NC State football countdown to kickoff: 24
The NC State football season opener for 2022 is at East Carolina on Sept. 3 — or 24 days away from Wednesday. The Wolfpacker continues its countdown for the season with notes about the number 24.
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24: Significant notes involving the number 24 in NC State football history
• One of the revelations on last year’s NC State football team was Marshall transfer Derrek Pitts Jr., who wears No. 24 for the Wolfpack.
Pitts began his career as a heralded four-star recruit at West Virginia, but he transferred and emerged as a standout safety for the Thundering Herd in 2020, making 42 tackles in nine starts.
That Pitts was able to play and make an immediate impact for NC State was not a surprise, but the fact he did so at cornerback may have been. Pitts started 11 of 12 games last season for the Pack, making 43 tackles, six pass breakups and a pair of interceptions.
Pitts then elected after the season to return to NC State as a super senior and is in line to continue in his role.
• The other No. 24 on the NC State football roster is early enrollee and On3 Consensus four-star running back Michael Allen from J.H. Rose High in Greenville, N.C.
As a senior, Allen helped Rose reach the 4-A state title game by rushing 159 times for 1,169 yards and 18 touchdowns and catching 43 passes for 643 yards and eight more scores over 16 games.
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The 5-foot-9, 200-pounder is noted as above-average athlete, having been timed at 4.50 seconds in the 40-yard dash and registered a 39.8-inch vertical leap.
• Allen would love to have the career at NC State that one of the Pack’s best running backs did wearing No. 24.
In 1992, Anthony Barbour rushed for 1,204 yards, the third-best single-season rushing total in NC State history. During that campaign, he ran for 189 yards against Texas Tech, tied for the 12th best single game performance at NC State. Barbour was unsurprisingly named first-team All-ACC.
Barbour ranks sixth all-time in school history with 2,575 career rushing yards, and he had the fewest amount of carries (474) of anyone who is in the top 10. Barbour’s career average of 5.43 yards per carry is third all-time at NC State behind recent standout Zonovan Knight’s 5.46 and Roland Hooks’ 5.45.
Barbour is also 10th all-time at NC State with 3,577 career all-purpose yards.
• NC State football will host Connecticut on Sept. 24. Under head coach Dave Doeren, the Pack is 2-1 in games played in the 24th of the month. The most memorable of those wins was Nov. 24, 2018, when running back Reggie Gallaspy ran for five touchdowns in a 34-28 overtime win at North Carolina.
That would end up being the final game for prior UNC coach Larry Fedora.
