NC State safety Devan Boykin enters transfer portal
NC State lost four key members of its secondary over the past few days, with graduate safety Devan Boykin rounding out the list. The experienced defensive back plans to depart the program after five years with the Wolfpack.
He started at least one game in each of first three years in Raleigh before missing the 2024 season due to a knee injury. Boykin sustained the injury in bowl practice for the 2023 Pop Tarts Bowl. He recorded 54 total tackles and 3 interceptions last fall.
The Wolfpack played its final game Dec. 28, which meant the portal remained open until Friday morning. Sophomore cornerback Brandon Cisse, redshirt freshman nickel Tamarcus Cooley, senior safety Bishop Fitzgerald and Boykin all announced their decisions to leave the program in the final hours of that window.
NC State’s projected starting safety was cleared to return to practice after his ACL injury but did not appear in any games this fall. During the 2023 season, he forced a fumble, logged 22 solo tackles, defended 1 pass and recorded a 71.3 Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade. His 90.5 run defense mark and 86.1 tackling grade established him as one of the top safeties in the ACC.
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Standing 5-10, 195 pounds, Boykin was likely going to team up with Fitzgerald as NC State’s starting safety duo in 2024. The Wolfpack was not actively recruiting any defensive backs in the portal before this news, but that will change after the program lost several key contributors.
Boykin’s position coach, Joe DeForest, is retiring, and defensive coordinator Tony Gibson left for Marshall’s head coaching job. Nickels coach Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay, who also coached Boykin in his room earlier in the defensive back’s career, is now the program’s safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator. NC State hired former Kentucky and Colorado defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot earlier this week.
The former Wolfpack safety has one season of eligibility left after taking his medical redshirt in 2024.
