In Down Year For The Old North State, Duke Had
“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 the Pirates 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 superb regular seasons followed by long runs in the Division Two playoffs.
This year, with only three teams (Duke, NC State, UNC) still playing in December, it’s possible to hand out this annual honor a bit earlier than usual. This time, there’s no need to wait for the remainder of the postseason results.
Overall, it’s been a down year for college football in the Old North State.
Four of the state’s seven FBS programs (App State, Charlotte, ECU, UNC) fired their head coaches. Nobody made the FCS or Division Three playoffs. In the Division Two ranks, rivals Wingate and Lenoir-Rhyne advanced to the postseason, but neither made it to even the quarterfinals of that playoff bracket. Only a single squad, Wingate of the South Atlantic Conference, captured a league championship.
Nevertheless, there were a few stories worth celebrating, starting with an ACC team that still has a chance to make history with its upcoming bowl trip.
1. Duke
Head Coach: Manny Diaz (first season)
Location: Durham
Conference: ACC
Classification: Division One (Power Four)
Record: 9-3
National Ranking: none
Remaining Game: bowl TBD
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 capture the 2024 “Best College Football Season In North Carolina” honor.
Given the lack of high-caliber competition this year, plus the inability of the other top contenders to upgrade their résumés at this point, the Devils probably would deserve the trophy even if they lose their bowl game and finish 9-4.
The Blue Devils reached the 10-win plateau and posted their only recent Top 25 campaign under coach David Cutcliffe in 2013, when they finished 10-4 and #22 in the Associated Press poll. (A 10-3 mark likely would result in a similar final ranking this year.) 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 postseason goes for Duke, Diaz and his staff deserve an enormous amount of credit.
Importantly, the Blue Devils’ 9-3 regular-season record included a sweep of the other members of the Big Four: UNC (21-20), NC State (29-19 in Raleigh) and Wake Forest (23-17 in Winston-Salem). Such accomplishments always serve as résumé-boosters, and they often provide tiebreakers of sorts in the annual “BCFSINC” competition, too.
Playing with a first-year starter at quarterback, Texas transfer Maalik Murphy, the Devils were opportunistic enough on offense, especially in a 31-28 victory over a defensively strong Virginia Tech team. For perspective, UNC and NC State both struggled to 6-6 records while primarily utilizing first-year starters at quarterback.
Meanwhile, among the 17 football teams in the newly expanded ACC, no single unit — in any phase of the game — prepared and executed game plans more efficiently than the Blue Devils’ defense. Coordinator Jonathan Patke’s unit yielded only 22.2 points per game (third-best in the league, behind only SMU and Clemson) and ranked #1 in passing defense, with opponents throwing for only 195 yards per game, 15 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
2. Wingate
Head Coach: Rashaan Jordan (first season)
Location: Wingate
Conference: South Atlantic
Classification: Division Two
Record: 9-2 (South Atlantic Conference champions)
National Ranking: #17 (before postseason D2 poll)
Remaining Games: none
D2 Playoffs: lost 34-31 (OT) at home to Virginia Union (first round)
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.
In that title contest, the Bulldogs posted a convincing 28-13 victory over #19 Carson-Newman, the Mountain Division champion, on their home field at Irwin Belk Stadium. 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 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 — 73-22 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.)
Under the leadership of Jordan, a long-time defensive guru who deservedly was named the 2024 South Atlantic coach of the year, Wingate was an elite team on that side of the ball this season. The Bulldogs finished #6 nationally in scoring defense, at only 12.2 points per game.
End Marquise Fleming, a product of Olympic High School in Charlotte, ranked among the national leaders in tackles for loss, and he got plenty of help from end Kai Russell (also from Olympic High), tackle Daniel Morrison, linebacker Dontorian Best and many others.
Although the Bulldogs’ season ended with a disappointing defeat, they were the only North Carolina-based NCAA football team (among 33) to claim a conference championship this season, and they captured a hard-fought road victory against long-time rival Lenoir-Rhyne on the way to making that happen.
That combination is good enough for a silver-medal finish in this year’s rankings.
3. Lenoir-Rhyne
Head Coach: Doug Socha (first season)
Location: Hickory
Conference: South Atlantic
Classification: Division Two
Record: 10-3
National Ranking: #15 (before postseason D2 poll)
Remaining Games: none
D2 Playoffs: lost 44-12 at home to Virginia Union (second round)
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 led 10-2 Mercer to a #9 national ranking and into the second round of the FCS playoffs) to Doug Socha, who had been a very successful NAIA head coach prior to his arrival in Hickory.
Under Socha, Lenoir-Rhyne was one of the best defensive teams in the South Atlantic Conference this season, giving up only about 17 points per game. In the postseason, the Bears posted just their third-ever road victory in the Division Two playoffs, an exhilarating 37-34 triumph at #12 West Alabama.
Redshirt junior Jalen Ferguson, who’s from West Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem, was one of the better quarterbacks in the South Atlantic this season, after sharing time with Sean White on last year’s NCAA semifinal squad. Ferguson compiled a school-record 411 passing yards and threw for three touchdowns in the Bears’ come-from-behind victory over West Alabama.
Others Worth Mentioning:
Johnson C Smith (8-2, 4-2 CIAA, D2) started this season 8-0 under third-year coach Maurice Flowers, and at that point — with only two regular-season games remaining — the Golden Bulls had a legitimate shot at what would have been the greatest campaign in the program’s 100-plus-year history and probably even our prestigious “Best College Football Season In North Carolina” honor. The Bulls lost to both Fayetteville State and Livingstone down the stretch, however, and ended up having to watch two teams they had defeated, Virginia State and Virginia Union, face off in the CIAA title game. JC Smith did attain the highest national ranking (#16) in program history, but they ultimately fell short of a conference championship, a Division Two playoff invitation and an end-of-season national ranking. Nevertheless, Flowers deservedly won the CIAA coach of the year award, and Golden Bulls linebacker Benari Black received the league’s defensive player of the year honor.
NC Central (8-3, 4-1 MEAC, FCS) had another solid season under sixth-year coach Trei Oliver, with the Eagles posting their fourth straight winning record and fourth consecutive top-two league finish, although they ended up just short of an at-large FCS playoff invitation. Running back J’Mari Taylor, offensive lineman Trevon Humphrey, linebacker Jaki Brevard, defensive back Malcolm Reed, defensive back Kole Jones and punter Juan Velarde all received first-team all-conference honors.
East Carolina (7-5, 5-3 American, FBS) experienced both the disappointing end of the six-year Mike Houston era and the exciting start of the Blake Harrell era in Greenville. Harrell, the Pirates’ defensive coordinator under Houston, had the “interim” part of his head coaching title removed after leading ECU to a 4-0 record in the immediate aftermath of Houston’s dismissal. The Pirates then lost their regular-season finale against Navy, but they also are about to receive just their third bowl invitation in the past 10 years. Running back Rahjai Harris, wide receiver Chase Sowell and linebacker Zakye Barker all received second-team All-American Conference honors this year, and Michigan State quarterback transfer Katin Houser energized the Pirates’ previously stagnant offense in the second half of the season.
Western Carolina (7-5, 6-2 SoCon, FCS) continued its impressive rise in the Southern Conference under fourth-year coach Kerwin Bell. The Catamounts have never won the SoCon football championship, so this year’s second-place league finish (behind only top-10 Mercer) automatically ranks as one of the best in program history. WCU had the most prolific aerial attack in the entire FCS ranks, at 336 passing yards per game, but fell just short of an at-large FCS playoff invitation. Quarterback Cole Gonzales, offensive lineman Blake Whitmore, tight end Jake Young and wide receiver AJ Colombo all received first-team All-SoCon honors.
Davidson (6-5, 4-4 Pioneer, FCS) posted its seventh consecutive winning season under seventh-year coach Scott Abell, who previously led the Wildcats to the only three FCS playoff appearances (2020, 2021, 2022) in program history. Now Abell, a former Division Three head coach who turns 55 years old this week, finally will get his chance in the FBS ranks; he was hired this week as the new head coach at Rice, which competes in the American Athletic Conference. Running back Mari Adams, fullback Mason Sheron, offensive lineman Malik McDaniel and defensive lineman Julian Rawlins all received first-team All-Pioneer League honors.
