Taking Stock: N.C. State's Defense, Position by Position

We're back at it, folks. As I mentioned last week, I'm going position by position and taking stock. Where is State better or worse than last year?

I've found this to be a helpful way to understand 1) who is playing where in this wacky transfer portal world with so many new faces, and 2) where strengths and weaknesses might lie with the team heading into August.

Completing this exercise with the defense in mind is going to be a challenge for a couple of reasons. The amount of turnover on this side of the ball this year has been significant, but making comparison even more difficult is the scheme change DJ Eliot is bringing.

That means a new defensive structure, and in a way, an advent of a new position that State hasn't employed in the past: the edge, a stand up player on the...edge, who can play at the line of scrimmage and rush the passer, or drop into coverage and defend.

There's a lot of moving parts, questions, and potential here.

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Last year, I started this article with the following sentence:

The Pack taking 7 transfers at this position - all capable of contributing immediately - means that, despite what national talking heads might think, this defense is in position to minimize its step back.

I'm not afraid to take my medicine here - I was dead wrong. Payton Wilson was much harder to replace than I think most realized.

My word for the defense in 2025 is multiplicity. As we'll get into later, D.J. Eliot's scheme is built around flexibility. A variety of looks, simulated pressures, and structures to keep offenses guessing.

That multiplicity has a few areas it needs to help. The biggest impact areas for me are creating turnovers and havoc, and stopping the explosive run:

2024 Strengths

• 3rd/4th down success rate: 26th nationally at 35.5%

• Run defense success rate: 8th nationally at 37.2% (more on this in a second)

  
  

2024 Weaknesses

• 87th in success rate on opposing dropbacks

• 1.966 points per drive - 87th nationally

And then there's this:

On a down to down basis, State was good against the run. But how many long runs (of 10+ yards) did we watch against State last year? 68 - just inside the top 100.

That explosive run tendency was the achilles heel that hurt everything for State.

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Defensive Tackle ➡️

Let's kick it off with the big fellas. It's no secret who the most proven guy on this side of the ball is.

Brandon Cleveland is a freaky dude. His 6'4" 315 build is deceptive; he moves incredibly well for his size and what he's asked to do as State's nose:

If Cleveland were to have entered the portal, he'd have ended up at a premier Power 4 school, I'm sure. Retaining him was big for State, especially considering what they have behind him.

Chazz Wallace is an old head at this point who has played a lot of practice snaps, but doesn't have a ton of productive film to his name. Redshirt freshman Justin Terrell - who played just 16 snaps last year - did flash in limited opportunities, and has gained 30 pounds since he stepped on campus.

True Freshman Josiah Victor has also gotten some love this Fall Camp, but I don't count on true freshmen along either line contributing at a high level. He does have the size at 6'2 320 to rotate in immediately.

I'm going to reluctantly keep this at neutral for now given Cleveland's stoutness, but depth is a concern for me here. This does feel like a position where Terrell or Victor turns into Cleveland a few years ago behind CJ Clark - a capable name that flashes as a youngster.

Linebackers + Edges 📈

What an interesting group this is, for a number of reasons.

Two "big" names have moved on from this room. Kamal Bonner, who certainly played well as a freshman post-Caden Fordham injury, was tampered with by Miami and moved on. Devon Betty has also moved on, and his...very poor PFF grade leaves room for improvement quickly inside this room.

Sean Brown is the headliner name of this returning group and has received a ton of preseason buzz. He actually graded out poorly on PFF last year - the second worst graded starter on the team, only in front of Devon Betty.

Brown led State with 94 tackles last year, and it's certainly not as if he was a bad player:

I always advocate taking PFF grades with a grain of salt, but I do remember Brown struggling to shed blocks and cover ground quickly, particularly early on. I would expect growth from him now playing in year 2 at this position full time, but nothing is guaranteed.

Similar to Brown, Caden Fordham showed ups and downs before his season ending injury. He's just been cleared for practice, and while I think he can be an above average player, coming right off injuries - especially knees - is always tricky.

Which is why I like what State did to help this room. It added an FCS All American in AJ Richardson, and grabbed a super underrated guy in Kenny Soares Jr. that we might not be considering enough:

State's got options here, and that's even before we consider the new position "group" on the team related to this room:

The Edge Position

From an Edge perspective: it's important to first define what these guys will be doing. Primarily standing up on the...edge...and pass rushing is the first role I think about this position filling, but they'll be asked to drop back, cover, and occupy gaps from a run defense perspective as well.

D.J. Eliot's goal in employing this spot is to add variety to the looks State can provide. To make pre-snap reads very difficult on opposing offenses. You can ​read more about them here​ from Alec, but the key here is that State has added some damn good options.

Tra Thomas is a guy who DJ Eliot knows and trusts. The senior transfer from Temple gives you a good floor at this position: he played under Eliot for the Owls, and he graded out well from a rush defense and tackling perspective, the former of which is one of my main concerns for this team right now.

Sebastian Harsh is another old dude. He was a 3rd Team All Mountain-West guy in 2023, and had 8.5 TFLs in 8 games last year before suffering a thumb injury. Harsh said yesterday that he'd played every position on the defensive line this offseason, and per GoPack.com he's put on 20 pounds since he's arrived in Raleigh. Again, that versatility has me very intrigued.

Perhaps the guy I'm most excited about is Cian Sloan. He essentially doubled as "The Flash" at Utah State off the edge, winning pass rush reps with speed and quick feet. He had a 2nd Team All Mountain-West year with 7.5 sacks and 9.5 TFLs, and 34 total QB pressures.

State was horrible at causing turnovers and chaos last year: their havoc rate was 126th in the country.

The Pack has done a good job of throwing darts at the board with older, proven guys that have good traits. This combined room of linebackers and edges should give State guys with high end traits in coverage, pass rush, and run stopping that it didn't have last year. Despite some of the injury concerns with Fordham, in totality, this "group" should be better.

Defensive Ends 📉

Gonna keep it real here: I'm worried about this group with Davin Vann's departure.

He covered up a lot of holes, man. Completely changed the game against UNC with his strip sack in the first half, and if he had been healthy enough to play all of the Georgia Tech contest, I think State wins that one.

With "1" moving on, State's got a few options. Some familiar faces, some new.

Travali Price is back. I'm still waiting on the major jump from him, though there's been rumblings that he played most of last season injured. His best statistical season given usage was 2022 as a freshman, can he turn the corner in year four?

Isaiah Shirley is another returner that flashed as a young guy last year, but he missed Spring practice with surgery.

Joseph Adedire is an intriguing add from Texas Tech, but he too was out last year with an injury, and his All Conference 2023 is now two years and a major injury away.

So who wasn't hurt last year? Josh Alexander-Felton, who played 12 snaps. JUCO Transfer AJ Prim was a second-team all American at that level, but, again, we haven't seen it at the ACC level.

This is a spot with lots of question marks, and you could see some of the larger Edge players drop down into a 4 technique at times and play as an "end" - a guy like Sebastian Harsh could make sense here. Overall, I'm anticipating a step back from this group without Vann.

Nickel 📉

Nickel was one of the most important positions in Tony Gibson's 3-3-5 defense. It will certainly be important in packages for D.J. Eliot's defense, but this group should see snaps ceded to the edge position we talked about earlier.

You've seen State's roster adjust accordingly to that fact. I'm not entirely sure who to project starting here right now. There are exactly two Nickels listed on the GoPack roster right now, and that's Isaiah Crowell (who isn't healthy right now) and freshman Assad Brown.

You're likely to see somebody like Jackson Vick roll into this spot, and perhaps Missouri transfer Jaren Sensabaugh, who State really liked out of high school, can make an impact here.

Losing a guy like Tamarcus Cooley really sucks, but Ja'Had Carter - yeah, the guy who quit football four weeks into the season - started the year as the guy.

This position isn't as good as last year, but with State willing to get creative here, and the position not being as vital to the system its running, I'm comfortable with this back slide (until a major breakdown in a game happens at this position, I then reserve the right to feel bad.)

Safety 📉

Let's start with the good first.

Georgia State transfer Jeremiah Johnson. I love this guy's film. He's a thumper, covers ground quickly, and is happy to come up from his safety spot to support in the run game.

He started his career at a JUCO, is now on year six of college football, and has played against big time competition in GSU's non con schedule. I think he finishes the year as a top four portal steal for State.

Next to him to (likely) start the year is Rente Hinton. It's not fair to hold this against him, but my lasting memory of him is sitting in Wallace-Wade stadium two years ago, a few rows away from him getting torched on a go route by a wide receiver.

That's when he was playing corner, and it was two years ago, and totally not representative of how he'll play at safety now - that's moreso a comment on the power of human psychology than anything else.

Needless to say, Hinton having played ~135 snaps at Safety doesn't imply that he'll be a slam dunk here.

Beyond these two guys...there's not much proven depth to feel good about. Ronnie Royal is an uber-talented redshirt freshman that has perhaps been the most hyped defensive reserve to not see time over the last year and change, but that's just it - he hasn't shown it. Zack Myers has always seemed a ways away from performing. Beyond that it's...not good.

Any injuries here and you start to get concerned pretty quickly.

Cornerback 📈

For me, this room is winning the competition for most underrated room on the team. Devon Marshall last year emerged as the best corner on the team, not Aydan White:

Marshall figures to have one starter position locked down, but the quality depth only begins here.

North Texas transfer Brian Nelson comes in as a 1st team All-AAC guy last year. Jamel Johnson graded out with a 77.7 PFF Grade, good for 3rd highest on Temple's defense, and higher than Marshall's 74. Remember Jackson Vick? He graded out really well in limited snaps last year too.

That's four seasoned guys you probably feel anywhere from "excellent" to "good" about playing meaningful snaps. I think State will be pretty good in coverage this year, and if - god forbid - somebody experiences an Aydan White backstep, you have depth to back it up.

Spending more time looking at this group, I think holistically this is my favorite group on this side of the ball - on paper, at least. If State can get pass rush up front with their new personnel, this group should feast.

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Wrapping up this side of the ball, we've got:

• 2.5 positions trending up 📈

• 3 positions trending down 📉

• 1 spot that looks neutral ➡️

  
  

To be clear, I think scheme change and the net growth of what State sees at linebacker/edge could make up for some of the blemishes I'm seeing defensively.

If State loses guys like Cleveland or JJ Johnson at thin positions, though...you're going to need massive steps from unproven players.

I do think State's defense is set up to have a high ceiling. All of these older, experienced players coming in aren't going to "hit," but if a couple turn into gamechangers for you, the construction of this roster is very different.

Let's see what you got, Mr. Eliot.