COLUMN: NC State football has the opportunity to put a stamp on the most successful year in NC State athletics

The curse has been lifted.

NC State men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball put an end to “NC State Shit” in 2024. The Wolfpack became just the third school to make both Final Fours and the Men’s College World Series in the same year, effectively ending Wolfpack fans’ pain and misery of the last 40 years.

While none of those teams won a national championship, the magical runs those teams took Wolfpack Nation on were more than enough to break the curse on NC State sports.

It all started with men’s basketball when it went on one of the most improbable runs in college basketball history — the Wolfpack was left for dead entering the ACC Tournament with no chance of making the NCAA Tournament unless it won the conference title. Then, the red-and-white won five games in five days for its first ACC title in 37 years — a feat only accomplished once before with UConn in 2011.

NC State rode that momentum into the NCAA Tournament as an 11-seed, making it all the way to the Final Four for the first time since 1983.

What made the men’s run even sweeter was the women’s team doing the same thing alongside them. After being picked to finish eighth in the ACC, the women’s team entered the NCAA Tournament as a three-seed and took down higher-ranked Stanford and Texas to reach the Final Four for the second time in school history and the first time since 1998.

There were high expectations for the Wolfpack’s baseball team going into the season, but the team suffered many injuries that could’ve derailed its campaign. In the past, injuries like that would’ve ended any hopes of postseason success, and “NC State Shit” would be to blame.

Instead, the Pack persevered, advancing to its fourth College World Series and the first since it was controversially kicked out in 2021.

It was an overwhelming amount of success for NC State fans that made all the suffering of the last 40 years seem worth it.

Why bring this all up? What do these other sports have to do with football?

Yes, the curse has been broken, but the football team has a chance to send that dark magic to the shadow realm once and for all, never to be seen again.

It had been 37 years since men’s basketball won a conference title. However, football still owns a longer drought with the last ACC Championship for NC State football being in 1979 . This year, NC State has its best opportunity to claim the crown in the Dave Doeren era.

NC State has a loaded transfer class, bringing in one of the most accomplished college quarterbacks in the country in graduate signal-caller Grayson McCall from Coastal Carolina, former five-star receiver Noah Rogers from Ohio State, top 10 transfer running back Jordan Waters from Duke, one of the top transfer tight ends in UConn transfer Justin Joly and Notre Dame transfer center Zeke Correll.

To go along with the transfer class, Doeren has a plethora of returning talent. Key returners include reigning ACC Rookie of the Year receiver Kevin Concepcion, senior defensive end Davin Vann, All-ACC cornerback Aydan White and linebacker Sean Brown. There is also young talent the staff is high on like sophomore cornerback Brandon Cisse and freshmen receivers Terrell Anderson and Jonathan Paylor.

With talent comes expectations. NC State is ranked in every preseason poll and is a popular pick to make the ACC Championship game. The last time the Wolfpack had this much hype before the season was 2022, a campaign derailed by quarterback Devin Leary’s shoulder injury, recognized by some as more “NC State Shit.”

Last season, Doeren became the winningest coach in NC State history with the help of four nine-win seasons. But the knock on Doeren is that his team always comes up short of the coveted 10-win campaign, a feat only accomplished once before at NC State when Phillip Rivers led the Pack to 11 wins in 2002.

With this team, 10 wins is the bar and anything less will be seen as a failure, which is a first for the 12th-year head coach.

“What we did last year and the year before and the year before is good,” Doeren said. “Winning nine games is good. We don't want to be good. We want to be the best at what we do. These guys understand that.”

McCall arrived on campus in January and witnessed the greatest athletic run in the history of the school so he understands the pressure that is on his team to win.

“A lot of buzz in Raleigh right now with the men's and women's basketball team, and baseball,” McCall said. “A lot of energy. A lot of support from the fans in the community. Ready to get this thing rolling, take this momentum and keep it going.”

If McCall and the rest of the Wolfpack keep the momentum rolling with an ACC Championship, not only will the “NC State Shit” curse be six feet under, but it would put a stamp on the most successful year in NC State athletics history and possibly college history.

The only other NC State sports years that contend with 2024 are 1974 and 1983. In 1974, the men’s basketball team won its first National Championship to go with a baseball and men’s swimming ACC Championship.

In 1983, the Wolfpack won the men’s basketball national championship along with conference titles in men’s basketball, men’s track and field, women’s cross country and wrestling.

While some might say the national titles take those years over the top, it’s the success NC State has had across the board that makes 2024 the best year, and it’s not even over yet.

NC State has won four conference titles this year in wrestling, gymnastics, men’s basketball and men’s swim and dive. Factoring in a potential football conference championship and considering women’s cross country should be the favorite to win its ninth-straight conference title and possibly its fourth consecutive national championship, then 2024 would be the greatest year in NC State sports history.

Where would this rank all-time in the history of college sports? The other two schools to reach both Final Fours and the men’s College World Series in the same year were Texas in 2003 and Louisville in 2013. Given the popularity and importance of those sports, these can be argued as the three best years in college sports history.

The 2003 Texas teams lost in both semifinals of the Final Four, just like NC State in 2024. The 2013 Louisville men’s basketball team won the national championship, but that was later vacated and the Cards’ women’s squad lost in the championship game.

Just based on wins, Louisville has the slight edge because its women’s team advanced to the national championship game but the men’s national championship makes things a little complicated, so let’s just say they didn’t win a game because the title was vacated.

Both 2024 NC State and 2013 Louisville didn’t win a game in the men’s College World Series while Texas made it to the semifinal. That gives Texas the edge in baseball, so at this point, Texas and Louisville are about even while NC State trails closely behind.

Texas then separates itself when it comes to the other sports on campus. In 2003, the Longhorns won nine conference titles while their softball team made the women’s college World Series. In 2013, Louisville won three conference championships while NC State has won four ACC Championships in 2024.

Objectively, Texas has the best year up to this point, but NC State will have a case to make if it does what it thinks it can in football. In 2003, Texas football recorded a 10-3 record and finished 12th in the AP Poll but didn’t win a conference championship.

If NC State wins the ACC Championship, automatically making the College Football Playoff, it would be the most successful year in college sports history among the four revenue sports, especially considering its additional accomplishments in Olympic sports.

With that on the line, Doeren and the football team are keenly aware of what’s at stake and are ready to claim 2024 as the Wolfpack's year.

“It is really a strong athletic department and so that wave of momentum starts with the fall sports and then the winter sports pick it up and the spring sports and it's our turn,” Doeren said. “We’re excited about riding that red wave everybody has created.”