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Backing The Pack

https://www.backingthepack.com/ | 221 entries published

Cheering for anyone else is for quitters.

Latest Entries

Is this too many balloons?

Athletics departments face a number of existential questions these days. Fortunately, none of them have to do with money. In this era of unlimited official and unofficial recruiting visits, football programs must confront one particularly essential matter: how many balloons is the right amount of balloons? I think everyone understands that, in order to be […]

about 1 month ago | 0 reads

Cole Cloer Enrolls For Spring Semester

Wolfpack commit Cole Cloer injured his knee in practice before the season started at IMG Academy. He, unfortunately, will have to miss the season to rehabilitate that knee. Because of that, he has decided to enroll for the spring semester at NC State to allow himself the opportunity to work with the NC State staff […]

about 1 month ago | 0 reads

Noah Rogers planning to enter the portal

NC State’s depth at wide receiver took another hit this week with the news that Noah Rogers is planning to hit the portal after two seasons with the Wolfpack. I wouldn’t be terribly concerned about this development if Terrell Anderson were returning, but now State is facing the task of replacing its top four receivers. […]

about 1 month ago | 0 reads

The Out of Conference Schedule is Complete: Player Snapshots

In the most recent post, I complained about Williams and Arceneaux, enough said. Paul (47 points!) McNeil is getting the local and national media treatment right now. Let’s look at the rest of the key players. Caveat: This is a report card on 13 games, 6 against Q3 / Q4 opponents, compared to full seasons. […]

about 2 months ago | 0 reads

Terrell Anderson set to transfer

Merry Christmas, everyone—I hope you like crap! NC State is going to lose its most talented wide receiver for the second straight year, as Terrell Anderson is heading out the door when the portal opens in January. Anderson led the Wolfpack in receiving yards this season. If I remember correctly, Anderson picked NC State over […]

about 2 months ago | 0 reads

NC State’s revenue distribution breakdown for 2025-26 revealed

A big tip of the hat to Noah Fleischman of The Wolfpacker, who FOIA’d NC State for information on how it is distributing its pool of $20.5 million in revenue sharing money to its programs. The allocations are pretty standard as far as it goes, but these figures did help answer a few lingering questions […]

about 2 months ago | 0 reads

NC State Beats Ole Miss 76-62 – Gets First P4 Win

Overview: If NC State can bottle up the first half and replicate it, this team will be good. Nice to see a hint of the potential, even without the preseason ACC POY contributing to the score. Game Summary: The first half was the first time we’d seen both the NC State offense and defense playing […]

about 2 months ago | 0 reads

NC State picks up tough 68-59 win at Davidson

Zam Jones provided the kill shot on Sunday afternoon, burying a three with 33 seconds to go and the shot clock winding down to give NC State a 65-59 advantage. It’s not surprising that she was up to the moment, as she played an outstanding game. The Pack made the key plays in crunch time—a […]

about 2 months ago | 0 reads

Highlights! It’s a bowl game to savor, finally

People laughed when I said I was going to build a shrine to the completely real and totally not made-up pirate, Gasparilla, whose presence it is said can be felt throughout the creaky bones of ancient Raymond James Stadium. (It is very bad to steal Gasparilla’s rum. VERY BAD.) And I saw no pregame analysis […]

about 2 months ago | 0 reads

NC State Takes on Ole Miss in Greensboro

When: Sunday December 21 – 1:00 PM Where: First Horizon Coliseum Greensboro NC TV: ESPN2 Opponent: Ole Miss Rebels (SEC Conference) Prediction – KenPom (KP) / Bart Torvik (BT): NC State 79-73 / NC State 79-73 Wolfpack Snapshot: Wolfpack Season So Far: Coach Wade from the Texas Southern postgame press conference: “We gave up too many points. Too many […]

about 2 months ago | 0 reads

NC State rolls Memphis in Gasparilla Bowl, 31-7

Well hot damn, NC State won a bowl game. Somebody get the e confetti machines out of storage, stat. Should we have a parade? Okay, maybe not a parade. State set the tone with a touchdown drive right off the bat and took a lead it would never relinquish, and isn’t it nice when one […]

about 2 months ago | 1 read

Game thread: Memphis vs. NC State

Time for the biggest game of the year that’s themed around a mythical pirate. Tigers vs. Wolfpack Kickoff: 2:30 p.m. ET TV: ESPN (Anish Shroff, Andre Ware, Paul Carcaterra) Online streaming: WatchESPN

about 2 months ago | 0 reads

NC State puts a wallopin’ on Georgia Tech, 87-58

NC State put together its second-best shooting performance of the season yesterday, while Georgia Tech, well … uh, Georgia Tech was a functional basketball team for 20 minutes! That’s something. The problem for the Jackets was the other half of the game—NC State won the second and third quarters by a combined score of 51-14. […]

about 2 months ago | 3 reads

So long and thanks for all the yards

Hollywood Smothers is striking while the iron is hot, opting to put his name in the transfer portal when it opens next month and also test the NFL Draft. I don’t think this decision comes as a terrible surprise to anybody after he chose to walk on Senior Night. He is at the peak of […]

about 2 months ago | 2 reads

Memphis and its offense offer plenty of concerns for NC State

After a proper incubation period of four-to-six years, a Memphis head coach hatches into a power-conference head coach, and regrettably for the current edition of the Tigers, this process recently came to its natural conclusion once more. Ryan Silverfield is the head man at Arkansas now, and he took several of his Memphis assistants with […]

about 2 months ago | 2 reads

So your basketball team has a major problem

NC State beat Texas Southern by a bunch of points, as it was supposed to, and did that without Darrion Williams, but the defensive effort in the second half especially was not good. Will Wade is just a little fed up about watching the same mistakes happen over and over. Same guys, who make mistakes […]

about 2 months ago | 2 reads

NC State Dominates Texas Southern 108-72

Overview: Paul McNeil got himself in the record books tonight. His 11 made 3PT shots are the most in NC State history, breaking Rodney Monroe’s record of 9 and ties the ACC record, and those 47 points put him in very good company in the Wolfpack record books as well. Game Summary: In the pregame […]

about 2 months ago | 1 read

NC State’s 2026 ACC football schedule released

The ACC released its football matchups for the 2026 season, officially a “transition year” for the move from eight league games to nine, which is to say that this is the most comical schedule ever conceived. Twelve teams will play nine conference games—NC State is among those—and five will play eight; everyone will play 10 […]

about 2 months ago | 3 reads

Heritage Game: NC State Welcomes Texas Southern

When: Wednesday December 17 – 7:00 PM Where: James T Valvano Arena at William Neal Reynolds Coliseum TV: ACC Network Extra Opponent: Texas Southern Tigers (Southwest Atlantic Conference (SWAC) ) Prediction – KenPom (KP) / Bart Torvik (BT): NC State 94-65 / NC State 97-67 Wolfpack Snapshot: Wolfpack Season So Far: Coach Wade after the Kansas game: “We are […]

about 2 months ago | 1 read

A round of applause for the lads

It was a painful result for NC State last night but a gutsy effort by the team to pull back even and push the game to extra time. The season was historic regardless of how it ended—this group achieved a No. 1 ranking in the polls at one point, took the program to its second-ever […]

about 2 months ago | 3 reads

NC State blows out Miami, 87-61

NC State got off on the right foot in league play on Sunday afternoon, opening up its game at Miami with a 16-4 run and cruising from there. Miami entered the day at No. 47 in Torvik, so this was an encouraging result. Zam Jones knocked down a couple of threes early on to help […]

about 2 months ago | 2 reads

NC State’s offseason roster priorities: Offense

Since I’m still trying to get over last night’s disappointment, it’s a great time to change the subject. So let’s turn to talking about NC State football’s roster priorities in the weeks leading up to the portal opening. On the offensive side of the ball, NC State is going to need to replace at least […]

about 2 months ago | 1 read