NC State football countdown to 2023 kickoff: 79
The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 — or 79 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 79 in Pack history.
NC State Football And No. 79
• Should No. 79 be retired for NC State football after the season in honor of offensive tackle Ikem Ewkonu?
In 2021, Ekwonu became just the third unanimous consensus first-team All-American at NC State, joining former center Jim Ritcher in 1979 and defensive end Bradley Chubb in 2017. Ritcher’s No. 51 is retired from NC State football, and he was an inaugural member of the school’s Hall of Fame.
Chubb’s No. 9 is also permanently honored, and he is currently a star in the NFL with the Denver Broncos.
Ekwonu was also one of three finalists for the Outland Trophy, an honor given to the nation’s top lineman. He was the recipient of the ACC’s Jacobs Blocking Trophy, the first winner from NC State football since Ritcher in 1979.
Ekwonu finished the regular season with 67 pancake blocks and 18 knockdowns, and was a two-time ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week. The 6-4, 320-pounder allowed just two sacks in 829 snaps.
He continued to make history after declaring his entry into the NFL Draft. Ekwonu was selected with the sixth overall pick of the first round by the Carolina Panthers, becoming the first NC State football player be drafted in that franchise’s history.
• The 1979 team, featuring the aforementioned Ritcher, still remains, 43 years later, the last ACC champion for NC State football. Under head coach Bo Rein, the squad climbed to No. 15 nationally after starting the year 5-1, including 3-0 in the ACC. The lone blemish at that point was at then-unranked Auburn on the road, but the Tigers would enter the polls after its win over NC State and stay there.
A loss at No. 19 North Carolina in a nationally televised game knocked NC State out of the polls for good. However, NC State was able to secure the ACC title by winning its last two conference games — on the road at Clemson and at Duke.
NC State finished the season 7-4 overall (the Pack lost November non-conference games at South Carolina and home to Penn State) and 5-1 in the ACC. The team declined a bowl bid, becoming the last power conference champ to do so.
That 1979 season was the last for Rein as the NC State football head coach. In four seasons in Raleigh, Rein went 27-18-1 overall and 15-8 in the conference. He accepted a job at LSU, but while on a recruiting trip his plane diverted off path and eventually crashed into the Atlantic Ocean after running out of fuel.
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