In May, we originally started a countdown to NC State football's season and ACC opener against Louisville, a game that was originally scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 3.

In mid-June, the game was moved up a day to Wednesday, Sept. 2 in order to not conflict with the Kentucky Derby which was postponed from the traditional first Saturday in May to Saturday, Sept. 5 over Labor Day weekend.

In late July, the ACC scrapped its original football schedule to create a new 11-game model due to challenges presented from the coronavirus pandemic. A week later, NC State learned the dates of its new schedule which was set to begin Saturday, Sept. 12 in a road game against Virginia Tech.

Then an identified COVID cluster within the NC State athletic department shut down fall camp for eight days in late August, prompting the Pack to push back the opener against Virginia Tech to Sept. 26. Now NC State will open its season at home against Wake Forest on Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. on ACC Network.

Today, Sept. 8 marks 11 days from the Wolfpack's season opener.

Each day, The Wolfpacker will do a countdown to the season with a reflection on the significance of that number to NC State.

Career: Redshirt sophomore linebacker will wear the No. 11 jersey for NC State in 2020 and is a projected starting linebacker according to The Wolfpacker's projected defensive depth chart.

Wilson suffered a season-ending knee injury and underwent surgery prior to what would have been his true freshman campaign in 2018.

After redshirting the previous season, Wilson was one of the high points of the Wolfpack defense in 2019. The 6-foot-4, 240-pounder tallied a team-high 69 total tackles as a redshirt freshman despite only starting in one contest.

His total tackle count included 36 combined tackles, 33 solo and four for loss. He also added three pass breakups, one quarterback hurry and one interception which he returned for 16 yards.

He recorded 14 tackles in the season finale against North Carolina which tied for the team-high in a single game in 2019. He was also the team's leading tackler against Wake Forest (11) and tied for the team-high against Florida State (7).

Bio: Wilson's recruitment was quite interesting as an in-state commit from Orange County High in Hillsborough (N.C.)

The four-star outside linebacker was ranked No. 166 overall nationally, No. 13 for his position and No. 8 overall in the state of North Carolina as a member of the class of 2018.

Originally a verbal commit to North Carolina, Wilson decomitted from UNC in Nov. 2017.

After a high-interest recruitment process with national interest, Wilson signed with the Wolfpack over notable competing offers from Clemson, Ohio State, Notre Dame and North Carolina. He essentially had offers from almost every program of prominence in the ACC, SEC and Big 12.

Over his high school career, Wilson tallied 266 total tackles, 70 tackles for loss, 24 sacks and two interceptions. He also compiled 754 all-purpose yards for nine touchdowns on offense during his senior season.

He was named News and Observer's Player of the Year and Male Athlete of the Year as a senior.

Fun Fact: Wilson was a multi-sport athlete in high school. He won a state championship in wrestling and was named to the all-conference and all-metro teams as a lacrosse player.

——

• Talk about it inside The Wolves' Den

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker

• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker

• Like us on Facebook