In the fifth round with the No. 174 pick overall of the 2020 NFL Draft, NC State football's All-ACC defensive tackle Larrell Murchison was selected by the Tennessee Titans.
Murchison completes an improbable journey to the NFL. The lightly recruited product of East Bladen High in Elizabethtown, N.C., first went to Louisburg (N.C.) College, which isn’t known for producing high-major Division I talent. His fraternal twin Farrell joined him there.
Yet Larrell Murchison showed enough potential to be recruited by the likes of Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas. NC State gave Murchison a late offer, and he was the last member to sign on in the 2017 class. His letter of intent actually arrived after the signing class was originally announced.
His brother ended up at Winston-Salem State, where he successfully beat testicular cancer in 2018 and returned this year to run for 635 yards and nine touchdowns in 10 games.
Larrell Murchison redshirted his first season at NC State, and he is the first to admit that in hindsight he needed it.
“My stance was bad when I first got here, and I didn’t know what I was doing,” Murchison once told The Wolfpacker. “It was so bad, I don’t even remember what I was doing.”
He blossomed after that learning period, however. Murchison earned a starting job in 2018 and had 34 tackles, eight tackles for loss and four sacks on the nine-win Wolfpack.
Murchison was one of the bright spots in a difficult 2019 season for NC State. He was second-team All-ACC after having 48 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and seven sacks, the latter two totals both team-highs.
At the NFL combine, Murchison measured at 6-foot-2, 297 pounds and ran the 40-yard dash in 5.05 seconds. He also did an impressive 29 reps on the bench press, tied for fifth best among the defensive linemen there, and had a 29.0 vertical leap.
He joins a Tennessee Titans team that went 9-7 and ended the Tom Brady-dynasty at New England by upsetting the New England Patriots in the playoffs en route the AFC title game. According to ESPN.com, defensive tackle was a need for Tennessee entering the draft.
“He can hold the point of attack," NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah said on the broadcast. "He’s got very quick hands. He has some real shock in his hands once he gets them on you. He can stack blocks, press off and get off. You don’t see a lot of burst and redirect stuff down the line of scrimmage.
"You saw him in sub situations get a chance to play over the center. He does create some knock back there in that role. He has a chance to get involved in that front as a rotational player.”
Murchison makes it five straight years that a Wolfpack player has been drafted. It is the third time the Titans have selected a NC State player. They drafted linebacker Stephen Tulloch in the fourth round in 2006 and offensive lineman Leroy Harris in the fourth round in 2007. Both were starters for Tennessee.
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