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NC State football countdown to 2023 kickoff: 7

MattCarterby:Matt Carter•08/24/23•

TheWolfpacker

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Former NC State running back Nyheim Hines (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 — or 7 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 7 in Pack history.

NC State Football And The No. 7

• One of the most experienced members of the NC State football defense is No. 7, fifth-year redshirt junior cornerback Shyheim Battle. He had previously worn No. 25 before switching to his new jersey in the spring.

Battle was a significant recruiting win for NC State in the 2019 recruiting class. Offers flowed in from Clemson, LSU, Ohio State, Tennessee and Virginia Tech, among others, following a big junior season at Rocky Mount (N.C.) High. NC State had beaten all those schools to the punch however by offering Battle in the summer prior to that year and repeatedly having him on campus and at games.

Ultimately, Battle picked NC State over Clemson. After enrolling early in the spring of 2019, he redshirted the following fall. In his rookie campaign, Battle became an immediate starter. Since 2020, Battle has started 28 of the 35 games he has played and piled up 98 tackles, 26 passes defended and five interceptions.

In 2021, Battle was named honorable mention All-ACC by the league’s media and chosen second-team all-conference by Pro Football Focus (PFF). He is being touted this preseason as a potential all-conference contender.

• Perhaps the most famous NC State football player to wear No. 7 for the Pack, at least in recent memory, was running back Nyheim Hines. He was part of a streak of three different NC State running backs in three years to eclipse 1,000 yards in a season on the ground when he rushed for 1,112 yards in 2017.

Only Willie Burden in 1973 had fewer carries than Hines while finishing with the season with over 1,000 yards at NC State. Hines rushed 197 times in 2017. Burden had 150 carries for 1,014 yards in 1973. Hines’ output in 2017 was the eighth highest in a single season at NC State, yet his carries that year only rank 15th most.

Hines’ 5.42 yards per carry for his career ranks fourth best at NC State.

Hines actually began his time with the Pack as a receiver. In 2016, he had 11 catches for 124 yards vs. Florida State. He was also a terrific kick returner, finishing second all-time at NC State in kickoff return yards and returning two kickoffs and one punt for scores.

All total, Hines is third all-time at NC State in career all-purpose yards with 4,638. Had he not turned pro early after the 2017 season, a healthy Hines would have likely passed Ted Brown for the school record.

Hines was selected in the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts and was traded last season to the Buffalo Bills.

• NC State football’s best period of success, record-wise, may have started with the 1907 season. That is when Mickey Whitehurst coached the first of his two seasons in Raleigh. That was also the first season NC State played at Riddick Stadium.

The Pack went 6-0-1. From 1907-10, NC State went 22-2-3. The 1910 team was also undefeated at 4-0-2. Those are the only two NC State football teams to have never lost a game in a season.

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