NC State football countdown to 2023 kickoff: 71
The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 — or 71 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 71 in Pack history.
NC State Football And No. 71
• The 1971 season was a weird one for NC State football.
The glory years of the lengthy Earle Edwards tenure had just passed, highlighted by the 1967 team that made a serious challenge for the national title.
By 1969, two years later, NC State had the first of back-to-back losing seasons under Edwards. Prior to that, Edwards’ teams had gone at least .500 or better for six consecutive years. They still managed to have a winning conference mark, however, in 1969, going 3-2-1 to finish second in the ACC.
In 1970 though, the Pack had its first sub-.500 league record since 1962, and after the season was over Edwards resigned following 17 years as the NC State football coach. He won five ACC titles and four times was named ACC Coach of the Year. Edwards still has the school record with 77 career wins, although current NC State football coach Dave Doeren is only six wins away from surpassing that.
NC State tried to hire Lou Holtz to replace Edwards, but Holtz was not ready to accept the job. Instead, a popular assistant, well-respected defensive coordinator Al Michaels, was promoted as an interim coach. Michaels, who also coached golf at NC State, went 3-8 in 1971 his one year leading NC State football.
Michaels became the only coach since John Van Liew in 1930 and just the seventh in school history to lead NC State for just one season. Holtz finally accepted the job following the 1971 campaign.
Michaels handed Holtz a good roster. The 1971 season saw the breakout of future ACC Player of the Year Willie Burden at running back. Burden rushed for 910 yards, and two seasons later became the first Wolfpack running back to go over 1,000 in a year.
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After Michaels’ death in 1991, two prominent former NC State players spoke highly of him in an interview with the Associated Press.
“He was probably one of the top coaches who ever lived that really didn’t get all the recognition he deserved,” Jim Donnan said. Donnan is in the College Football Hall of Fame after a stellar coaching tenure during which he went 104-40 in 11 seasons combined at Marshall and Georgia.
“That man was like a father to me,” Chuck Amato noted. “He was a consistent source of inspiration.”
Amato, who was given his first full-time job as a football coach by Michaels in 1971, would follow in his mentor’s footsteps and be the head coach at NC State from 2000-06, going 49-37 over seven years.
• The meeting in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl between Maryland and NC State in December was the 71st time the two programs have met. Maryland’s victory broke a tie in the series and gave the Terrapins a 34-33-4 edge all-time.
