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NC State football countdown to kickoff: 23

MattCarterby:Matt Carter•08/08/23•

TheWolfpacker

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NC State football legend Ted Brown (Photo courtesy NC State)

The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 — or 23 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 23 in Pack history.

NC State Football And The No. 23

• No one will ever wear No. 23 for NC State football after the number was retired in honor of legendary running back Ted Brown, who still holds many of the Pack’s most prominent school records 45 years since his last game for the Wolfpack.

Among those records: most rushing yards in a career (4,602), season (1,350 in 1978) and game (251 vs. Penn State in 1977), most rushing attempts in a season (302 in 1978) and career (860), most rushing touchdowns in a career (49), most 100-yard rushing games in a season (nine in 1977) and career (27), most all-purpose yards in a career (5,565) and most career touchdowns (51).

Brown also remains the only NC State running back to log multiple 200-yard rushing games, having also rushed for 227 yards vs. Clemson in 1975. He came within two yards against Syracuse in 1978 of having a third. Brown’s 1,251 yards in 1977 is the second most in a single season for the Wolfpack. He also rushed for 1,088 yards in 1976 to be the only NC State player with three 1,000-yard campaigns. Brown nearly had a fourth after he had 913 yards on the ground as a rookie in 1975.

He is the only former NC State running back to average more than 100 yards per game on the ground in his career (107.0). In addition, Brown rushed for at least 10 touchdowns all four years in Raleigh, another accomplishment that only Brown achieved for the Wolfpack. Only one other NC State player (Stan Fritts) even had more than 40 touchdowns (Fritts had 41, eight shy of Brown).

For good measure, Brown also led NC State in receptions his last three seasons in Raleigh.

In 2013, Brown was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

When his NC State football playing days were over, Brown was drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings and played eight seasons in the NFL. In 1981, Brown ran for over 1,000 yards (1,063), and he had 10 rushing scores two seasons later. For his professional career, Brown rushed for 4,546 yards and accounted for 53 total touchdowns.

• Under head coach Dave Doeren, NC State is 1-2 when playing on the 23rd day of the month. That one win was a significant one however, a 27-21 triumph at No. 11 Florida State in 2017, part of a six-game winning streak that helped the Pack climb to No. 14 in the Associated Press poll. Although Sept. 23 falls on a Saturday this year, NC State will play the day before in Charlottesville for a Friday evening game.

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