NC State: Four Offensive Players to Watch in 2022
NC State enters the 2022 college football season with the hope of making a breakthrough to elite status. Not content to contend, the Wolfpack's stated goal is to play for and win an ACC title.
As NCSU navigates the final season of division play, the Pack will face several serious threats in the ACC's Atlantic Division, including Clemson and defending division champs Wake Forest. NC State also faces stern tests in the non-conference portion of its schedule with a trip to Greenville, North Carolina, to battle East Carolina in the season opener. The Wolfpack will also host Texas Tech in its third game of the campaign.
1. Devin Leary
An easy selection. Leary is being promoted for the 2022 Heisman Award by NC State. Will he win the most coveted award in college football? That seems unlikely. Will the Wolfpack reach its full potential if Leary sustains an injury and misses time? That is much more unlikely.
The 2021 stat line of 35 touchdowns and only five interceptions tossed for Leary is astounding. It seems unfair to expect Leary to have that type of season again, let alone build off of it and improve. Nothing about the signal caller suggests that he will regress significantly or that last year was an outlier. He has ACC Player of the Year potential.
2. Jordan Houston
Zonovan Knight and Ricky Person Jr. are gone. That is nearly all of NC State's 2021 rushing numbers out the door.
In an ideal world for the Wolfpack, a senior campaign of Knight as the featured back augmented by Houston would give NCSU some leverage in 2022. Houston has been patient during his college career, and now he gets the chance to reap the rewards for sticking with it.
Despite the timeshare of Knight and Person over the past three campaigns, there have been seasons where one back primarily handled the workload since Dave Doeren took over at NC State in 2013. Matt Dayes, Nyheim Hines, and Reggie Gallaspy II all eclipsed 1,000 yards on the ground during a three-year span of 2016-18.
Freshman Michael Allen of Greenville, North Carolina, will make his Wolfpack debut in 2022, likely in his hometown during the opener against East Carolina, so another split load at running back is possible. However, NC State could benefit from Houston taking his game to the next level in the fall.
3. Devin Carter
Carter is not a burner out wide, but he has made some big plays in his career, including a terrific catch last season to help NC State beat Clemson for the first time in 10 years.
Having a Kelvin Harmon or Emeka Emezie-type of season is a big ask, especially with the Wolfpack often spreading the wealth around in the passing game. If healthy and consistent, Carter can potentially be a 50-to-75 catches performer in 2022. If defenses key on him, other players at wideout, slot, or tight end can produce. NCSU needs a guy like Carter to command that attention.
4. Anthony Belton
Ickey Ekwonu going in the top-10 of the first round in the previous NFL Draft was wonderful for NC State but also put the onus on the Wolfpack to make sure the offensive line would not regress in 2022.
To be fair, Ekwonu is not the first NC State offensive lineman under Doeren to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, so this is not the Pack's first rodeo when it comes to replacing top talent.
Belton has three years of eligibility after spending 2019 at Georgia Military College. The 6-6, 330 lineman from Tallahassee, Florida, has not played significantly since his first season of junior college due to the pandemic and being held out of action by NC State in 2021, but he will be one of the older players for the Wolfpack and Doeren will be relying on that as a means to navigate the nuances of ACC football until settling in.
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A lifelong native of the Triangle area in North Carolina, Rob McLamb has covered NC State Athletics since 2010, as well as writing about each of the five major sports leagues in North America (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS) for various newspapers and outlets. As a journalist who has also served as a high school and college coach, McLamb provides an educated, unfiltered, and analytical perspective on the Wolfpack and the ACC.