NC State Football 2024 season preview: Grayson McCall & transfer portal impact

NC State family it's time for an honest look at your sports world let's get you hooked up for pack therapy presented by First Horizon Bank here are your hosts Tim Donnelly and wolf pack football legend Mike lennin welcome into another season of the pack therapy podcast I'm Tim Donnelly from 999 the fan you just heard it in the intro Mike Glennon joining us once again 10e NFL veteran one of the established Conference of quarterback members I don't know the accc's brining themselves as the conference of quarterbacks I don't know if there's some club that you had to join but if there is Mike glennon's definitely in it uh Mike appreciate it well welcome back I know it's it's been a great year I mean we have pack therapy and there's definitely been times during the kind of 2023 24 season pack therapy was need Francy state but I can't think of a better year I don't even know if if P therapy is the appropriate name it's been such a good year for us I guess you like you want to continue therapy even through the good times right you like it's maintenance now ra rather than like fixing its maintenance uh a couple final four runs couple the baseball team makes the run to Omaha and uh if you listen to Grayson McCall if you listen to Davin van they've spoken to the media it's football's turn right it's it's next up and uh and oh what an offseason it's been uh let's recap just real quickly here um 1500 transfers like what are we looking at just just on the offense 1600 um three new teams in the ACC Cal Stanford SMU now welcomed in uh the playoff is no longer a college football four team playoff it's a college football 12 team playoff which opens up a whole other realm of of possibilities and expectations especially for teams at the top of the ACC and uh and now you're going into the season with some of the same things but a lot of different for for NC State and I don't think any is going to be more kind of uh focused on than the quarterback position Grayson McCall makes the Trek from Coastal Carolina uh as we're recording this his his old teammates are actually in Raleigh they're practicing trying to get away from the uh hurricane Debbie effects in uh down there in coastal and Myrtle but um but what does Grayson McCall bring I mean that's what everybody wants to know is uh is he going to be the guy to get back to the the Run of NC State strong quarterback yeah I think he's a perfect fit for this team for this offense he's a veteran guy he's thrown the ball a ton he has tons of experience um was a little banged up last year with concussions but one of the most proven quarterbacks in the country and with the The Playmakers and the skill set around him his his skill set fits perfectly in that he's doesn't have the biggest arm I think you know we're kind of used to what Devon Larry had and Brennan Armstrong was more up and down I think I think Grayson's going to be more Ed edti that he's going to play at a high level consistently and he and his job is to be the facilitator he's the point guard of this offense he's got KY concepion he's got some some new guys some new new faces to NC State with Noah Rogers with Wesley Grimes um with the running back Jordan Waters I think it's just going to be his job to get the ball in the playmaker's hands and he's gonna he's not going to have to do too much it's just going to be to run the offense execute it um and and go with the ball in the right place and I think that's what his strength is now now for the uh the State fans that are that are joining us now right not everybody that's listening this season is a as a listener from PEC therapy in the past uh a little bit of background uh Mike and I are cousins and I played football at the University of Delaware everybody knows Mike's football resume we started the show with it so I followed Mike's career about as close as anyone possibly could right we were playing at the same time in the same family hanging out working out together uh I'm going to give you my impression of a Mike Glennon interview when he was playing for NC State or as a prospect going into to college football because I think the the Mike Glennon talking points are exactly what Grayson McCall needs to do Mike was the king of even though he had the NFL arm and he and he could flick the wrist and throw at 50 and all those things he was the king of my job as the quarterback is to get the ball into the playmaker's hands where they can do something with it I'm just trying to distribute the ball and and and keep the offense moving and move the chains he he was the king of I just want to get the ball to my Playmakers and during his career uh that was guys like TJ Graham there were there were uh you know George Bryan out of the the tight end like that those were the Playmakers he was trying to get the ball to um Grayson McCall is going to have some some Playmakers and it really is if they get the ball in space there's going to be a lot they can do with it yeah the difference is I said it I don't know if I truly believed it because I was going to try to it in there even though you had it all he truly just does um need need to get it in into these guys hands and um I I think he that's his strength you know that wasn't I I had a uh tendency to turn the ball over at times I think he does a much better job taking theball um now he might not have some of those wow throws that you know I try to make and and other guys that have been here you this is State fans we know you don't have to sell s short don't be don't be humble here they saw the games um but I'm excited to see what he does and uh you know I I have a high expectations for him heading to the season the the kind of the gift and the curse of it right and and you brought up you know get the ball to the playmaker hands and distribute the ball and and I mean is there enough ball to go around you look at this this wide receiver court before we even get to tight ends before we even get to running backs there's Casey concepion coming back and and Robert and n the offensive coordinator has hinted just because we put a lot more weapons around KC doesn't mean we want to get the ball to KC any less and last year it seemed like entire sections of the Playbook were how do we get the ball to KC concepion you add in Noah Rogers who is a former five-star recruit played one year at at Ohio State didn't play a ton uh but ends up back home in his home state in North Carolina playing for the wolf pack you add Wesley Grimes from from Wake Forest a guy that had a role in the ACC last year uh you had three pretty stud uh freshman in Terrell Anderson Jonathan Paylor and Keenan Jackson you have darari Collins who's sticking around from last season but much bigger role expected and is really turning heads in Camp um I think I just counted 1 2 3 4 five six seven wide receivers I mean you know that at certain part Dave doran's going to want to run the football like is is how how how do you make that work that's the one part that I think has been missing from this team over the past few years that we're going to see more of and it takes away from everything you just said is a run game I think with Jordan Waters coming in um he's a fantastic back from duke and the addition of guys like Zeke Carell and then the experience up front I mean there's talks of Anthony Belton being a first round draft pick I think we're going to see a a rushing attack that we haven't seen in recent years from truly running backs last year kind of morphed into the Brenan Armstrong Casey conception Run game where this year I think it's going to be the year your more traditional running back Run game and I think that's what Dave Dorne wants to do he wants to run the football they just haven't been able to establish that in the past but finally this year they're going to so mixing that running game in with all these Playmakers I will be curious to see how they kind of distribute the ball exactly I mean if you're running the ball whatever modern football you know it used to be like 60% of the time if you're running the football 45% of the time uh just you know and and obviously game Flow and everything has has an impact on that let see even less passes for Grayson McCall to attempt even less targets for guys like like Noah Rogers to have an impact on the game uh you know it's it's Robert and NY is dealing with you know my private jet takes too long to fuel up right it's it's an issue but it's an issue that every single time every single team in the country would love to have um because you you know I've seen the highlights from Noah Rogers granted they are either in high school or Clips in Camp going up against guys like Aiden white who are legit uh like you want to make sure you take advantage of the talent you have and they've got a whole bunch of the skill positions they do and it almost makes me think of when Kevin Durant signed with golden state and they're like there's only one basketball yes there's only one football but they're going to find ways to get the the guys the ball I I still expect so who's Draymond Green right who's who's gonna have to like set screens and just get everybody else open because I'll tell you right now you know we we both played PRI uh prior to the transfer portal but I have a little bit of experience with this cuz I was playing at the FCS level and you could transfer down from the FBF FBS to FCS and not sit out so we used to get those transfers transfers don't often show up on a new team saying I'm looking to be the the fifth option right if there's a couple injuries I can really help us on third down they show up saying I want the role I didn't have at the previous Place uh Wesley Grimes I want to be featured more than I did at Wake Forest no Noah Rogers Ohio State sure I was sitting behind Marvin Harrison Jun J and and these guys that are going to be first round picks here you know maybe KC can can take the lead but I want to be next it's a you know it's you know and go back to your own quarterback experience here wide receivers don't mind demanding the ball and and handling that is something that both Robert and I and Grayson McCall are gonna have to do they'll have to deal with it you would hope that the culture that Dave has kind of created there these guys will be able to put their ego aside a little bit and understand that there's other guys around and I think they see that on the practice field themselves that we got talented guys multiple talented guys and we're not going to be able to all get the ball you know at once so working with each other we'll we'll feed off each other KC is going to draw some double teams that's going to free me up you know if I'm Noah Rogers that's going to free me up if I'm Wesley Grimes I know I got oneon-one so um it'll all benefit each other they'll all get theirs I'm not overly concerned with with that just because I think Dave brings in guys that under understand that and have a team mentality um but I think it's going to be fun fun for Robert and I to use his creative juices to find ways to get everyone the ball and uh and of those guys I mentioned just to to point this out because I was surprised by it uh I kind of look at the the wide receiver room in two groups there's like the vets and the transfers then there's the incoming freshman um because I mean there's a bunch in both groups uh I was surprised that at least during Camp darari Collins has gotten a lot of the like hey don't forget about this guy hype um because how like how do you not watch an NC State practice or NC State film and not just leave talking about Casey concepion right and uh with with some of the transfers getting all of the hype darari Collins is is saying like hey don't forget about me I'm ready to step up into a role that last spring you know spring practice uh I was out out of practice and I I believe darari Collins was an 80s number last year and all of a sudden this number four walked by me I mean I was like who is that and because he looks the hard I mean I don't know his height and weight but he has the looks of a you know a big NFL receiver and from talking with some people it sounds like his approach and his attitude towards this season has been great and they are very high on him so as much as we're talking about the the newcomers this year with Noah and Wesley Grimes and Justin Jolie darari Collins was it was recruited by Clemson I mean and that's another kind of historical Factory of putting n NFL re receivers and I I'm not sure what happened at at Clemson what was going on last year but I know there's high hopes for darari coming in this season 64 212 so looks aart that's that's uh made in a lab uh and then just quickly out of the the other group that freshman group um you know just based sometimes I think we're too married to it but also you look historically like you know being a four star matters right to win a National Championship it's almost guaranteed you need to have a certain percentage of your roster five and four stars and all this like the the the recruiting rankings aren't always exact but they mean something so I think we get caught up in that a little bit uh Anderson and Paylor were the guys that were the the super blue chippers Keenan Jackson apparently is turning head since he's gotten on Camp for for State as well so um you know there's the headliners and then there's those pushing the headliners to take on bigger roles they're going to have a lot of mouse to feed um and as we said that's a an awesome problem to have um quickly speaking of guys that are Turning Heads a little bit uh I think we made the joke last year that uh you know a 66 top 100 recruit quarterback super skinny um coming to NC State like oh where have we heard that before uh CJ Bailey is again this is this is the hype coming out of Camp apparently looking the part and and if Grayson McCall if this is his year CJ Bailey's making it a case that starting next year it's his time yeah I've been impressed being around CJ um just just in the meeting room and seeing his his approach and his his um enthusiasm to ask questions a lot of young guys are kind of scared to ask a dumb question and uh the few meetings that I've sat in and he's he's asking Kurt rooper the quarterback coach questions he's asking Grayson questions and he's just eager to learn and I think that mentality um is what you need at this position tied in with his skill set um he's gonna grow into that body he's got the athleticism he's got the arm um and the reports are great of how he's doing and I don't think we need to completely forget about Lex Thomas I think Lex is finally fully healthy coming off with the shoulder injury he had in high school um he can really throw the ball I mean he's a a Thomas boy which means he's going to work to all day all night to study and and be prepared both physically and mentally so I I really like where that quarterback room is at um you know you have the the old guy and Grayson but you got some some young players with upside and both CJ and Lex and um I'm excited to see kind of what CJ can do let's take a break but when we come back more pack therapy we're going to look at the rest of the offense running backs tight ends offensive line as we get set for another year of NC State [Music] football back here on pack therapy first one of the 2024 uh NC State Wolfpack football season uh we talked a lot of quarterbacks a lot of wide receivers in that first segment rightfully so Headliners fantasy football positions uh it's just it's what it is what it is but uh but the the rest of the offense is not going to look the same as well uh Robert and NY Dave Doran shout out to the nil collectives lot of work over the the off season kind of bringing in a bunch of new Talent let's start with the running backs uh you hinted at it in the first segment State's going to hopefully be able to run the football this year you look at the last few hasn't really had the offensive rushing attack kind of traditional right handed off to the running back pickup yards uh that that maybe Dave Doran wants Jordan Waters Comes The Long Hall from Durham uh from from Duke in the transfer portal Hollywood Smothers uh uh one of the players of the Year by multiple Publications a couple years ago in High School North Carolina uh football goes to Oklahoma returning home back to the state of North Carolina to play for NC State um H how important is it that these guys get going kind of as running backs and not as Gadget players or or something else yeah I alluded to that earlier I feel like that's what this offense has been missing the past couple years is a truly established Run game with the running back where you can just run inside Zone outside Zone power counter and not rely on the gadgets the rpos not not that you have to completely get away from that and because there's definitely a place for for rpos and gadgets but you want to be able to just run downhill and you know stay on schedule and get the first down when needed and I think with with Jordan Waters I mean him and Grayson McCall just kind of seeing the way they interact with teammates the way they're around their coaches I get it reminds me of being in the NFL around veteran players it's like they're confident in who they are they've been there done that it's not fresh it's not new and they have the experience out on the feel that they've done it and I I think Jordan Waters is going to be a huge addition to this offense and then I think bringing in a guy like Hollywood Smothers who obviously has a lot of potential but that's what it is right now is it's just potential but I think he's another element that can bring to this offense whether it's this year or in the future um and that that in addition to the offensive line I have high hopes for for what this Rush game can be I I I don't say this as a joke but it it it's almost you know you need to do this occasionally just to to recognize kind of what the extra covid year which this is the last year where players that were uh playing during that covid shortened season get the extra year of Eligibility along with the new train or the new red shirt rules where you can play four games and still play uh Grayson McCall essentially is going to have played a college career and a half by the time he's done he's six months older than Bryce young and and and Bry young is obviously going into his second year in the NFL and uh you know has lived like a different Football Life So when you say like veterans like an NFL locker room part of it is because like guys that age used to be second-year players in in the NFL so they are bringing a certain amount of professionalism and and been there done that uh and and Jordan Waters as a running back you know hate to bring it up and I and I I talked to Jordan Waters at ACC kickoff to see how often and he brings it up there's an 83 yard touchdown run for Duke against Tony Gibson's State defense last year that Jordan wat executed it it almost feels like that's the ultimate like geez sure would be nice to have that guy on the squad right as as state was struggling to run the ball particularly by that point in the season uh you look across the way and there's there's you know an up- the-middle 83 yard touchdown run adding that to your offense from a big play ability or just a you know sixy yards and a first down ability uh it changes everything and it really allows Robert and iy to be creative which how many times have we heard Robert and I Strength is his ability to be flexible adaptive creative build the offense around his his player skill set I like that when it's a choice not when it's a like we must do it it felt like he was reaching deep into his bag of tricks to get you know Casey concepion another handoff from the slot position which is like there's only so many ways you can do that so I want to see him Flex his creative muscles because he thinks that's the best play not because we have to get some Run game going and this is the only way I can think to do it and the one more element that Jordan Waters brings that as a quarterback we love is when it's third down and you see that the defense is in some exotic pressure look and you look to your left or your right and shotgun and see a a running back that you can trust in pass protection that goes a long way and Jordan Waters experience you know going to Duke seems like it must be a smart guy um that is that's a big deal and and you want to have a guy that can play on all three Downs that can catch the ball but a huge element is a guy that can protect the quarterback and pick up a blitz that you know he's going to be on the right guy and kind of stone him when he comes through so that that is another uh just element that that Jordan Waters brings to this offense and and I'll say this uh having spoken with him as I said at ACC kickoff uh watching some of the miked up stuff from training camp he'll be a fan favorite Jordan Waters is the the media is going to love him he he's uh he's got a personality he I can see why like an offense might follow him or or you know people might enjoy being around him because he's he's having a good time uh talk to him if if you ever bump into him about going fishing with Coach Doran uh you'll get some stories and and it's it's you know it's kind of fun to see um Justin Jolie tight end uh tight end is one of those positions that I feel like you don't know what you have till you have one if that makes any sense or you don't know what you don't have till you get one um in in my college career my our first couple years we had tight ends that we loved right great dudes uh towards the end of my career Nick Bole who ended up playing with the Baltimore Ravens for a bunch of years before he blew his knee out uh showed up and our entire offense went oh all right this is so much easier now right we can dictate to the defense uh what we want to do because you know they don't know if it's a run play We're Going heavy they don't know if he's in the back field you can move him we can also send him on a a wide receiver style route uh Justin Jolie coming from Yukon another guy who State played last year and it might have been sure would be nice to have that guy on the squad let's get him over here uh led the country and forced broken tackles by a tight end last year he brings some some playmaking to a position that can again give Robert and IIs another chess piece what he's going to benefit from what we talked about earlier that we're going to see double teams at at other positions with Casey and these receivers he's going to be matched up one-on-one with a linebacker or safety almost all the time and that creates a a huge mismatch problem that defensive coordinators are not going to want to put their linebacker on Justin Jolie on a a a big third down playing man so what do you do you have to put a safety on him well if you bring a safety on him that means they're going to be in single High coverage and one of those other receivers is going to have oneon-one so the it that just allows for for for matchup problems it's like you know well if Casey's doubled then I can go where Justin Joie or one of these other receivers if if Justin has a safety on him that means we're one-on-one somewhere else so um he's going to be a big addition to him um I'm curious to kind of see what he is as a as a blocking tight end or is he more just that kind of you know receiver that that's lined up at that wi tight end position but the numbers are impressive he caught the ball a lot breaking tackles obviously a guy that can do something with the ball after he gets it in his hands so um it it's going to be exciting to see how the how the pieces of the puzzle kind of come together and and the creativity that Robert and I has to get everyone the ball I'm going to throw a a situation out there involving Justin Jolie I if you go look at uh Grayson McCall's best college Seasons at Coastal Carolina uh by the way no disrespect to Coastal Carolina but group of five roster right uh not an NFL player at every single position Isaiah likele was there for the best uh of Grayson McCall at Coastal he's now you know if it wasn't for Mark Andrews in in Baltimore he would be one of I believe the more prolific uh tight ends pass catchers in the NFL for for Lamar Jackson in that offense uh I believe he had near a thousand yards cards in in 2021 when he was playing with Grayson so Grayson McCall is comfortable feeding the the tight end and using him for big plays and touchdowns and all those sorts of things so uh joliee could slide right into that role and and Grayson would feel Mighty comfortable with a lot of experience uh finding him he had actually I just brought it up here 912 yards and 12 touchdowns uh in 2021 for for um likely so again granted less competition for targets and all that I wouldn't necessarily think he's going to treat Jolie exactly like he treated uh Isaiah likeley but it's it's good to know that history is there for the tight end uh and then there's the offensive line and and no disrespect to the offensive line couple quarterbacks here probably should have led with them right most important guys on the team um it's kind of nice to know hey feel like we need some help on the interior of the offensive line let's hit the portal and bring in a two-year starter from Notre Dame Zeke Carell shows up uh kind of nice to know when you're Grayson McCall you have as you mentioned a potential first round pick and Anthony Belton protecting your your your Blind Side as a as a left tackle um after last season where at times it felt like both Brennan Armstrong and MJ Morris were uh speeding up their internal alarm clock a little bit uh how how you know how I mean I don't even want to ask how important because we all know how important it is but what does it mean for this offense with so many different options on the outside that it's looking like they have the Five Guys up front to to allow ow them you know all the fun stuff to happen yeah it's kind of a a no-brainer statement that when your offensive Line's good then it it creates more opportunity for everyone else but I I think this offens line is going to be very good we we talked about Anthony Bell but getting him back for another year Tim McKay coming back for another year both graduate guys and then getting the transfer with with Z Carell at Notre Dame I mean this is a a plug andplay kind of guy that's that's played a lot of football smart guy can kind of you know run the whole protection be the guy making all the calls at the line and the offense can kind of feel confident with that they're going to be headed in the right direction with him getting all the different looks so uh between Run game between the pass game of giving Grace in time I I think this offens Line's going to play really well and on top of that I think Grayson gets the ball out of his hands quickly so that's going to um be be big for this offense and having a quarterback and an offensive line that can get the ball out quick and and and hopefully not lead to many hits on him did did you ever consider growing out your mullet so that your your offensive line could grow it out and that could be a bonding thing cuz Grayson mccoll's had the mullet for a while now shaved it off now he's growing it back Carell's growing the mullet like it's becoming a thing I don't think I had that much swag to to grow the mullet and clearly now that's off the table um but I like it I think uh the guys rally around Grayson he's obviously got a good personality to him and um the guys have kind of welcomed him with open arms and and he's a guy that they want to be around I I like that they told him no no no we want the guy with the mullet right cuz at Coastal he had the mullet and then he comes to NC State and and I believe it was you know ahead a training camp you know there's that that that want to be the CEO of like of the team and and he's a professional haircut like he wants to be like you know the LinkedIn profile picture and uh he cut his hair and the team was like what are you doing no we want the guy that that wants the attention on him we want the guy with the swag grow the mullet back out and and of course he was doing that and then the offensive line got behind him and said or some of them said we'll do it too right because they're trying to to embrace and build chemistry so I I like the move uh it's you know I look too too far into everything but I I like the move um we have a few more minutes here I I want to be clear I'm not ignoring defense I just really trust Tony Gibson um so so we could have spent half this podcast talking about how are you going to replace pton Wilson and how are you going to replace some of the guys in the secondary and uh what does this offensive or sorry defensive line have up their sleeve to get after this this conference of quarterbacks with all of these accomplished passers part of me just says I want to wait to see what Tony Gibson does with this unit before we even talk about it because I I guarantee you there's something we won't see coming I guarantee you there's a player that's going to emerge and I almost guarantee you that it's going to be one of the top you know five or six units in in the league just based on his ability as a defensive coordinator yeah it's kind of almost like Bud Foster at Virginia Tech where every year you felt like this defense was going to be good because of Bud and I think Tony Gibson kind of has that as well with all that being said the players are the one making plays and they had a really good player last year and pton Wilson and I think that is a huge void to F that I I often wonder if pton was just so good and so tenacious that he covered up some holes in that defense um so I'm curious I I do have full trust in Tony um to get this defense right but I'm also you know a little leery of what um what this defense is going to look look like without arguably the best player in the country the entire country it's it's I thought it was interesting right because I I talked with Dave Dorne about this and I said you know how do you and it's almost like you have to ask the question three times how do you replace him as a leader how do you replace him as a just a physically gifted player uh and then how do you replace him as far as like you said covering for others and you know I got the coach speak answer it's not going to be one guy it's going to be the the entire defense everybody's going to have to step up but then he did say obviously it's going to be Shawn Brown stepping into that position I think it's kind of a interesting move and a smart move and this is what I talk about where like Tony Gibson's going to surprise us you have a linebacker that runs like a safety in pton Wilson maybe even a corner right four four whatever at the combine how do you replace him get a safety and move him to linebacker so you you have another guy that moves that well and can do some of the things Payton Wilson can do uh Shawn Brown is a guy that could earn snaps in the secondary and and now is moving into the linebacker Corp so you know you're going to have to get creative basically with how you replace Payton Wilson uh I do want to highlight uh Davin van uh I I think I referenced the same list last year uh I love the athletic puts out an Athletics freaks list every year and it's just like measurables it's how fast did you run in track in high school and it's uh how strong are you and all of this and and last year Davin van was the 40 he was number 40 on the list they do top 100 he was 40 this year he's number six uh the the article and I assume they got these numbers from someone at NC State he's knocked a uh full tenth off his 40 time so he's now sub 47 he's 469 at the 40 he uh added about 50 lbs to his bench so he's up around 450 now squatting unbelievable numbers uh still has the the athleticism in size and he's you know up you know upper upper 200 right 270 is 280 whatever it is um that's a guy who I think can you're not going to replace like he's not going to start playing linebacker start you know running sideline to sideline like pton Wilson but if you're looking for somebody to step into that when you need a play I think he can be that dude because even in the ACC where there's stud athletes all over the place he's going to stand out as a pure physical specimen who elected to return and play another year yeah NC st's had a fair share of those guys end up on that freak list I remember kavus Street was on it for a while who's still playing defens line in the NFL uh but I Davin van is going to be a huge part of this defense both from disrupting plays but he's also a guy that's gonna execute his assignment and open up plays for guys like what pyton Wilson was like last year and and what Shawn Brown will be this year is that a lot of things kind of funnel you know if the defensive lineman do their job it funnels the tackles the physical tackle into the linebackers where it allows them to play down hill and make the play so Devon van's not only a guy that you can expect to see you know disrupting the passer and all that but he's a guy that's going to play with good Gap integrity and he's going to do the assignment to allow the other guys to make the tackles defense is kind of funny like that right cuz if if like your safety has a bunch of tackles that means your linebackers aren't doing their job right it's not you don't necessarily like as a safety you don't want to lead the team in tackles uh if your middle linebacker is leading the team in tackles a lot of times that means the defensive line is doing their job and it's not always you know just what the the middle linebacker is doing sometimes it's just funneled right to him and you just grab on and and make the tackle so uh you're right Davin van could help alleviate some of the need for a linebacker to be as versatile as uh as as pton Wilson was um overall the ACC I think is wide open right we we'll finish on this um there were uh the ACC preseason poll which which I'm you know full disclosure I get to vote in um there were seven teams that got a first place vote granted two of them I think they should have their vote revoked right there were a couple votes for Cal and a couple votes for uh Boston or a vote for Boston College if you take those away there's still five teams that got a first place vote NC stayed amongst them uh with with uh Florida State who who led the way uh Clemson who was hot on their heels then there was this this group of Louisville uh NC State kind of next and then there was a handful for Virginia Tech it's going to be really exciting divisions aren't a thing anymore there's a 12 team college football playoff two teams I think is the minimum that ACC will get in if things break perfectly I think they can get three teams in the college football playoff there are some very big and lofty goals on the table for NC State that in certain years in the past I just you know you always start with win your conference but it's it's you don't even have to do that to make a college football playoff right now there's some some cool things ahead if all of this Talent we've talked about can come together there definitely is and it kind of just brings me back to the past year of NC State Sports I was actually at in Dallas with Dave Doran when NC State knocked off Duke and I I remember bringing up to him was like I was almost jealous and having fomo like I was so happy for NC State but I was was almost like that's what I wanted I came to NC State to be the one to lead the team to you know ACC Championship to what now is the college football playoff and there's just new goals now there's you can everyone's goal is to win the conference but now there's this kind of new new shiny object out there of that we can still get in the college football playoff without winning the ACC Championship and it is wide open you know from the top you got to you got to look at Florida State and Clemson Florida State new quarterback with DJ I'm still until I see him D in the ACC it is it is a I'll believe it when I see it situation and I think the same goes for who replaced him Matt Clemson and k k kumnick he he's he's got the talent he's got the skill set but it's just not all he's got the the Swagger of a guy that's done it but he he last year was better but he really hasn't done it at the level Clemson and then you keep going down down the list and I think everyone's very excited about cam preseason player of the year uh that is Miami hurricanes cam Ward not Carolina Hurricanes cam Ward uh and and he brings a dynamic skill set but again there's a difference between doing it in Washington state and slinging it around and all of that and then doing it in Miami the U whatever you want to do make with that but against ACC competition yes so just to keep going down I just think and by the way we could say the same thing for Grayson McCall we could say the same thing for some State players there's a lot of unknown in the ACC which is why it's so exctly I think it is wide open and um I do think the schedule sets up favorably for this team this year well well I mean we'll definitely and this will be the the tease going into our our next pack therapies as the preseason moves along CU we are you know less well less than a month till till opening night uh schedule uh that that game against Tennessee in in Charlotte circled with a with a big old highlighter uh the there's there's some interesting times ahead for NC State and the pack therapy podcast will be there to take you through them all uh thank you to Mike as always for joining us thank you to you for listening the personal uh request part of the show share this with your friends like it subscribe on what wherever used podcast check it out on YouTube tell your friends tell your friends tell your friends we'll be back with the next pack therapy in a little bit see you [Music]