The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 \u2014\u00a0or 99 days away. TheWolfpacker.com\u2019s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 99 in Pack history.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0The current No. 99 on the NC State football roster is D.J. Jackson<\/a><\/strong>, a redshirt freshman defensive tackle from Sumter (S.C.) High. Jackson has an opportunity this fall to get on the field as a reserve along the interior of the line, but first he must prove to be healthy.<\/p>\n NC State landed Jackson despite a early summer push from South Carolina just as Jackson was getting close to deciding. Had that Gamecocks\u2019 offer come earlier, it\u2019s possible Jackson would have been in Columbia instead of Raleigh, but Jackson chose to reward NC State\u2019s loyalty.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Jackson, he tore his ACL the summer prior to his senior season. He has been working his way back ever since. He did not play in NC State\u2019s spring game.<\/p>\n \u2022 The year 1999 <\/strong>was the last season as head coach of NC State football for Mike O\u2019Cain. <\/strong>The Wolfpack went 6-6 that fall, including 3-5 in the ACC. The year began promisingly with an upset win at No. 16 Texas, coached then by Mack Brown<\/a><\/strong>, followed by home wins over South Carolina and William & Mary.<\/p>\n However, a stunning loss in Charlotte to a North Carolina team who had one prior win and was quarterbacked, due to injuries, by a converted safety followed by a season-ending 23-6 defeat at No. 21 East Carolina sealed O\u2019Cain\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n He ended he tenure at NC State with a 41-40 overall record. Counting Dave Doeren<\/strong>, the last five coaches for the Wolfpack have had winning records. O\u2019Cain had the lowest winning percentage of the five at 50.6 percent, but his 46.4 percent success rate in ACC games is actually second best amongst the group, although Doeren is not far behind at 46.3 percent.<\/p>\n \u2022 Twice, NC State football has had a 99<\/strong>-yard play.<\/p>\n Former running back\/receiver\u00a0Darrell Blackman<\/strong>. In 2007, Blackman had a 99-yard return for a touchdown during a 42-20 home loss to Clemson in Raleigh. Blackman is still third all-time in school history with an average of 26.3 yards per kickoff return.<\/p>\n Cornerback\u00a0Sebastian Savage<\/strong> would have five interceptions in 1991, and two of them came in the red zone against North Carolina. The latter of the two practically ended the game.<\/p>\n With NC State leading 17-7, UNC had a third and goal from the NC State 6-yard line with 20 seconds left. North Carolina quarterback\u00a0Chuckie Burnette\u00a0<\/strong>was intercepted off a tipped pass by Savage at the 1-yard line, and the cornerback sprinted away the Heels 99 yards for a touchdown, crossing the goal line with four seconds to go for the final 24-7 margin.<\/p>\n NC State would finish the regular season 9-2 and No. 21 in the poll before losing to No. 12 East Carolina in the Peach Bowl.<\/p>\n The post NC State football countdown to kickoff: 99<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 \u2014\u00a0or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}