NC State was young in 2014. 70% of the team was made up of Freshmen and Sophomores. In fact, there were 52 Freshmen on the Fall camp roster, which was the 2nd most of any team in the nation.
The fountain of youth just keeps flowing, and the Wolfpack are even younger in 2015. This season 72% of the roster is made up of underclassmen.
2014: Seniors – 19/Junior – 15/Sophomore – 23/*Freshman – 20/Freshman – 33
2015: Seniors – 11/Junior – 21/Sophomore – 32/*Freshman – 21/Freshman – 30
Only 10% of this Wolfpack team are Seniors, which marks the fewest amount of players in their final year of eligibility since the 2004 season. NC State’s 11 Seniors (6 Graduates) is the second lowest total in the ACC this season, and the 6th lowest in the nation.
Even though there are more underclassmen this year, this squad of underclassmen is an experienced group of youngsters. Last year, Freshmen and Redshirt Freshmen played in a combined 235 games and tallied 52 starts.
Here’s a breakdown of the experience of some of the players in the Sophomore class:
FB/TE – Jaylen Samuels – 13 games/2 starts
TE – Cole Cook – 13 games/2 starts
LB – Airius Moore – 13 games/4 starts
OG – Tony Adams – 12 games/9 starts
LB – Jerod Fernandez – 12 games/10 starts
DT – B.J. Hill – 12 games/5 starts
S – Josh Jones – 12 games/8 starts
DT – Kentavius Street – 12 games/0 starts
DE – Bradley Chubb – 11 games/0 starts
DE – Pharaoh McKever – 10 games/2 starts
This team might be young again, but this year they have experience backing up experience.