NC State football roster analysis: Demie Sumo-Karngbaye transfers

The second NCAA transfer portal closed after this past Sunday, and while not near to the extent seen in December, there was a flurry of activity. NC State football saw five players enter the portal. Among the headliners of that group was junior running back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye.

Here is a look at Sumo-Karngbaye’s decision to transfer and the impact on NC State.

Demie Sumo-Karngbaye

There is no denying that the NC State football coaches were exceptionally high on the potential of Sumo-Karngbaye. There were times where head coach Dave Doeren had a hard time containing his excitement about Sumo-Karngbaye, like when he appeared on the Mac Lain & Gramlich podcast over the summer of 2022.

“We have, in my opinion, a young man someone that is going to be big on the scene in college football in Demie Sumo,” Doeren said on the show. “Demie is very, very different.”

Not even a year after Doeren said that, if Sumo-Karngbaye is going to live up to that potential, it will be elsewhere and not for NC State football.

There were times last fall where Sumo-Karngbaye flashed in 2022. He ran 14 times for 79 yards and a touchdown at East Carolina in the season opener, and carried 7 times for 70 yards a week later vs. Charleston Southern.

Against Texas Tech, Sumo-Karngbaye rushed 14 times for 54 yards and a score and caught 4 passes for 93 yards and another touchdown. He only needed 4 rushes to reach 49 yards and a touchdown vs. Connecticut, but his season turned at that point.

An ankle injury that lingered limited Sumo-Karngbaye for the rest of the year, and he carried 16 times for 53 yards for the remainder of the campaign.

Overall, Sumo-Karngbaye finished with 55 carries for 305 yards and 3 touchdowns and 12 receptions for 148 yards and a score. Sumo-Karngbaye was limited at the start of spring but returned for the Red-White scrimmage and rushed 3 times for 8 yards and caught 4 passes for 5 yards.

NC State football

From a depth standpoint, NC State can probably withstand the loss of Sumo-Karngbaye. The Pack returns all of the other primary running backs from last season and added early enrollee Kendrick Raphael from Naples (Fla.) High. Raphael, rated a four-star prospect by some recruiting services, participated in spring drills.

Leading rusher Jordan Houston (136 carries for 544 yards) elected to use his super senior option, and promising sophomore Michael Allen also returns. As a true freshman, Allen rushed 53 times for 268 yards and a score. Both Houston and Allen also had receiving touchdowns.

Redshirt junior reserves Demarcus Jones II and Delbert Mimms III are also back.

Where NC State suffers in the loss of Sumo-Karngbaye is the playmaking ability he exhibited, as highlighted in numbers provided by Pro Football Focus (PFF).

Per PFF, Sumo-Karngbaye averaged 3.98 yards after contact per attempt, second best among running backs in the ACC with at least 50 carries behind Florida State’s Trey Benson at 4.53. This was an area where Houston struggled, averaging just 2.46 yards, tied for 32nd out of 36 qualified league backs.

Allen was slightly above average, relative to the ACC, at 3.04 yards, or 15th.

PFF designates a “breakaway” as “rushing yardage on designed attempts more than 15 yards,” or the percentage of rushing yards gained via a breakaway,

Sumo-Karngbaye gained a decent chunk of yards on breakaways at 42.6 percent. Sumo-Karngbaye also had the second best elusive rating, which PFF uses as a measurement to find “success and impact of a runner with the ball independently of blocking.”

In terms of breakaway percentage, Houston was last among the 36 running backs at 5.9 percent. Allen was 25.0 percent, or 22nd on the list.

In terms of elusive rating, Allen was 24th at 57.0 and Houston was 36th at 22.1.

The post NC State football roster analysis: Demie Sumo-Karngbaye transfers appeared first on On3.