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NC State football countdown to 2023 kickoff: 80

MattCarterby:Matt Carter•06/12/23•

TheWolfpacker

Photo by Ken Martin
NC State receiver Kevin Concepcion (Photo by Ken Martin/On3)

The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 — or 80 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 80 in Pack history.

NC State Football And No. 80

• One of the most exciting young players on the NC State football roster is true freshman receiver Kevin “KC” Concepcion. The 5-foot-11, 180-pounder from Charlotte and nearby Hough High flashed during the spring game after enrolling early, showcasing his ability to make yards after the catch.

Odds are good that Concepcion will get an early look this fall and perhaps burn his redshirt. That’s not surprising considering that he was a spirited recruiting battle between NC State and North Carolina, a head-to-head showdown that happens less frequently on the trail than perhaps some may suspect.

The On3 Industry Rankings had Concepcion rated the No. 19 prospect in the state of North Carolina after he caught 29 passes for 519 yards and four touchdowns as a senior for Hough. He also ran for a pair more scores and finished with 1,032 all-purpose yards.

• The 1980 season was the first of Monte Kiffin’s three-year tenure as head coach of NC State football. Kiffin was making his head coaching debut after being a defensive coordinator at both Nebraska and Arkansas.

The Wolfpack traded wins and losses much of the season. NC State started 2-0 and then lost two in a row. A win over Appalachian State was followed by a loss to North Carolina.

Then came a home victory at Clemson, but the Pack dropped two in a row at Maryland and Penn State. The season was closed by back-to-back home wins over Duke and East Carolina.

Kiffin went 6-5 in 1980 and then again in 1982, but in between went 4-7 and thus finished with an overall record of 16-17.

Kiffin became much more famous for his assistant coaching stops following his brief time at NC State, which would remain his only head coaching tenure. Most notably, Kiffin become a celebrated defensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he won the Super Bowl in 2003. He has been inducted into the Buccaneers Ring of Honor.

Kiffin’s son Lane Kiffin is the current head coach at Ole Miss and previously coached at Florida Atlantic, Tennessee and Southern Cal. Monte Kiffin coached with Lane at USC and FAU and is now a defensive analyst at Ole Miss.

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