Duke, Wingate Among Top Contenders For
“Best College Football Season In North Carolina”
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
The main idea is to celebrate excellence.
That certainly was the starting point, in 1991, when we bestowed the “Best College Football Season In North Carolina” honor on East Carolina. ECU had gone 11-1, rattling off 11 consecutive wins — including a now-legendary 37-34 victory over #21 NC State in the Peach Bowl — after a close, season-opening loss at Illinois.
With Bill Lewis as their head coach, Steve Logan as their offensive coordinator, Jeff Blake as their star quarterback, and Robert Jones as a future first-round National Football League pick at linebacker, the Pirates put together a sensational season that to this day still ranks as the best in their program’s history.
Among their other regular-season victories that year, with ECU then playing as an independent, were home wins against South Carolina and #23 Pittsburgh and road triumphs over #15 Syracuse, Cincinnati and Virginia Tech.
Relatively speaking, in a state that now has 33 NCAA programs scattered among the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), two Group of Five leagues, Division Two and Division Three, ECU’s 1991 campaign clearly was the “Best College Football Season In North Carolina” that year.
North Carolina (eight times) and Appalachian State (seven) have earned this just-for-fun title more often than any other school. The Mountaineers won it four times as a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) program and three times as a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) program, most recently after their back-to-back Sun Belt Conference championships in 2018 and 2019.
Although a large majority of “Best College Football Season In North Carolina” honors have been captured by FBS programs, App State, North Carolina A&T and NC Central have won with championship-caliber FCS teams, and Lenoir-Rhyne and Winston-Salem State have won with strong regular seasons and long runs in the Division Two playoffs.
This year, as of late November, with some teams already having completed their regular season but others facing one or two more regular-season contests, the top contenders once again include those from the FBS, FCS and Division Two levels.
1. Duke
Head Coach: Manny Diaz (first season)
Location: Durham
Conference: ACC
Classification: Division One (Power Four)
Record: 7-3
National Ranking: none
Remaining Regular-Season Games: Virginia Tech (5-5), at Wake Forest (4-6)
Key Players: CB Chandler Rivers, LB Alex Howard, LB Ozzie Nicholas, DE Vincent Anthony Jr., DT Kendy Charles, WR Jordan Moore, WR Eli Pancol, RB Star Thomas, QB Maalik Murphy
Duke has had only one 10-win season in its history, and only one Top 25 finish in the last 60-plus years, so if first-year coach Manny Diaz can achieve either or both of those things this season, his Blue Devils automatically would rank among the top contenders for this year’s “Best College Football Season In North Carolina” honor.
The Blue Devils managed all of those accomplishments under coach David Cutcliffe in 2013, when they finished 10-4 and #22 in the Associated Press poll. Lenoir-Rhyne, which went 13-2, won a conference championship and played in the Division Two national championship game under coach Mike Houston in 2013, shared the “BCFSINC” honor with the Devils that year.
Regardless of how the rest of this season goes for Duke, Diaz and his staff deserve an enormous amount of credit.
Among the 17 football teams in the newly expanded ACC, no single unit — in any phase of the game — has prepared and executed game plans more efficiently than the Blue Devils’ defense. Coordinator Jonathan Patke’s unit has yielded only 22.1 points per game (second-best in the league) and ranks #1 in passing defense, with opponents throwing for only 192 yards per game, 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
2. Wingate
Head Coach: Rashaan Jordan (first season)
Location: Wingate
Conference: South Atlantic
Classification: Division Two
Record: 9-1 (South Atlantic Conference champions)
National Ranking: #17 (D2)
Remaining Regular-Season Games: none
D2 Playoff Game: vs. Virginia Union (8-3), Sat., 1 pm (ESPN+)
Key Players: DE Marquise Fleming, DE Kai Russell, DT Daniel Morrison, LB Dontorian Best, QB Brooks Bentley, RB O’Brien Barnett, WR Evan McCray
When Wingate went to #12 Lenoir-Rhyne on Nov. 2 and upset the Bears, the Bulldogs clinched first place in the Piedmont Division of the South Atlantic Conference, ensuring its place in the league’s 2024 championship game.
Last Saturday, the Bulldogs posted a convincing 28-13 victory over #19 Carson-Newman (9-1), the Mountain Division champion, at Irwin Belk Stadium in the South Atlantic title contest. Historically speaking, the Eagles have been the top program in the SAC, with 15 outright league championships and six shared crowns.
Thanks to Wingate athletic director Joe Reich, who’s also the university’s legendary former head football coach, and now first-year Wingate head coach Rashaan Jordan, who was Reich’s long-time defensive coordinator, these past 15 years now represent the greatest stretch in the history of Wingate football.
All six of the program’s Division Two playoff bids have come since 2010. All three of the program’s South Atlantic football titles have come relatively recently, too — in 2010 and 2017 under Reich, and here in 2024 under Jordan. Over the last eight years, Wingate has been the best football program in the South Atlantic, and the numbers back that up — 73-21 overall, and 49-13 in league play.
(Quick fun fact: Joe Reich’s brother, Frank, was the Maryland Terrapins’ quarterback in the early 1980s before going on to play in the NFL for more than a decade and then coach in the NFL for almost two decades, including last season in his very brief tenure as the head coach of the Carolina Panthers.)
In Saturday’s first-round Division Two playoff game against Virginia Union, Wingate is the heavy favorite. The Bulldogs play in a better conference than Virginia Union does. They will be on their home field, where they haven’t lost all season. They’re 9-1. They have a seven-game winning streak. Against Carson-Newman, they avenged their only 2024 defeat.
Wingate is an elite defensive team — #5 nationally in scoring defense, with the Bulldogs giving up only 10 points per game.
End Marquise Fleming, a product of Olympic High School in Charlotte, leads the nation in tackles for loss, and he gets plenty of help from end Kai Russell (who’s also from Olympic High), tackle Daniel Morrison, linebacker Dontorian Best and many others.
The Bulldogs aren’t allowed to look ahead, of course, but with a victory Saturday over Virginia Union, they would get to host another playoff game at Irwin Belk Stadium on Nov. 30. Their opponent would be either West Alabama … or archrival Lenoir-Rhyne.
3. Lenoir-Rhyne
Head Coach: Doug Socha (first season)
Location: Hickory
Conference: South Atlantic
Classification: Division Two
Record: 9-2
National Ranking: #15 (D2)
Remaining Regular-Season Games: none
D2 Playoff Game: at #12 West Alabama (9-1), Sat., 2 pm (ESPN+)
Key Players: LB Jaelin Willis, DB Nic Cheeley, DB James Ussery, QB Jalen Ferguson, RB Alex Boyd, WR Adonis McDaniel
Lenoir-Rhyne won or shared the “Best College Football Season In North Carolina” honor in both 2013 and 2023, when the Bears put together long runs in the Division Two playoffs under Mike Houston and Mike Jacobs, respectively.
Here in 2024, it appears that Lenoir-Rhyne has executed another smooth coaching transition, this time from Jacobs (who has Mercer off to a 9-2 start and ranked #9 in the FCS Top 25) to Doug Socha, who had been a very successful NAIA head coach prior to his arrival in Hickory.
Whereas Wingate is at home and a heavy favorite against Virginia Union, #15 Lenoir-Rhyne has to go on the road for its first-round playoff matchup and take on a highly regarded West Alabama team that’s 9-1 and ranked #12 in the Division Two Top 25.
In their only two previous matchups against West Alabama, in 2017 and 2018, the Bears went 0-2, although one of those games was a nail-biter that went down to the wire.
Under Socha, Lenoir-Rhyne has been one of the best defensive teams in the South Atlantic Conference this season, giving up only about 17 points per game.
The Bears’ offense has been less predictable, although redshirt junior Jalen Ferguson, who’s from West Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem, has been one of the better quarterbacks in the conference this season, after sharing time with Sean White on last year’s NCAA semifinal squad.
This game is much more difficult to predict, although it certainly would be fun to see Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate get a rematch next week.
4. NC Central
Head Coach: Trei Oliver (fifth season)
Location: Durham
Conference: MEAC
Classification: Division One (FCS)
Record: 7-3
National Ranking: none
Remaining Regular-Season Games: at Delaware State (1-10)
Key Players: QB Walker Harris, RB J’Mari Taylor, WR Markell Quick, WR Joaquin Davis, LB Jaki Brevard, DB Kole Jones, DB Malcolm Reed
NC Central captured the “Best College Football Season In North Carolina” title in 2022, when coach Trei Oliver’s squad finished 10-2, won the MEAC championship and then edged previously undefeated Jackson State in the Celebration Bowl, 41-34 in overtime, to claim the HBCU national championship.
Oliver, an all-conference defensive back and punter for the Eagles during his playing days (1994-97), is now in his sixth year (fifth season) as the head coach at his alma mater, and his team still has a possible path to a third consecutive MEAC title (counting ties).
The Eagles, who participated in the FCS playoffs for the first time in program history last year, are the heavy favorite against Delaware State (1-10) in their final regular-season game. If they can finish 8-3, they will have a good chance of returning to the national Top 25, the possibility (however unlikely) of another FCS playoff invitation, and perhaps even a share of first place in the MEAC standings again.
In order to attain another first-place tie, NC Central must win Saturday and hope that 8-2 South Carolina State, the only unbeaten team in MEAC play, loses at home to 4-7 Norfolk State.
The #21 Bulldogs already have earned a trip to the annual Celebration Bowl, which matches the champions of the MEAC and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The Eagles have played in the Celebration Bowl twice, losing 10-9 to Grambling in 2016 and beating Jackson State in 2022.
