an upgrade over what they had last year D but how much an upgrade and what do you expect from him as he makes a transition to the ACC this is a tough projection because I I think it Compares very favorably to what Sam Hartman went through last year going from Wake Forest that had a very um unique offense right and into Notre Dame where it was a more traditional offense and the results weren't awful but Hartman still didn't quite get Notre Dame over the top right and I think that's what you're looking for with NC State they're always pretty good but can you get us really into ACC tile contention now as far as what he does right he's he is a spectacular play action passer he's actually the best play action passer of any quarterback over the last four years right doesn't have a huge arm but he gets the timing and touch and everything when it comes to finding one-on-one matchups and exploiting them vertically right just a good idea of when to exploit single coverage now the question is is when you give him more of a volume and more of a true dropback game what happens he's never had 300 pass attempts in a season and Max he's had nine games in his career with 30 pass attempts right so pretty low volume passer at Coastal Carolina but in those nine games he's only won three of them right so you really it's and I don't think it's you know a lot of that scheme it's not that they're trying to hide Mcall or anything because he was spectacular at Coastal right but can he be one of those guys just like you know the question with Hartman and Notre Dame last year can he be that guy to get us through you know in Ohio State game or in this you know in this case if they're playing at Clemson or Florida State or somebody like that can he drop back 35 40 times just in the shotgun without all the gimmicks and win a ball game right because his production and non-play action scenarios is a lot lower than it is when he has play action and he has all that scheme with it yeah definitely and one guy he's gonna rely on next year is Kevin concep own as his top receiver uh he entered Riley dlan as only a three star recruit but he was the most productive true freshman receiver that we had in college football last year he led all true freshman in receiving yards with 845 yards after the catch with 52 7 and receiving yards after contact with 226 he also had 10 receiving touchdowns that was four more than any other true freshman in the country last year so he's a really Speedy player he was open on 86% of his targets last year was in the 92 percentile of FBS receivers he's only getting started man he was so productive as a true freshman I cannot wait to see what he does with probably a better quarterback situation as a true sophomore I think he's a rising star that we have in col ball right now oh I and if I believe I remember seeing a stat that he was also their leading rusher so this is he's a superstar coming up man and that's weird to say because he is a receiver still but no a spectacular player on the outside and they've got another good one we've mentioned already on the outside on defense and cornerback Aiden white and this guy's a ball Hawk man you know he'll take his chances he's trying to get to the football and he gets there more often than not over the last two years he's had 20 forced incompletions and six interceptions I'll tell you what if you're a defense that's trying to force turnovers Aiden white is definitely your guy and he's the sixth most valuable returning power five corner so you're talking about a guy who is valuable to his defense maybe not the most lights out shutdown Corner in the world but he's a ball hawk in certain Corners you need like that on your team you always need one who can just make plays on the ball make big plays to turn the game around flip it around against really good quarterbacks and Aiden white can do that yeah definitely so don NC State under Dave dorran has been always a safe bet to be a top 25 team can they be more than that though with what should be an improved passing game you know right now they're fourth in odds to win the ACC at plus 600 do you see them as top ACC contenders or are you a little bit uh you know more averse to saying that NC St is a top Contender to win the ACC next year man Mall feels like one of the biggest like X factors in the conference doesn't he because at NC State they're just they're consistently knocking on the door but it's never opening for them right and you know two years ago Devon ly kind of struggled after a really good 21 last year was Brennan Armstrong who just didn't give him as much as they needed to when he came over from Virginia and now it's McCall they just keep they're just going to keep trying until one of them kicks the door down right um it's the big question but they they they really need to be able to run the ball better because you know we we make the joke about oh Kevin concepion was their leading rusher well it's really not good right because that's your top wide receiver so if McCall's gonna be a play action passer that's great and you want to lean into his strengths that's great but we got to be able to run the ball too so there's enough questions in their back fields where I think I still question if they're up there with Miami or Clemson or whoever else we have towards the very top of the ACC it just feels like for now they're still knocking on the door but if either McCall takes a big step or they can really lean into his strengths and find a running game then they could contend it because they have the defense to contend right that's that's a big thing but he's one of the biggest X factors in this conference and I'm not we just can't be sure that he's going to get it done because we haven't seen a whole lot of them whole lot of him I should say outside side of that Jamie Chadwell offense yeah absolutely that that's really why why I'm a little bit lower on his transition to uh NC now I do think it be a solid quarterback for them but I just don't think he's going to be the superstar that he was at CA Carolina because he looked really good last year but not like the Superstar he was and now you go to a much harder schedule it's that's where I'm getting a little uh a little more scared I mean you look at their schedule right now D um they play Tennessee as one of their non-conference games they they're at Clemson uh they play Carolina it actually is one of the easier schedules we have actually the second easiest according to our power rankings in the ACC but at the same time me Tennessee is a tough game right so that's going to be really interesting to see how they handle that game but I think with that schedule they definitely could be contenders if Grayson McCall is anywhere close to as good as he was at Coastal Carolina in the you know years that he was there like even like an 80 grade would be great right for for n state but um if he's not and if he struggles that could hold them back from being true ACC contenders but that's what we got for our preview of the North Carolina State wolf pack hey thanks for watching the PFF college football show before I let you go though we have an unbelievable deal for you guys right now if you use the code cfb2 you get 25% off your PFF plus annual subscription we got the 2024 college football preview guide that you can find over at pff.com featuring the best players in the country from all 70 power five teams plus 10 10 group of five teams that have the best chance at making the college football playoff as well you can also gain access to NCAA premium stats for historical games uh teams and player tracking dating all the way back to 2014 so the last decade or so of college football all the stats you can hope for you can find in PFF premium as well also you can be the GM of your favorite NFL team with our unbelievable Mock Draft simulator where you can draft up to seven rounds of players for your NFL team team and if you want to dominate your fantasy league you could do that as 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