COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK NINE:
#1 Passer, Amato, UNC, Wake, Duke, Campbell
Among DG’s ACC/NC “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs”
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Oct. 27, 2026)
While the focus of our weekly college football shows are forward-looking as often as possible, we always take a glance back at the previous week, too, and sometimes we’ll offer some quick mentions to those making impactful headlines on the gridiron, especially in the Atlantic Coast Conference and/or across North Carolina.
With that in mind, below are our Week Nine “Fun Facts and Shout-Outs,” brought to you by our good friends at Jimmy’s bar and King Neptune restaurant in Wrightsville Beach and the same folks’ latest creation, Jimmy’s Inland, their new bar in Wilmington.
Jimmy’s has a full bar, nightly drink specials and live music 365 days a year(!). (It’s a great place to watch a game, too.) Right next door in Wrightsville Beach, King Neptune has become one of the best restaurants in the greater Wilmington area. Jimmy’s Inland, which features live music, pool tables, darts, an arcade and the brand’s signature slushies, is located about a mile from the UNC Wilmington campus.
Week Nine “Fun Fact #1”
Fun Fact: The most prolific passer in all of major college football this season, Oregon State quarterback Braden Atkinson, is from the great state of North Carolina.
A product of Rolesville High School near Raleigh, Atkinson finished his high school career in 2024 with more than 9,400 career passing yards and 121 touchdowns. He was an all-state honoree as a senior, when he threw for almost 4,000 yards, completed more than 68 percent of his passes, and tossed only three interceptions, but his scholarship offers — perhaps because he’s only a bit taller than six feet — came mostly from FCS programs.
An elite student-athlete, Atkinson did have one early scholarship offer to play in the ACC, at Boston College, but he ultimately signed with the FCS program at Mercer, which is located in Macon, Ga. Mercer had posted Top 25 campaigns in 2022 and 2023, and the Bears’ new head coach in 2024, Mike Jacobs, was coming off a very successful five-year tenure at the Division Two level, with Lenoir-Rhyne. Atkinson’s other top scholarship offers during his high school career came from the likes of Cornell, Elon, Miami-Ohio and Wofford.
As a true freshman at Mercer last season, Atkinson made an enormous and almost immediate splash. After initially serving as the team’s backup QB, Atkinson entered the starting lineup in Week Two and led the Bears to nine straight victories, the Southern Conference championship and a trip to the FCS playoffs. Atkinson ultimately finished second in the FCS ranks in passing, at 327 yards per game, and he threw 34 touchdown passes against 11 interceptions during the Bears’ thrilling 9-3 campaign.
After last season, Atkinson received the 2025 Jerry Rice Award, an annual honor celebrating the top freshman in the FCS ranks. Former winners of the Rice Award include current NFL players such as Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp, Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward and Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
When Jacobs left Mercer to take the Toledo job, in the Mid-American Conference, Atkinson entered the transfer portal. He then reportedly spoke with Baylor, BC, Cal, Notre Dame and Syracuse, among other Power Four programs, but most of those were looking for a backup QB.
Oregon State isn’t a Power Four program, and the Beavers did have an incumbent QB in former Duke starter Maalik Murphy, but new Oregon State coach JaMarcus Shephard promised Atkinson an open competition, and by mid-August it was clear that Atkinson had beaten out Murphy to become the new QB1 in Corvallis.
Now, just seven games into his sophomore season at the college level, Atkinson is the leading passer in the FBS ranks by a very wide margin.
During Oregon State’s 5-2 start, in which the only losses were to nationally ranked Texas Tech and Houston squads, Atkinson averaged 372 passing yards per game, with 24 touchdowns and only two interceptions.
Entering Week Nine, the #2 FBS passer trailed Atkinson’s sky-high numbers by about 40 yards per game, underlining one of the most spectacular stories — with a North Carolina twist — in all of college football this season.
Now on to this week’s shout-outs, brought to you by our friends at Muscle Milk, as we head into Week Nine …
#1—Shout-out to the North Carolina-based players who made the various Midseason All-America college football teams, including Duke running back Nate Sheppard, Wake Forest wide receiver Carlos Hernandez, Wake Forest defensive end Langston Hardy, and UNC defensive tackle Xavier Lewis.
A sophomore from Mandeville, La., Sheppard was named a first-team Midseason All-American by at least seven different outlets. He leads the FBS ranks with 180 all-purpose yards per game, and he’s third nationally with 137 rushing yards per game. He’s also been the nation’s #1 dual threat — maybe even triple threat — from the running back position, because he’s the only FBS back with both 800-plus rushing yards and 200-plus receiving yards, the only one with at least eight rushing touchdowns and at least four receiving scores, and he threw the game-winning TD pass in the Blue Devils’ recent 19-16 victory at Virginia. It just doesn’t get much better than that, as Sheppard continues to carve out his place among the best running backs in Duke history.
Wake Forest’s Hernandez, a senior wide receiver from the Los Angeles area, is another guy we’ve mentioned a lot this season on these platforms. After serving mostly as a backup during his two seasons at Washington State and again last year at Wake Forest, he is having an incredible break-out campaign with the Demon Deacons this season. Entering Week Nine, he ranks eighth nationally with 103 receiving yards per game, and his performances at Louisville (nine catches, 194 yards, TD) and at NC State (12 catches, 117 yards, TD) were central to two of the Deacons’ most important victories so far this season.
Wake Forest’s Hardy, a fifth-year defensive end from Jacksonville, Fla., also has been an outstanding player for the Demon Deacons over these past two seasons under coach Jake Dickert. An honorable mention All-ACC selection last year, when Wake finished 9-4 and played some of the best defense in the ACC, Hardy has been even better this season. Entering Week Nine, he ranks fourth nationally with 1.6 tackles for loss per game, and he’s also tied for fifth in the ACC with 5.5 sacks, as Wake’s defense ranks third in the league in scoring defense, at only 19 points per game.
Finally, UNC’s Lewis, a sophomore defensive tackle from Rolesville High near Raleigh, also has made a bunch of Midseason All-American teams. At 6-0 and only 260 pounds, Lewis was not highly recruited from the prep ranks. After originally planning to play at Austin Peay, an FCS program in Tennessee, he received a preferred walk-on opportunity from then first-year UNC coach Bill Belichick. After serving in a backup role last year, as a true freshman, Lewis has become a huge-impact starter for the Tar Heels as a sophomore. Entering Week Nine, he ranks fourth nationally with one sack per game, and he’s third in the ACC with 1.4 tackles for loss per game.
#2—Shout-out to second-year Appalachian State head coach Dowell Loggains.
When James Madison showed up in Boone last Thursday night with a 7-0 record and on the verge of a Top 25 national ranking, everyone knew that it would take a special performance from the Mountaineers to throw that runaway JMU freight train off the tracks.
The Dukes had become a dominant FCS program about a decade ago, first under coach Mike Houston and then under coach Curt Cignetti, and then they made a very successful jump into the FBS ranks over these past four years, under Cignetti (now at Indiana) and coach Bob Chesney (now at UCLA), even going 12-2 and making the College Football Playoff last season.
When new coach Billy Napier got his first JMU team off to that 7-0 start, with the Dukes leading the Sun Belt Conference in both scoring offense and scoring defense, it was fair to wonder how App State would fare in that head-to-head contest last Thursday, when the Mountaineers were a 10-point home underdog.
What happened next, with our Bold North State Tailgate Tour on hand as part of the festivities, was truly awesome to see.
First, App State’s embattled defense shut down JMU’s powerful rushing attack. Then App State quarterback Malachi Singleton started making plays in the passing game. Then App State backup QB Henry Hasselbeck led a couple of scoring drives as more of a running threat, clearly keeping the Dukes’ defense off-balance. Along the way, the sold-out crowd at Kidd Brewer Stadium really got into the game and made a lot of noise at all the right times, even contributing to a couple of pivotal false-start penalties by JMU.
In the end, thanks to a true team effort — offense, defense, special teams, coaching staff, fan base, everybody — and ultimately a walk-off 40-yard field goal by kicker James London (a Pitt transfer), App State came away with a thrilling 34-31 overtime win over JMU, a fellow member of the Sun Belt’s East Division.
There’s still a long way to go, obviously, but Loggains was hired to get App State — a program that won four straight Sun Belt titles from 2016-19 — back in that championship picture, and that victory over JMU represented an enormous step in the right direction.
#3—Shout-out to the late NC State football coach Chuck Amato.
Coach Amato died just last week, on Oct. 19, after a long battle with throat cancer, so first — and most importantly — condolences to his family, friends, former coaching colleagues, former players and everyone else who cared about him. He was 80 years old, and he was truly one of a kind.
Chuck was fiery. He was energetic. He was charismatic. He was flashy. He was proudly Italian by birth and, later in life, proudly Wolfpack-ian, too. He was unafraid. He was bold and aggressive. He was loud and unapologetic. He had a distinctly gravelly voice, often wore bright-red sunglasses or shoes, and clearly enjoyed a flair for the dramatic, even once driving a motorcycle into a National Signing Day press conference.
Coach Amato also should be remembered as a winner, in so many ways.
A star athlete in both football and wrestling while growing up in Pennsylvania, Amato excelled in both sports at NC State. A linebacker in Raleigh from 1965-67, he played on the Wolfpack’s 1965 ACC co-champions, and he was a team captain in 1967, when the Pack’s famed “White Shoes” defense carried the team to a 9-2 record, a Liberty Bowl victory over Georgia, and a #17 postseason national ranking. As a wrestler, Amato posted two undefeated seasons and won ACC championships in two different weight classes.
As an assistant coach, Amato served under NC State head coaches Lou Holtz and Bo Rein on ACC championship teams in the 1970s, and he later helped build one of the greatest dynasties in college football history. From 1982-99, Amato worked under legendary coach Bobby Bowden at Florida State, and during that time the Seminoles won both of Bowden’s national championships and launched their ACC membership by winning 62 of their first 64 conference games.
Amato then returned to his alma mater as head coach, in 2000, and his seven-year tenure with the Wolfpack included one of the greatest seasons in program history. In 2002, with Philip Rivers as his quarterback, the Pack finished 11-3, beat Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl and finished with a #11 national ranking. The 11 wins still stand today as the only double-digit win total in NC State football history, and the #11 final ranking still stands as the second-highest in program history, behind Holtz’s 1974 team (with Amato as an assistant coach!), which finished at #9 in the coaches poll.
On a personal note, although there was an urban legend at some point about how Coach Amato and I didn’t get along, I can say with all candor that I never had an unpleasant conversation with him, that he joined my platforms as a guest dozens of times, and that we always had a good time.
I’ll never forget one of my last face-to-face interactions with Coach, more than a decade ago. We sometimes went to the same Catholic church, St. Francis of Assisi off Leesville Road in Raleigh, and when I saw him on this particular Sunday, one of his coaching colleagues at the University of Akron had recently died in a tragic car accident. I was with my wife, Maria, and Coach Amato was with his wife, Peggy. When I approached him to offer my condolences, we introduced each other to our wives, and a bit later — just before we said goodbye — he told his wife in front of me, “This guy here. He’s one of the best who’s ever done sports in the state of North Carolina.”
Coach Amato certainly didn’t have to say that, and he may have been just trying to be nice (in front of my wife) in the moment, but I certainly appreciated it — and I still do, more than a decade later — as I raise a glass to Coach and his unforgettable, one-of-a-kind personality and legacy.
Last, but certainly not least…
#4—Shout-out, at the FCS level, to third-year Campbell coach Braxton Harris.
There is only one ranked-on-ranked game involving a North Carolina-based team this week, and it’s a credit to Harris that his Campbell team is playing in it. The Camels are 7-1 and ranked #15 nationally as they visit #25 Albany in a Coastal Athletic Association clash on Saturday afternoon.
Campbell and Monmouth are the only two CAA teams that haven’t yet lost a conference game this season, and the Camels will host the Hawks on Nov. 21, in the teams’ regular-season finale. The CAA doesn’t have a conference championship game, so if — and only if — both Campbell and Monmouth keep winning, that regular-season finale in Buies Creek will serve as a de-facto contest for the league title.
Between now and then, Campbell must face three difficult foes — at #25 Albany this week, then home against another contender (Stony Brook), then a road trip to face coach Tony Trisciani’s always-competitive Elon squad.
If the Camels go 3-0 in this stretch, they’ll be playing in late November for the first conference championship in program history.
Even if they somehow went 0-4 the rest of the way, though, they still would have the best record in program history, and that’s a tribute to what Harris and his staff have built in Buies Creek over these past three years.
