The Retention NC State Football has Experienced this Offseason Through the Work of Savage Wolves is Mindblowing

I’m honestly dumbfounded at this point.

Savage Wolves has re-signed EVERY SINGLE significant contributor on NC State’s football roster this year that had years of eligibility remaining, not named KC Concepcion.

I might be in the minority here, and I mean this with respect for what he contributed the past two years, but I think the loss of Concepcion is addition by subtraction. If KC re-signed, I doubt NC State would have been able to retain the rest of the players they did.

Dave Doeren and his players talk about culture a lot. Culture doesn’t always equal 10+ wins and conference championships, though it can lead to that. Your culture is revealed by how a team handles adversity, whether or not they believe in the the team and the vision of it’s future if the record is disappointing, and whether or not people leave when expectations aren’t met.

This team was picked to finish 4th in the conference in the 2024 ACC Preseason Poll, and they finished the year ranked 12th. There was murmuring of the Wolfpack being a dark horse to make the College Football Playoffs. Before the season even started, if this team didn’t become the 2nd team in school history to win 10 games, it was destined to be viewed as a disappointment.

The Wolfpack finished with a 6-6 record, scraping their way into the Military bowl.

The fact that Savage Wolves has been able to re-sign 23 players to come back next year, with all of them being starters, or players that played significant roles, speaks volumes of the generosity of Wolfpack fans, and the people that run the NIL collective.

While I know that money is obviously a factor in players re-signing, I don’t for a second think that’s the only reason these 23 players re-signed. I think they did so because of the brotherhood they have with their teammates, the love and trust they share with the coaching staff, their love for NC State and their loyal fans and the way the collective is run and treats them.

So far, NC State has only lost one one starter that had years of eligibility to the Transfer Portal, and that was Concepcion. The other 9 players that have entered were not significant contributors, with quite a few playing next to no snaps.

Incredible job by the Savage Wolves team.