On a hot Sunday afternoon, NC State fifth-year senior receiver Tabari Hines sat on the bleachers at the south end of Carter-Finley Stadium as a small group of reporters congregated around him.

It’s a far different place from where Hines was a year ago — Eugene, Ore. — but in a way it is a far more familiar for Hines than his brief stint for the Oregon Ducks.

He is a native of Florence, S.C., and he played three years at Wake Forest two hours west of Raleigh before leaving for Oregon as a graduate transfer in 2018. Thus Hines is almost back home.

“I didn’t miss the humidity at all,” Hines admitted.

Hines has played only once before at Carter-Finley Stadium. In 2016, he was a sophomore for the Demon Deacons when NCSU rolled to a quick 17-0 first-quarter lead en route to a 33-16 win. That handed Wake its first loss that year in five games, but Hines was a bright spot that day.

He caught nine passes for 125 yards and was responsible for the Deacons’ lone touchdown.

“That’s my first 100-yard game of my career,” Hines added. “Even though we still lost, it was a great experience to be able to get 100 yards. I would have loved to have had the win, but it was a nice moment for me in my career.”

Hines' career continued to progress at a rapid rate. By the end of his junior season he was one of the best slot receivers in the ACC. He caught 53 passes for 683 yards and seven touchdowns in 2017.

Yet for what Hines described as “a couple of issues” he felt it was time to go in a different direction. In the process, he also fulfilled one of his childhood dreams: playing for Oregon.

And very little seemed to go right, especially with his left knee. He caught three passes for 32 yards and a touchdown against Portland State, but that was it. His knee was limiting his ability to move as swiftly as he had previously.

“As a kid, that was one of the schools I watched, one of the schools I dreamed about going to,” Hines said. “I finally got the chance to go there and got hurt.”

Hines described it as “a really low point” in his life.

“But being there taught me a lot of different things," he added.

One of which was rediscovering the joy in football. He realized that the sport had become a job for him in recent years.

Returning to Oregon was not an option, Hines said, but he wanted to get a waiver to play one more year. A lot of schools though worried because if they took him as a transfer and he was denied the waiver, that team would have lost a scholarship.

NC State, though, did its homework. The Pack was looking for help in the slot with the decision of Jakobi Meyers to turn pro after his redshirt junior year. The Pack was more than aware of how good Hines could be when healthy.

That was painfully evident to NC State in 2017. Wake Forest won that game 30-24, and Hines was the undisputed MVP of the contest. He hauled in eight receptions for 139 yards and three scores.

"Obviously, we knew how good a player he was because of what he did to us,” NC State head coach Dave Doeren said. “The biggest thing for us was just making sure that he’d be able to be admitted, that the academics were in order and all those things. He had a surgery when he was at Oregon, so making sure he’d be healthy.

“And once all those kinds of things lined up, then it was just about getting him here and getting his family here.”

The two proved to be a good fit. Hines gets one last chance at football, and NC State picks up valuable depth at receiver. So far the match is looking promising.

Doeren described Hines as hungry.

“Tabari’s going to be a great addition,” Doeren said. “You guys already know about the returning players. We’ve talked a lot about them. But having seen Tabari now for nine to 10 days, he brings something else to the table.”

Hines knows that some of the current Wolfpack players suspected he might brag about his past successes when he arrived.

That may have included NC State junior cornerback Chris Ingram. In 2017, Ingram was a true freshman who was trotted out for his first career start against Wake Forest at a new position — nickel.

The nickel covers the slot, which is where Hines lined up and eventually had his huge evening at Ingram’s expense.

“I really try to stay away from talking about it,” Hines said. “I don’t like people talking about it because it really makes me uncomfortable sometimes. … The past is the past.”

Ironically, Ingram and Hines have become fast friends. Hines said that the Ingram he sees in practice is far better than the one he played two years ago.

“I just know that he wasn’t playing there the whole season,” Hines recalled about his 2017 matchup. “It was kind of one of those deals — anytime you put somebody in a new position you got to test it out.”

NC State returns to Winston-Salem for the first time since that game Nov. 2.

“It’s going to be surreal being in that stadium again and having to go up against people I used to practice with all the time, but business is business,” Hines said. “We got to come out with a win.”

And from Hines’ perspective, have some fun while doing it. He already feels like his knee is 100 percent for the first time in over a year.

“The last couple of years, I took football as a job instead of something I do for fun,” Hines said. “I think this year I am going to make sure I have fun while doing it.

"Whatever happens, happens, but make sure I have fun doing it.”

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