NC State leading for DL Pheldarius Payne

Defensive lineman Pheldarius Payne from Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., was not on NC State’s radar prior to June 15. That changed in a matter of a few hours on that Saturday afternoon.

The 6-foot-2, 270-pound Payne was interested in NC State because it was two and a half hours from his hometown of Suffolk, Va. He arranged to camp in Raleigh with a simple thought process.

“That would be a great school for me to go to,” Payne explained. “I went down there to go to a camp, so I could get an opportunity to get a scholarship.”

By the end of the camp, Payne was standing out.

“I felt like I was doing great,” Payne acknowledged. “I felt like I was moving well.”

He added that as he was going through drills and one-on-ones, he could tell that the coaches were becoming increasingly intrigued. Fast forward a little less than a month later, and Payne was asked to call Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren.

Doeren told Payne that he had an offer from NC State.

“It means a lot to me,” Payne said. “That’s a dream school since I was little. It’s two hours and 30 minutes away, and it has a good D-Line coach. … They’re sitting on my list really high right now, probably No. 1.”

Payne will be making a return trip to NC State on Friday for the Alpha Wolf Showcase. As a freshman at Lackawanna, Payne had 22 tackles, including 6.5 for loss and five sacks.

He was a 2018 grad at Nansemond River High in Suffolk, where as a senior he helped lead his team to the state semifinals and was an All-District and All-Region performer.