NC State Football: Can the Wolfpack reload in 2018?

NC State football lost a lot of talent to the 2018 NFL Draft including most of the defensive line. Can Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren reload in 2018?

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The North Carolina State Wolfpack were loaded with NFL-caliber talent in 2017. Head football coach Dave Doeren drove the Wolpack record up to 9-4 (6-2 in the ACC) and a 38th overall ranking in the S&P+.

Nine wins were the most NC State had recorded since Tom O’Brien’s squad won nine games in 2010, and before that when Chuck Amato’s team won eleven games way back in 2002. Coach Doeren enters his sixth season in Raleigh, NC and has to replace four defensive linemen, a running back, and an offensive tackle all taken in the first four rounds of the 2018 NFL Draft.

Doeren took over a good but never great Wolfpack squad and immediately bottomed out in 2013 with a record of 3-9, before bouncing back strong with eight wins a year later. Doeren’s coaching background is on the defensive side of the ball and after putting together a 23-4 record at Northern Illinois took over the Wolfpack with high expectations. His staff has put together five straight winning seasons behind offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz and defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable.

NC State did a great job of recruiting in 2017 and signed the 26th overall class (6th in the ACC) in the country for their 2018 recruiting class. Coach Doeren and the NC State coaches need to put together another eight or nine win season in order to show they were more than Bradley Chubb and Nyheim Hines.