Payton Wilson among players announcing return to NC State football
NC State football picked up a double dose of significant news on Saturday. First was the decision that Western Kentucky’s all-conference kicker Brayden Narveson is transferring to the Wolfpack. The bigger development however may have been that standout fifth-year redshirt junior linebacker Payton Wilson will be returning for a super senior year.
Wilson made the announcement after coming off one of his best games of the season during the 16-12 loss to Maryland in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte. He had 10 tackles, including 3 for loss and 2 sacks against the Terps. That gave Wilson 82 total tackles on the year, including 12.5 for loss and 4.5 sacks, the latter tied for second most on the team. Both his tackles and tackles-for-loss totals were third most on the stellar NC State defense.
Wilson accomplished those totals in about 10 games. He missed a pair of contests to injuries and was hurt early in the season opener on the road at East Carolina, limiting him to just 17 snaps in Greenville.
Wilson was first-team All-ACC in 2020 when he had a league-high 108 tackles, including 11.5 for loss and 3.5 sacks. After being touted as an ACC Defensive Player of the Year candidate going into the 2021 season, Wilson played in just two games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in a Week 2 loss at Mississippi State.
Wilson, who graduated in December with a degree in education, has another season available to him since the NCAA froze eligibility in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He could have also been a likely candidate for a medical sixth year due to missing both the 2018 season and almost all of 2021 with injuries.
The Hillsborough, N.C., native was a highly publicized recruit in the 2018 class coming out of Orange County High. He originally committed to NC State archrival North Carolina in the spring of 2017, but by that fall was spotted at a Wolfpack football game. NC State head coach Dave Doeren and then-defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable made the trek to watch Wilson in high school with then-UNC head coach Larry Fedora also in attendance.
All of the major recruiting services ranked Payton Wilson as a four-star product. The On3 Consensus had Wilson as the No. 68 overall player in the country, the No. 8 linebacker nationally and the No. 4 recruit from the state of North Carolina. Wilson was one of three top-10 in-state On3 Consensus players in that class to sign with the Wolfpack, joining running back Ricky Person Jr. from Heritage High in Wake Forest and defensive lineman Alim McNeill from Sanderson High in Raleigh.
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McNeill turned pro after his junior year and now starts for the Detroit Lions. Person chose not to use his extra year and pursued the NFL after the 2021 season, earning an NFL training camp invite.
Also choosing to join Wilson in returning to NC State are tight end Trent Pennix and cornerback Shyheim Battle.
Pennix, like Wilson, is using his super senior year option. The fifth-year redshirt junior is an athletic playmaker but was hampered by a broken left scapula in the season opener against East Carolina. He returned to play four more games before shutting missing most of the last three contests. Pennix had 8 catches for 111 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Battle, a fourth-year redshirt sophomore, had 32 tackles, 2 interceptions and 5 pass breakups this past season. He considered an early entry to the NFL and walked on Senior Day but has elected to return for another season in Raleigh.
