Dave is Dave. We will never be better. Period. I’d rather make a change and go 4-8. At least we make an effort to do something different.

Another good analysis from Lower.
There was also another article (before NIU) on State’s OL being much better than perceived that I posted very bottom.

Every CJ Bailey Shot Play (that we can see)

The biggest criticism of NC State's offense through five games this year is a total lack of explosiveness. State's starting quarterbacks have not completed a single pass of over 20 air yards. Both Bailey and McCall have one completion of exactly 20. That's not real good. Why is this? Is State...

www.trinityroadtimes.com

That is all. This guy stink.

1. This week has turned into NC State senior wide receiver commit week.

The traveling road show went to watch Cornelius (N.C.) Hough at Charlotte Chambers on Monday in a reschedule game. It got ugly in the second half with Hough surging to a 28-3 at halftime, and it led to a 58-3 defeat and running clock.

It was good to see NCSU senior wide receiver commit Arrion Concepcion, even if it wasn’t the easiest game. He caught six passes for 34 yards and returned two kickoffs for 68 yards, showing he’ll be a slot guy in college.

I won’t compare him to his brother Kevin Concepcion, a sophomore star receiver for NC State, but they do have similarities in their movements. His recruitment was altered by the fact that colleges likely all knew he would be going to NC State if Kevin was happy there, and he never did officially visit any other schools.

Concepcion has an out-going personality and you can sense the burning desire he has. My guess is that he’ll find a way to be a possession receiver in the slot in college.

Tonight’s game is Monroe (N.C.) High at Marshville (N.C.) Forest Hills, which is a long time in the making. Forest Hills has senior NC State wide receiver commit Je’rel Bolder, and Monroe features senior athlete Jordan Young, who is set to pick his college Nov. 2.

The backdrop to this game, is that would have been a natural to attend last year, except for one problem, NC State played at Virginia Tech on a Friday night. That is the downside of college games being played on a Friday night. Then on top of that, the game got called in the third quarter due to a brawl in the stands.

So, there is a lot of buildup for this game to go all four quarters and have things settled on the field (also likely an increased police/security presence).

Bolder will be fun to watch and he has topped 100 yards in three of five games this season, with Forest Hills off to a 3-2 start. I have seen him in camps in shirts and shorts, but never in a game.

Young I got to watch last year but the game was a blow out, and maybe I didn’t get the full essence of what makes him the No. 203 overall player in the country in the class of 2025 by Rivals.com. Young caught a touchdown pass and blocked a punt for a touchdown.

It also will be good to get some fact or fiction with Young, who has had others talking, but not him directly. Is Alabama still lurking? Is it a Clemson vs. NC State battle? Has what he’s seen on the field this fall alter his original thoughts. He’s been to Alpha Wolf, Tennessee vs. NC State in Charlotte, Louisiana Tech at NC State and NC State at Clemson since late July.

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2. The linebacker board continues to grow with offers out to players committed to other colleges.

This week, Zacari Thomas is a perfect example of a player who fits the formula in trying to get a player to flip.

Thomas plays at Gray (Ga.) Jones County High and verbally committed to Boston College on June 16, 2024, over offers from Georgia Tech, Kansas and Cincinnati from P4 leagues, plus Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Liberty, Marshall, Temple, Toledo and Western Kentucky.

NC State offered Thomas on Wednesday and he plays downhill at 6-2 and 215 pounds. Thomas runs well, has some good physicality and looks good off the edge on blitzes.

Thomas definitely seems to play more in space or pass coverage than say Irmo (S.C.) Dutch Forks outside linebacker Josh Smith, who will be officially visiting South Carolina and Ole Miss in the near future.

For a player like Thomas, playing closer to home at a program that consistently wins 7-to-9 games each year could be much more enticing than going to Boston College, unless he wants to be in a major city and enjoy snow. Gray, Ga., is just north of Macon, Ga., a six-hour car ride.

Speaking of South Carolina, the Gamecocks are definitely getting a nice recruiting bump with Ole Miss coming to town at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. It’s the perfect time slot for recruits to come from the state of North Carolina and still get home before 11 p.m.

If that becomes a thing with South Carolina always having big recruiting weekends — the Gamecocks hosted LSU on Sept. 14 — then future key dates will Texas A&M coming Nov. 2 and Missouri on Nov. 16.

NC State has now offered this fall the following linebackers: Thomas (Boston College), Smith (who was Coastal Carolina), Isaiah Deloatch (Rutgers), Bailey Benson (Wake Forest), Jaquel Holman (South Carolina), Bradley Gompers (Duke) and Anthony Addison (South Carolina).

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3. NC State running backs coach Todd Goebbel likes his backs from Georgia, and offered junior Ty’Jaevian “Jae” Lamar of Moultrie (Ga.) Colquitt County.

Lamar has blown up since late August with offers from NC State, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Mississippi, South Florida and Liberty over the last five weeks.

If the high school sounds familiar, that is where redshirt freshman outside linebacker Kamal Bonner of the Wolfpack attended. The program seemingly always has guys and Florida State is a recruiting power in the state of Georgia, and has landed four players from the program over the years. Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, Miami, South Carolina, Arkansas and Ole Miss have also gotten players from Colquitt County High.

NC State turned to the state of Georgia to get running backs Jayden “Duke” Scott in the class of 2024, and R.J. Boyd in the class of 2025.

Lamar has breakaway speed, a compact running style and is north-south with some wiggle. NC State has offered six running backs thus far in the class of 2026 with three from Georgia, two from Florida and one from South Carolina.

Fayetteville (N.C.) Seventy-First junior running back Jayson Franklin attended last week’s home game against Northern Illinois and he camped last June. He has 47 carries for 444 yards and six touchdowns in five games this season, and he’s also an accomplished outside linebacker. Franklin, like many in the state of North Carolina, will be at the Ole Miss at South Carolina game Saturday.

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Friday:
Syracuse at UNLV (3 points)

Saturday:
Wake Forest at NC State (3 points)
SMU at Louisville (3 points)
Boston College at Virginia (3 points)
PIttsburgh at North Carolina (3 points)
Virginia Tech at Stanford (3 points)
Clemson at Florida State (3 points)
Duke at Georgia Tech (3 points)
Miami (Fla) at California (3 points)

National games of the week
Ole Miss at South Carolina (3 points)
Missouri at Texas A&M (3 points)

The tie-breaker will be the score of the NC State game.

Polarizing for sure in retirement, but an all-timer in baseball history, Pete Rose has passed away at age 83.

Pete Rose statistics

Players are starting to trickle in and Notre Dame landed a shooting guard and small forward in Jalen Haralson and Ryder Frost. The Wolfpack offered Frost, a shooter from Massachusetts. Haralson is a physical guard from Indianapolis, and the kind of recruit that Notre Dame rarely gets away from from Big Ten teams. At No. 17, he's one of their best recruits in the program's recent history.

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North Carolina went up into the DMV to get combo guard Derek Dixon. He's solid across the board, maybe not great at any one thing, but a good shooter. I've been told that UNC still wants Davidson (N.C.) Day combo guard Isaiah Denis to go with him, who is visiting this weekend.

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NC State senior commit Arrion Concepcion striving to improve​

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1. Flip season seems more inevitable than ever because so much of recruiting is speed dating in Apri/May/June. The rule of thumb is if a player didn’t have much recruiting interest the first time around, and now all of a sudden is getting it, they typically enjoy the attention.

So far NC State has lost senior cornerback commit Robert Jones (Illinois), defensive end Mykah Newton (Miami) and defensive lineman Makhi Williams-Lee, who will likely end up at Clemson.

In the case of Jones, he was flaky from the start of his recruitment, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if there is another twist and turn with him, especially when the weather starts to get colder in Champaign, Ill., in November.

National Signing Day has been moved up to Dec. 4, which could affect teams playing in a conference title game.

NC State has managed to flip tight end Gus Ritchey from North Carolina, and cornerback Gerritt Kemp from Duke.

Michigan has offered Lantana (Fla.) Santaluces wide receiver commit Jamar Browder, so that will be one to monitor moving forward. Early word is that he wants to visit Michigan.

The Wolfpack will have Coastal Carolina outside linebacker commit Josh Smith of Irmo (S.C.) Dutch Fork coming this weekend, along with West Virginia defensive end commit Romando Johnson of Coconut Creek (Fla.) Monarch, who claims 41 offers. That would be the classic case of “are the offers real or not?” Smith’s Dutch Fork teammate, WVU cornerback commit Elgin Sessions, could be joining him, but he hasn’t been offered yet.

That is followed by Purdue tackle commit Takyhian Whitset of Antioch (S.C.) for the Wake Forest game weekend (Oct. 4-6). Boston College senior athlete commit Marcelous Townsend of Roswell (Ga.) Blessed Trinity and East Carolina senior outside linebacker commit Kendric Davis of Charlotte (N.C.) Palisades are both coming to the WFU game unofficially.

What Smith has shown on film is that he comes off the edge and plays downhill in a physical manner. His instincts seem good and he’s fast enough to get to where he wants to be.

2. NC State has lost a boatload of players over the two year’s but they haven’t been blossoming at other colleges.

Eleven players left NC State following the 2022 season, and another 22 players left after 2023. Three of the 2022 transfers have exhausted their eligibility — quarterback Devin Leary and wide receivers Devin Carter and Jasiah Provillon.

With college football entering the fourth week of the season, here is a look at the players who were lost last year:

• Running back Michael Allen (UNLV) — Allen was in the news this week for quitting on the Rebels after three games. He rushed 19 times for 108 yards this season.
• Defensive lineman Nick Campbell (Appalachian State) — He has five tackles in three games for the Mountaineers.
• Defensive lineman C.J. Clark (Miami) — He has six tackles and two tackles for loss in four games for the Hurricanes.
• Center Lyndon Cooper (Pittsburgh) — He has started all three wins at center, and has the best Pro Football Focus grade among the offensive lineman with 66.6.
• Wide receiver Joshua Crabtree (Murray State) — He has three catches for 23 yards.
• Offensive lineman Jaleel Davis (Florida International) — Davis has played in all four games as a backup right guard and has a Pro Football Focus grade of 58.7.
• Defensive back Darius Edmundson (UNC-Pembroke) — He has eight tackles, one tackle for loss, one interception and one pass broken up in three games played.
• Cornerback Nate Evans (Delaware) — He has three tackles in two games played for the Blue Hens.
• Wide receiver Julian Gray (Liberty) — Gray has one catch for seven yards for the Flames, and three kickoff returns for 62 yards.
• Safety Jakeen Harris (North Carolina) — He has 21 tackles in four games played for the Tar Heels.
• Running back Jordan Houston (Marshall) — He has 24 carries for 84 yards and one catch for six yards. Houston has added one kick return for 20 yards.
• Running back Delbert Mimms (Eastern Michigan) — He has 46 carries for 169 yards and three touchdowns in four games played, plus one catch for 14 yards.
• Quarterback MJ Morris (Maryland) — Morris has gone 3-of-4 passing for 13 yards, plus eight carries for 33 yards and a touchdown in two games played.
• Defensive back Cecil Powell (Troy) — He has 15 tackles and one tackle for loss in four games played at Troy.
• Wide receiver Porter Rooks (Eastern Michigan) — He hasn’t played yet this season.
• Tight end Cedric Seabrough (West Georgia) — He has three catches for 26 yards in three games.
• Wide receiver Christopher Scott (Austin Peay) — He hasn’t played a game yet this season.
• Wide receiver Anthony Smith (East Carolina) — He has 15 catches for 212 yards and a touchdown this season.
• Outside linebacker Daejuan Thompson (Garden City C.C.) — He has 10 tackles, three tackles for loss and one forced fumble in three games played.
• Wide receiver Terrell Timmons (Colorado) — He has two catches for 12 yards this season.
• Tight end Christopher Toudle (Western Michigan) — He has four catches for 56 yards and a touchdown this season.
• Linebacker Torren Wright (Temple) — He has one tackle in one game this season for the Owls.

Additionally, tight end Fred Seabrough has seemingly given up playing football for basketball, and running back/wide receiver Micah Crowell retired.

3. The nine remaining players who left after the 2022 season have met with mixed results this season, with some at their third college.

Quarterback Ben Finley transferred from California to Akron and has become the starter. He’s taken a beating in the pocket, but has gone 64-of-115 for 659 yards, six touchdowns and four interceptions, and has been sacked seven times. He’s rushed 27 times for one yards this season. The bulk of his numbers came in a 31-20 win over Colgate on Sept. 14.

Defensive back Jalen Frazier went to UNLV and then transferred to West Georgia this season. He has 14 tackles and half a tackle for loss in three games played.

Thornton Gentry has settled in at right guard, starting all four games for Appalachian State this season. He has a grade of 56.3 from Pro Football Focus.

Nose tackle Joshua Harris went to Ole Miss and is now at North Carolina. He has five tackles in four games played for struggling Tar Heels defense.

Outside linebacker Chase Hattley transferred to Campbell, but is no longer on the Camels roster.

Defensive end Claude Larkins has played in all four games for Florida International, but doesn’t have any stats.

Defensive end Zyun Reeves transferred to Louisiana Tech, but is now at Mississippi Valley State. He is getting his first extended playing time and has 10 tackles and one quarterback hurry in four games played.

Running back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye is off to a quality start for the Wildcats, and has 59 carries for 274 yards and three touchdowns, plus six catches for 53 yards. He rushed 22 times for 98 yards and caught two passes for 12 yards against then No. 1-ranked Georgia on Sept. 14.

If you go back to the class of 2020, this is what is left for NC State:

2020: Nine out of 22 remain at NC State.
2021: Six out of 21 remain at NC State.
2022: Six out of 12 are at NC State.
2023: Sixteen out of 17 are at NC State.

Blame COVID or bad luck, but the class of 2021 proved to be on the struggle bus, whether playing at NC State or at their new school(s). Left tackle Anthony Belton, outside linebacker Sean Brown, defensve end Travali Price and middle linebacker Caden Fordham are starters at NC State. Center Lyndon Cooper (Pittsburgh) and running back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye (Kentucky) are starting at P4 programs, and guard Thornton Gentry at Appalachian State.

There might be one key backup out with an injury, running back Daylan Smothers, but I'll know for sure in a bit.

The same starting five on the offensive line warmed up together, though coach Dave Doeren said Anthony Belton wasn't going to start. We'll see if he changed his mind on that.

Defensive end Isaiah Shirley is running with the one's in pregame, as is nickel Tamarcus Cooley.