NC State Newsstand: Payton Wilson earns Reese’s Senior Bowl weekly award

Another week, another dominant performance on the field from NC State graduate linebacker Payton Wilson . His big night against North Carolina landed the Wolfpack’s star defender the Reese’s Senior Bowl Co-Defensive Player of the Week Award on Monday morning.

Wilson logged 15 total tackles, including eight solo stops with two tackles for a loss, a sack, a forced fumble, an interception and a quarterback hurry in the Pack’s 39-20 win over the Tar Heels.

It is Wilson’s second time winning the award from the Reese’s Senior Bowl, and he is the only defensive player in the country to win it multiple times. The only other player to receive a national player of the week award twice from the Senior Bowl is LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels , a Heisman Trophy candidate.

Wilson, a Butkus and Nagurski Award finalist, finished the season with an ACC-best 138 total tackles and a conference-leading 17.5 tackles for a loss. He also recorded six sacks (10th in the ACC), nine pass breakups (9th in the ACC), three interceptions (11th in the ACC) and two fumble recoveries (5th in the ACC).

The Hillsborough, N.C., native also moved up to fifth in NC State’s program history for all-time tackles with 402 in his career.

Tweets of the day

NC State football entered the Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday.

NC State women’s basketball enjoyed its win over No. 3 Colorado on Saturday afternoon.

Just having fun with it pic.twitter.com/OOtxqx0Hbf

— NC State WBB November 25, 2023

NC State’s recruits enjoyed watching the Wolfpack’s win over North Carolina.

NC State sent a message with its win over UNC Saturday night.

The recruits in attendance heard it loud and clear.

Here are some quotes from 3 CB Jaren Sensabaugh, 4 WR Jonathan Paylor, 3 TE Gus Ritchey and many others.

Recruiting reactions: pic.twitter.com/9qt280Xg3L

— Ethan McDowell November 26, 2023

Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson continues to have an elite defense.

#Texas finishes the regular season with the No. 1 third down defense in the entire country.

— CJ Vogel November 27, 2023

Quote of the day

Dave Doeren on NC State’s five-game winning streak after it started the season 4-3:

“I think as a leader I was challenged,” Doeren said. “I was put in a tough spot, and if you’ve learned anything about me and my time here, I love being challenged. I like fighting when people are doubting me, and there was a lot of doubt. It was one of those things where you had to fight for your players, fight for yourself and we did that very well.”