NC State football countdown to 2023 kickoff: 67
The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 — or 67 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 67 in Pack history.
NC State Football And No. 67
The 1967 season is one that goes down, along with the 2002 campaign, as arguably the best in NC State football history.
Coached by Earle Edwards, the team was affectionately known as the “White Shoes Defense.” Before the start of the season, an opener against archrival North Carolina, a senior linebacker named Chuck Amato decided to lead a team effort to paint the shoes of the defense white.
The team won 13-7 over the Heels, and the defense became a national sensation that was featured in Sports Illustrated. A 24-6 win over Buffalo followed, also played in a Carter-Finley Stadium that was just in its second year of housing NC state football.
The trip to Tallahassee ensued, however, was critical to making ’67 a success. The Pack was a two-touchdown underdog to head coach Bill Peterson’s Seminoles despite the fact the Noles had lost its opener to top-five ranked Houston and tied second-ranked Alabama 37-37 in its second game.
The NC State defense forced four turnovers in a 20-10 Wolfpack win.
Then came a signature moment in the year, a trip to No. 2 Houston. NC State forced five turnovers and blocked a pair of kicks in a 16-6 win in the cavernous Astrodome.
By Nov. 6 of that season, after improving to 8-0 with wins over Maryland, Wake Forest, Duke and Virginia, the Wolfpack rose to No. 3 in the Associated Press national rankings, the highest in school history.
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Next was a trip to Penn State, who had won four games in a row to improve to 5-2. The Nittany Lions’ losses, including one to No. 4 UCLA, had been by a combined three points. That same Bruins squad would elevate to No. 1 nationally in Week 9 of the season.
Penn State was clinging to a 13-8 lead late in the fourth quarter, but NC State had the ball at the Nittany Lions’ 1-yard line and faced fourth and goal. Fullback Tony Barchuk would be stopped a foot short of a potential game-winning touchdown.
That Penn State team would finish the year 8-2-1 and ranked No. 10.
A deflated Wolfpack squad was back on the road a week later in a showdown of unbeaten ACC teams, falling 14-6 at Clemson.
The Pack ended the regular season 8-2 overall and 5-1 in the ACC. That earned a berth to the Liberty Bowl, where the defense once again rose to the occasion and led the way in a 14-7 win over Georgia.
