NC State S Bishop Fitzgerald to use new NCAA eligibility waiver, return for 2025 campaign

SPRINGFIELD, Va. — As NC State wrapped up its bowl practice Thursday afternoon inside The St. James, an indoor sports plex in Northern Virginia, Wolfpack senior safety Bishop Fitzgerald walked off the artificial turf field with a large smile on his face. 

There’s plenty for the Pack’s starting defensive back to be happy about this week. 

Fitzgerald returned to the region he grew up playing quarterback at Woodbridge (Va.) Gar-Field High, near dozens of friends and family, as NC State prepares to play East Carolina in the Military Bowl on Saturday (5:45 p.m., ESPN) in Annapolis, Md. He also received good news about the NCAA’s new waiver, which will allow players that competed at the junior college level in their final season of eligibility to play next fall, on Monday. 

For Fitzgerald, who was the No. 1 JUCO safety in the 2023 recruiting cycle, that waiver will unlock a third season with NC State. He confirmed to TheWolfpacker.com he will utilize it to return to the Wolfpack for the 2025 campaign.

“It’s been a very merry Christmas for me,” Fitzgerald said with a toothy grin “Having another year to come back and graduate, being the first person in my family to graduate from college, that’s obviously the main thing. Getting to play for another year and NIL, I’m really thankful for it all.”

Fitzgerald, who appeared in all 12 games at strong safety in place of an injured Devan Boykin this fall, has grown in the two seasons he has spent in Raleigh. Coming from Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College, Fitzgerald said he had to flip his mindset from working for himself to get to a four-year school to becoming coachable on a daily basis. 

That work he put in paid off as Fitzgerald posted a career-best 51 total tackles with seven passes defended and a team-high three interceptions this past season. And this fall was key in Fitzgerald’s development, which included allowing the game to come naturally to him. 

“Down the last few games of the season, I just stopped thinking and just played football,” Fitzgerald said. “I think I played some of my best football the last few games.”

Fitzgerald appeared to take his game to another level at the midway point of the season and kept that up for the remainder of the fall. He logged at least five tackles in each of the last six games, including a career-high eight stops in the 30-29 loss at Georgia Tech in the penultimate regular season game. 

“He’s been very consistent,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said of Fitzgerald before the Pack’s 35-30 win over UNC last month. “He’s played really well. He’s been in the right places, he’s communicated well, he’s made plays on the ball. … He’s been very steady week in and week out.”

In addition to his standout play, Fitzgerald also used his leadership skills throughout the fall. Public speaking wasn’t his favorite task coming into the year, but he was able to grow on and off the field to become a key staple of the Wolfpack’s backend of the defense. That was a role Boykin held in the defense, but with Fitzgerald as the Pack’s most-experienced safety in the system, it was on him to pick up that slack.

And he was able to do just that.

“This year, I definitely was more vocal — in the locker room and on the field,” Fitzgerald said. “Just being able to get lined up, have people look up to me and being able to have a voice. That was one of the main things for me, being able to have people follow me. It was pretty fun.”

Now, as Fitzgerald has instilled himself within NC State’s defense as a key defensive back, he can build off of that even further next fall in his bonus year of eligibility. The soon-to-be fifth-year player is excited for the future — and to graduate college — but the Military Bowl is what is currently on his mind. 

And the safety is eager to play in front of 25-30 friends and family at Navy-Marine Corps stadium, the closest he has played to his Northern Virginia home since he left for college. 

“It’s huge just being able to come home, show everyone what I’ve worked for and to be on a platform big enough for everyone to see what I can do,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s going to be a lot of love.”