COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 11:
Wake Forest, ECU, NC Central, UNCP, JC Smith
Among DG’s ACC/NC “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs”
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Nov. 10, 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 11 “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 11 “Fun Fact #1”
Fun Fact: If #11 Wake Forest can end this season ranked anywhere in the top 13 of either major poll, that will represent the highest postseason finish in Demon Deacons football history and one of the highest ever for any North Carolina-based FBS program.
Three of the Bold North State’s other long-time FBS members — East Carolina, North Carolina and NC State — have had at least one top-10 finish at some point in the modern poll era, which goes back to the late 1960s. Prior to that, the so-called “final polls” oddly took place before bowl games and other postseason contests, which most would agree entirely missed the point of having a true end-of-season ranking designed to evaluate a team’s entire body of work.
UNC’s high-water mark in the modern poll era came in 1997, during the final season of legendary coach Mack Brown’s first tenure in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels finished 11-1 that year, losing only to an 11-1 Florida State squad led by Bobby Bowden, and the Heels ended up #4 in the final coaches poll.
At NC State, the only top-10 finish in any major poll in program history came in 1974, when legendary coach Lou Holtz led the Wolfpack to a 9-2-1 record that was good enough for a final ranking of #9 in the coaches poll.
Similarly, at East Carolina, the only top-10 finish in any major poll in program history came in 1991, when coach Bill Lewis led the Pirates to an 11-1 record that included a famous Peach Bowl victory over NC State. ECU finished at #9 in both major polls that season.
For the record, Duke football technically has posted five top-10 seasons all-time, including a 9-1 campaign under legendary coach Wallace Wade that left the 1941 Blue Devils at #2 in the final polls, although all five of those seasons came before the pollsters changed their rules to enable one truly final poll, after even all postseason games had been played.
At least for now, Wake Forest’s all-time high-water mark in the final polls came just five years ago, when coach Dave Clawson led the Demon Deacons to an 11-3 record, a trip to the ACC title game, and a #14 final ranking in the coaches poll.
Now second-year Wake coach Jake Dickert, coming off an impressive 9-4 debut in 2025, has the Demon Deacons at 8-1 and #11 in both major polls. Even if the Deacs lose for a second time this season, if they go 11-2, play in the ACC championship game, and earn an invitation to the College Football Playoff, they would have a great shot at the highest final ranking in program history.
Now on to this week’s shout-outs, brought to you by our friends at Muscle Milk, as we head into Week 11 …
#1—Shout-out to East Carolina’s long-distance placekicker Andrew Conrad.
Originally a non-scholarship player from East Forsyth High School in Kernersville, N.C., Conrad had not attempted a real-game field goal in two full calendar years when he was called upon to boot the game-winner from 55 yards out last Friday in the final seconds against South Florida in Greenville.
When Conrad smoothly converted his three-pointer from a spot near the midfield logo at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, ECU had a hard-fought 20-17 victory over the 6-2 Bulls, Conrad’s teammates tackled him after a celebratory dash, and a bunch of ECU students flooded the field with the game clock showing all zeroes.
Conrad’s story of perseverance and passion for the game deserves a lot of admiration and respect, even beyond that long-distance field goal, which ranks as the longest in the game-winning, walk-off category in the entire FBS ranks this season. For the record, it looked as if it would’ve been good from 65 yards out.
As a true freshman walk-on in 2022, Conrad emerged from a backup role and gradually became the team’s primary kicker on field goals and PATs. As a sophomore in 2023, he retained those duties and earned a scholarship in the process. In 2024, he added kickoff responsibilities to his fast-growing job description, but last year his role was reduced to that of kickoff specialist, as all-conference New Hampshire transfer Nick Mazzie handled all placements.
Even though fellow fifth-year senior Noah Perez beat out Conrad for ECU’s #1 kicker role prior to this season, Conrad opted to stay in Greenville for one final year representing the purple and gold, both as a kickoff specialist and — if needed — as the team’s long-distance field goal guy.
Through the Pirates’ first eight games, that call never came, but when it did come against South Florida, Conrad delivered with a booming kick that he — and many ECU fans — will never forget.
#2—Shout-out, at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level, to eighth-year NC Central head coach Trei Oliver.
Among the seven FCS programs here in the Bold North State, only two — Campbell in the Coastal Athletic Association, and NC Central in the MEAC — still have a chance to win a conference championship this season. There has been a lot of content on our platforms this fall about the 8-2 Camels, who are at Elon this week and then host first-place Monmouth next week, possibly with a chance to share the CAA title.
It’s a huge tribute to Oliver and his leadership that NC Central also remains in this league-title conversation, because his Eagles were 2-5 at one point this season, and they needed a massive comeback last week just to eke out a 29-28 win at Norfolk State. NCCU trailed by 11 points early in the fourth quarter of that game, but the Eagles scored touchdowns on two of their last three full possessions to snatch that victory from the jaws of defeat.
Now NC Central gets a shot at MEAC heavyweight South Carolina State on Saturday (1:30 p.m., ESPN+), with league supremacy hanging in the balance.
The Bulldogs are 8-2 overall, 3-0 in the MEAC, #18 in the FCS coaches poll, the league leaders in both scoring offense and scoring defense, and a significant home favorite over NCCU on their home field in Orangeburg on Saturday. South Carolina State also has won back-to-back MEAC titles and five of their last six head-to-head matchups against the Eagles.
This NC Central squad has been an underdog all season, though, and has found a way to win under all sorts of unlikely circumstances. If the Eagles figure out a way to do that again this week, they’ll put Oliver one step closer to his third MEAC championship.
#3—Shout-out, at the Division Two level, to fourth-year UNC Pembroke head coach Mark Hall.
Just the concept of a conference championship is relatively new to UNC Pembroke, because the school didn’t create its football program until 2007, and the Braves competed as an independent on the gridiron during their first 13 years of existence.
The Braves have made the D2 playoffs three times — twice under Pete Shinnick, once under Shane Richardson — but now, for the second year in a row under Hall, they have a shot at the Conference Carolinas title, which comes with an automatic invitation to the D2 playoffs.
In 2025, the inaugural Conference Carolinas Bowl matched UNC Pembroke and North Greenville. As the team with the slightly better record in league play during the regular season, the Trailblazers hosted the conference title game, and they defeated the Braves 34-20 before a solid D2 crowd listed at 2,500.
Here in 2026, on Saturday afternoon (1 p.m., CCDN), the second annual Conference Carolinas Bowl will match the same two programs, with 8-2 North Greenville taking on 8-2 UNCP. While the teams had identical 5-1 records in league play during the regular season, the Braves’ only conference loss was to North Greenville, so the Trailblazers once again get to host this title contest, right there at Younts Stadium in Tigerville, S.C., which is about a four-hour drive from UNCP.
Back on Oct. 3, when these two teams clashed at Grace P. Johnson Stadium in Pembroke, N.C., they provided one of the most entertaining games of the entire D2 season. North Greenville ultimately prevailed in that one, 42-41, but only after the Trailblazers stopped a two-point conversion attempt and survived the ensuing onside kick by the Braves in the final minute of regulation.
If unranked UNCP can somehow find that one more play against #22 North Greenville on Saturday afternoon, Hall and the Braves will be bringing home the first conference championship trophy — and the fourth D2 playoff invitation — in the history of the university’s 20-year-old gridiron program.
Last, but certainly not least…
#4—Shout-out, again at the D2 level, to fifth-year Johnson C Smith head coach Maurice Flowers.
The Golden Bulls are the only other college football team in the Bold North State that is just one victory away from a conference championship and a playoff bid, as they take on nationally ranked Virginia Union on Saturday (3 p.m., CIAA/HBCU GO) at Durham County Stadium.
In Flowers’ case, he’s trying to turn that league-title trick for the second year in a row. Johnson C Smith has only two CIAA championships in its 100 years as a member of that league; the first came way back in 1969, and the second came in 2025, during Year Four of Flowers’ amazing rebuilding project in Charlotte.
A repeat definitely won’t be easy for the 8-2 Golden Bulls, because Virginia Union is 9-1 and carrying both a nine-game winning streak and a #15 national ranking in the D2 coaches poll into this matchup in the Bull City.
JC Smith and Virginia Union did not play each other during the regular season. The Golden Bulls’ only league blemish came in a 16-13 loss at Bowie State, a team that Virginia Union trounced by a 48-7 margin in Bowie. Last year, JCSU lost 28-10 to Virginia Union in Richmond during the regular season, but the Bulls rebounded to hammer the Panthers 45-21 in the championship-game rematch.
The unranked Golden Bulls won’t be expected to beat Virginia Union (the CIAA champ in 2023 and 2024) again on Saturday afternoon, but that underdog label hasn’t seemed to bother them much over these past few years.
