Five bold predictions for NC State football

Believe it or not, there’s less than two weeks until NC State football kicks off its 2018 regular season against James Madison at Carter-Finley Stadium. While the Wolfpack has a lot to replace from last year’s team, it also brings back a lot of talent and has the potential for a great season. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some bold predictions for the 2018 edition of Wolfpack football. 

5. Gallaspy joins the 1,000-yard club- NC State, partly through a rock-solid offensive line, and partly through talent at the position, has produced a 1,000-yard rusher each of the past two years in running backs Matt Dayes and Nyheim Hines. This year, with Hines gone to the NFL, senior Reggie Gallaspy, who had 505 yards on 117 carries as Hines’ backup last year, will look to continue that trend.

Gallaspy lacks the breakaway speed of Hines or the skill of Dayes, but what he does bring is a bruising style of play that should serve him well as the Wolfpack’s workhorse running between the tackles. The combination of freshmen Ricky Person, Trent Pennix and Nakia Robinson will serve as the Pack’s change-of-pace backs, but head coach Dave Doeren has already named Gallaspy the starter.

Gallaspy will be running behind another strong offensive line that returns its entire left side in graduate center Garrett Bradbury, redshirt senior left tackle Tyler Jones and redshirt senior guard Terrone Prescod, and has options to replace NFLers Tony Adams and Will Richardson (namely, sophomore Joshua Fedd-Jackson and Justin Witt).

With the talent NC State has at the receiver position, most teams probably won’t be using their safeties to stack the box against the run. Gallaspy also brings motivation. After serving as someone’s backup his entire college career, the running back position is finally his. He’s motivated to show what he can do, and to show he can make a career for himself, particularly with a young daughter at home.

This will be the third straight season the Pack has a 1,000-yard rusher.

4. Roseboro has 10-plus sacks: Given the role the senior edge rusher will be playing and his talent level, this probably isn’t that bold of a prediction. With Bradley Chubb and Kentavius Street gone to the NFL, senior defensive end Darian Roseboro finally gets his chance as a starting defensive end, and the leader of the Pack’s d-line.

Roseboro is a talented pass rusher in his own right, and despite serving as the “fifth man” on the d-line last year, could have gone to the NFL. He’s motivated to improve his draft stock in his senior season the same way Chubb did. Roseboro has 13.5 sacks in three career seasons as a backup role, and should be more than capable of hitting double digits as an undisputed starter this year.

The key will be developing another pass rushing threat in senior end James Smith-Williams or some of the Pack’s rotational players to draw blockers the way Street did for Chubb. If the Pack can do that, Roseboro will hit double-digit sacks, and should be looking at a draft slot in the top three rounds.

3. Meyers breaks ACC single-season reception record- NC State should have one of the best receiving trios in the country in junior Kelvin Harmon, redshirt junior Jakobi Meyers and graduate Stephen Louis.

Meyers will serve as the slot receiver, graduate quarterback Ryan Finley’s “big man” target in the middle of the field, especially on third down and in the red zone. Meyers thrived on making big catches on third downs last year, and should do so again.

The Georgia native is already coming off a breakout season in which he finished eighth in the ACC with 63 receptions. He’d need 109 to top former Duke star Jamison Crowder’s current record-setting season in 2013. So where are those extra 46 catches going to come from?

For starters, someone has to replace all-purpose back Jaylen Samuels’ 76 catches from last year. Meyers obviously won’t get all of them, but if he’s going to assume the “safety blanket” role Samuels played for Finley last year, which is likely, he’ll get a good chunk of them.

That, combined with the Pack probably using a slightly more pass-heavy offense with Hines gone, will lead to Meyers etching his name in the ACC record books.

2. Finley is a Heisman finalist- One of the biggest reasons this NC State team has a chance to do something special this year is it has one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Finley is coming off a season in which he finished second in the ACC in completion percentage (65.1), passing yards (3,518) and threw 17 touchdowns compared to just six interceptions.

ESPN insider Todd McShay recently named Finley the top NFL quarterback prospect for the 2019 NFL draft. He’s got another year of experience under his belt, a wealth of weapons in the aforementioned receiver trio along with redshirt sophomore tight end Cary Angeline, a transfer from USC that will be eligible to play after week three. Finley is motivated to be one of the best quarterbacks in college football, and he’ll do it.

He’d have to beat out some tough competition that includes Stanford running back Bryce Love, West Virginia quarterback Will Grier, Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm and Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor, among others to ultimately capture the Heisman, but he’s got what it takes to do it. Finley won’t bring home the trophy in the end, but he’ll be among the top three vote getters.

1. The Wolfpack will win more games than the 2017 season- It may be hard to imagine NC State improving on last year’s 9-4 finish with the losses from last year’s roster, but the Pack will do it, for a few reasons.

Finley and his weapons will give the Wolfpack one of the nation’s best passing attacks. The retooled defense will be better than expected. And, perhaps, most importantly, the Pack features an easier schedule, that does not feature Notre Dame (or South Carolina in Charlotte, for that matter). Many of the team’s ACC opponents feature either questions at the quarterback position or a new head coach, while NC State has a sixth-year bench boss and, health permitting, an NFL-caliber player under center. The only game on the schedule that looks like a probable loss is Clemson (and NC State has lost by a touchdown to the Tigers in each of the last two meetings), and NC State should have at least 50-50 odds in every other game.

This experienced, battle-tested group is perfectly capable of winning nine or more games in the regular season, and that’s exactly what it will do.