COLLEGE FOOTBALL (LATE POSTSEASON EDITION):
DG’s “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs” Explore
Panthers, Wolfpack, College/Prep Stars
(Weekly Video = Posted Below)
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Dec. 23, 2025)
While the focus of our “This Week In College Football” show is forward-looking as often as possible, we always take a glance back at the previous weekend in football, too, and sometimes we’ll offer some quick mentions to those making impactful headlines on the gridiron, especially in the National Football League, Atlantic Coast Conference and/or across North Carolina.
With that in mind, below is our early postseason edition of “Fun Facts and Shout-Outs,” brought to you by our good friends at Jimmy’s bar and King Neptune restaurant in Wrightsville Beach.
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, King Neptune has become one of the best restaurants in the entire greater Wilmington area.
Late Postseason “Fun Fact #1″
Fun Fact: Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young has put his team in position to make the NFL playoffs for the first time since 2017, and he has put his name alongside those of Panthers legend Jake Delhomme and current NFL star QBs such as Justin Herbert and Dak Prescott.
Young, the #1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft, is now in his third season as the Panthers’ starting quarterback. Last Sunday, the former Alabama star and Heisman Trophy winner led Carolina to a 23-20 comeback victory over NFC South rival Tampa Bay, giving the 8-7 Panthers a one-game lead over the Buccaneers in the race for the division’s automatic bid to the NFL’s postseason bracket.
When Young led Carolina on a fourth-quarter drive for what ended up as the game-winning field goal against Tampa, it marked the sixth time this season that he led his team on a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime. The only Panthers quarterback ever to post more such game-winning drives in a single season was Delhomme, who did it seven times during the franchise’s 2003 campaign, which famously ended with a trip to the Super Bowl.
For his career, Young now has 12 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime. Since the NFL starting tracking such things in 1950, the only quarterback with more such drives prior to turning 25 years old was Herbert (13), who’s now 27 years old and in his sixth season as the starting QB for the Los Angeles Chargers. Young won’t turn 25 years old until next summer.
Meanwhile, the only quarterbacks ever to put together more game-winning drives in their first three NFL seasons were Prescott (14) and former Atlanta Falcons star Matt Ryan (13). Ryan spent 15 consecutive seasons as a starter before his retirement from the NFL after the 2022 season. Prescott, now 32 years old, is currently in his 10th straight campaign as the starter for the Dallas Cowboys.
That’s some pretty good company for Young, who has taken a lot of criticism — some of it deserved — during his three years in the Queen City.
Late Postseason “Fun Fact #2″
Fun Fact: The North Carolina High School Athletic Association crowned eight state champions earlier this month — from Class 8A (largest schools) through Class 1A (smallest schools) — and three of those eight title teams came from the most successful high school football programs in the history of the great state of North Carolina.
All three come from rural towns with populations ranging from just 11,000 to about 23,000 people.
We shouted out all eight NCHSAA champions last week, but this week we toss extra bouquets in the directions of Reidsville High, Shelby High and Tarboro High.
Why? Because those teams not only took home another state title this year, they also built upon long-standing community traditions that make their schools the most successful in the history of the Bold North State.
Reidsville High ranks at the very top of this list. The Rams now have a whopping 21 state championships, which is by far the most in the history of our state’s public high schools. Their first came way back in 1930, and their 21st came earlier this month. when they beat Brevard High 50-20 in the Class 4A title game at Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Moretz Stadium in Hickory.
Reidsville is a town of about 15,000 people; it’s located in Rockingham County, which is north of Greensboro and borders the commonwealth of Virginia.
Congratulations to third-year Reidsville head coach Erik Teague (a former Rams player), wide receiver/defensive back Dionte Neal (the championship game MVP), quarterback Tyson Broadway (offensive player of the game) and defensive end Kendre Harrison (defensive player of the game).
Neal, by the way, is an amazing 5-foot-9, 165-pound athlete who also stars as a point guard in basketball. He turned down two-sport opportunities at Appalachian State, Boston College and other major programs and opted instead to pursue basketball exclusively at the college level. He will play for coach Mike Jones at UNC Greensboro, which is located just a 30-minute drive from Reidsville.
Harrison, a 6-foot-7, 250-pounder who has been ranked one of the top Class of 2026 football prospects in North Carolina (as a tight end) for several years running, fielded scholarship offers from all over the country and ultimately decided that distance from home was not a major factor for him. He will play football more than 2,000 miles away, for the Oregon Ducks of the Big Ten.
Shelby High, meanwhile, has the third-most football championships among the public high schools of North Carolina, behind only Reidsville and Robbinsville. The Golden Lions now have 13 state crowns, with lucky #13 coming earlier this month, when they beat Kinston High 84-41 in the Class 3A title game at Durham County Memorial Stadium.
Shelby is a town of about 23,000 people; it’s located in Cleveland County, which is west of Charlotte and borders the state of South Carolina.
Congratulations to seventh-year Shelby head coach Mike Wilbanks, who has already led the Lions to three state championships, with his other two coming in 2019 and 2021. In this year’s title game, the MVP for Shelby was senior quarterback Lan Farmer, a four-year starter for the program who is still fielding college scholarship offers. The offensive player of the game was wide receiver Lorenzo Roseboro, and the defensive player of the game was safety Kendrick Raper.
Last but not least, Tarboro High has the fourth-most football championships among our state’s public high schools. The Vikings now have 10 state crowns, including six in the past nine years. This time, they blanked Murphy High 22-0 in the Class 2A title game, which was also held in Hickory.
Tarboro is a town of about 11,000 people; it’s located in Edgecombe County, which is just east of I-95 and roughly a one-hour drive from the Virginia border.
Congratulations to legendary Tarboro head coach Jeff Craddock, who just completed his 22nd season leading that program, after serving the Vikings as an assistant coach starting way back in 1995. Craddock is now responsible for nine of the school’s 10 state titles, with the other coming back in 1984. In this year’s title game, the MVP for Tarboro was running back Kamerin McDowell-Moore, a four-year starter who will play for the Elon Phoenix at the next level. The offensive player of the game was senior offensive lineman Donovan Willis, and the defensive player of the game was junior linebacker Amarion Andrews.
Overall, it was another outstanding year for high school football in North Carolina, and we at the North Carolina Sports Network felt fortunate to be part of Championship Week earlier this month, alongside our long-time partners at the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
Now on to this week’s shout-outs….
#1—Shout-out, at the top level of college football, to 13th-year NC State coach Dave Doeren.
The biggest coaching shout-outs this season belonged to second-year Duke leader Manny Diaz, who took the Blue Devils to their first outright ACC football championship since 1962, and to fourth-year Johnson C Smith leader Maurice Flowers, who led that Division Two program to arguably the greatest season the Golden Bulls have had in their more than 100 years of competition.
Doeren deserves some respect on his name, too, especially after the Wolfpack’s dominant 31-7 victory over a solid Memphis team in the Gasparilla Bowl.
There are a handful of noteworthy details about State’s 8-5 record this season and regarding the Wolfpack’s exciting possibilities for the 2026 campaign.
First, the details behind the Pack’s 8-5 season matter, because not all eight-win seasons are created equal.
Pending the results of the College Football Playoff, NC State may end up as the only team in major college football this season that played nine opponents that ended up with eight or more victories.
The Wolfpack defeated a 9-3 Georgia Tech squad that was ranked in the national top 10 at the time. They beat a 10-win Virginia team that played in the ACC championship game. They beat a very solid 8-4 East Carolina team and a surprisingly good 8-4 Wake Forest squad. They beat struggling Florida State by double digits, they continued their recent dominance of archival UNC, and they topped the season off with that 24-point bowl triumph over 8-4 Memphis.
Along the way, Doeren and his staff helped turn redshirt sophomore running back Hollywood Smothers (who’s from Charlotte) into a first-team All-ACC player. They helped turn tight end Justin July, a UConn transfer prior to last season, into a first-team All-ACC player. They helped turn Caden Fordham, a fifth-year senior linebacker, into a first-team all-conference guy who also made some All-American teams. They helped turn sophomore CJ Bailey into one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the ACC. They helped turn 6-foot-4, 308-pound offensive tackle Jacarrius Peak, a redshirt junior, into an NFL prospect. Those are just some of the examples of impressive individual player development that unfolded this season in Raleigh.
Finally, if you get a chance to peek at NC State’s very manageable 2026 schedule, you’ll see that there’s at least the possibility — pending transfer portal results, both outgoing and incoming, in January — of the Wolfpack making a run at what would be just the second season of 10 or more victories in the history of the program.
The Pack has seven home games and could be favored in all of them. The most difficult-looking road trips are to Vanderbilt (which is losing star QB Diego Pavia) and Florida State (which has posted two straight losing seasons). There’s also that fun season opener against Virginia in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, just to add to the excitement.
It certainly can be difficult to get excited about an 8-5 season, especially when it’s under a 13th-year coach whose average record during his time in Raleigh is also fairly close to 8-5 when you do the math, but given those details and that backdrop, it just feels different — and more promising — this time.
#2—Finally, shout-outs — at every level of college football — to the players connected to our state who received All-America honors in December.
There are tens of thousands of NCAA football players every year, when you combine Division One, Division Two and Division Three, and only a tiny percentage of those players etch their names in the history books as All-Americans.
At the FBS level, this shout-out applies to NC State linebacker Caden Fordham and Western Kentucky punter Cole Maynard, a former UNC player who made virtually all of the All-America teams this season, as a redshirt senior with the Hilltoppers of Conference USA. Maynard is a product of Hough High School, in the Charlotte area.
At the FCS level, this shout-out extends to eight players, in all but one case guys who competed for an in-state college program.
This group includes Western Carolina quarterback Taron Dickens (an absolute superstar mentioned here throughout this season, he’s now in the transfer portal and likely headed to the FBS ranks), Elon defensive end Kahmari Brown (also in the portal), Elon punter Jeff Yurk, NC Central defensive end Thomas Johnson, North Carolina A&T return specialist Elijah Kennedy, A&T kicker Andrew Brown and Gardner-Webb defensive lineman Robert Holz.
The eighth and final guy in this FCS category is Furman defensive end Joshua Stoneking, who played his high school ball at Cardinal Gibbons High in Raleigh before starring for the Paladins.
At the Division Two level, this All-American shout-out extends to eight more guys: Wingate wide receiver Jaylen Himes, Wingate offensive lineman Will Hart, Catawba offensive lineman Avery Swinton, Livingstone defensive end Kenyon Garner, Lenoir-Rhyne return specialist Tye Roberson, Johnson C Smith wide receiver Deandre Proctor, Johnson C Smith offensive lineman Jamari Mason and UNC Pembroke defensive end Isi Etute.
Finally, at the Division Three level, where North Carolina doesn’t have nearly as many powerful programs or elite players, this All-American shout-out goes to just a single superstar, North Carolina Wesleyan running back Nahjiir Seagraves, who previously starred at Pinecrest High School in Southern Pines. Seagraves finished sixth nationally this year at the D3 level, with about 137 rushing yards per game, before receiving his various All-American accolades.
As the 2025 football season ends for most and continues for others, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours from all of us here at the North Carolina Sports Network. Thanks again for your ongoing support.
