NC State football countdown to 2023 kickoff: 68

The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 — or 68 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 68 in Pack history.

NC State Football And No. 68

• The team that NC State football has defeated more than any other in program history is Wake Forest.

This past fall, true freshman quarterback MJ Morris made his first career start and completed 18 of 28 passes for 210 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for another 43 yards in a 30-21 home win over No. 20 Wake Forest. That improved the Wolfpack to 7-2 overall at the time and 3-2 in the league.

That victory was also No. 68 all-time for NC State football against the Demon Deacons.

In Dave Doeren’s 10 games against WFU as the head coach in Raleigh, NC State is 5-5. That reflects the back-and-forth nature of the rivalry in recent years. The Pack is 13-12 against Wake Forest since 2000.

Overall, NC State leads the all-time series against Wake, 68-42-6. The two teams will meet in Winston-Salem this year on Nov. 11. The Demon Deacons will come back to Raleigh in 2024, and then that will be the end of the annual rivalry that has been played every year since 1910.

When the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) scrapped divisions, NC State was designated three permanent rivals for the next four seasons: Clemson, Duke and North Carolina. That results in NC State not facing Wake Forest in either 2025 or 2026.

• NC State football legendary head coach Earle Edwards’ last of five ACC titles with the Wolfpack came in 1968. The Pack went 6-4 overall, but three of those defeats came in non-conference action. Against conference opponents, the only team to beat NC State was Clemson, who prevailed 24-19 in the penultimate league game for the Wolfpack.

Edwards’ team responded a week later by winning at Duke, 17-15, to go 6-1 in the ACC. Clemson dropped its season-finale to South Carolina, who was then in the ACC, and that left the Tigers in second place.

For NC State, that was the fourth league crown in six seasons, and yet arguably the best team in that stretch was one of the two that did not claim the ACC title. The 1967 squad rose to No. 3 in the Associated Press poll after an 8-0 start, but a 14-6 loss at Clemson in a game of unbeaten conference teams to end the regular season left NC State 5-1 in the ACC.

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