NC State football countdown to 2023 kickoff: 91
The NC State football season opener for 2023 is at Connecticut on Aug. 31 — or 91 days away. TheWolfpacker.com’s countdown for the season looks at the significance of the number 91 in Pack history.
NC State Football And No. 91
• One of the most important players on the NC State football roster wears No. 91 — long snapper Joe Shimko. He chose to use his added season of eligibility, and although he plays an obscure position, Shimko is regarded as one of the best at his craft in college football.
Shimko was a second-team American Football Coaches’ Association All-American last fall.
• One of the most athletically gifted defensive players in NC State football history wore No. 91.
When Manny Lawson arrived in Raleigh, he was even given a tryout at safety. After an attempt at linebacker, eventually Lawson bulked up into a defensive end and became a very effective and productive pass rusher.
Lawson would have 21 sacks and 41 tackles for losses in his NC State football career. He is tied for sixth in school history in sacks and has the fifth most tackles for loss ever at NC State.
After NC State, Lawson would be a first-round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 2006 and moved back to linebacker. After five seasons there, Lawson played a pair of years with the Cincinnati Bengals and then closed his career with three seasons at Buffalo, where for the first time in the pros, Lawson wore his old No. 91 he made famous at NC State.
Lawson started 110 games over 10 years in the pros and had 471 tackles and 24.5 sacks.
How athletic was Lawson? At the NFL Draft combine, he measured 6-foot-5 2/5 and 241 pounds and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.47 seconds to go with a 39.5-inch vertical leap.
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• The 1991 season was the start of the best stretch of NC State football during College Football Hall of Fame coach Dick Sheridan’s tenure. Led by a strong defense, NC State started the season 6-0 with wins over ranked opponents North Carolina and Georgia Tech.
After climbing to No. 12 in the polls, NC State lost two of three, both losses coming to ranked foes (No. 19 Clemson and No. 24 Virginia). The Pack closed the year with wins over Duke and Maryland to finish the regular season and earn a berth in the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Then ranked No. 21, NC State lost a heartbreaker to No. 12 East Carolina, led by future NFL Pro Bowl quarterback Jeff Blake, when the Pirates rallied for a 37-34 win to finish its year 11-1.
The following year, Sheridan led NC State football to a 9-2-1 regular season and No. 12 ranking before losing to No. 14 Florida in the Gator Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Those would be the final two seasons of Sheridan’s coaching career.
