In May, we 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.

Today, July 3 marks 61 days from the Wolfpack's season opener, for now.

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

Jamie Barnette was a four-year quarterback for NC State from 1996-1999 and is the third all-time leader for career passing yards in school history with 9,461.

He led the ACC in passing yards in 1998 with 3,169 yards on a Wolfpack team that finished 7-5 under former head coach Mike O'Cain.

It helped Barnette that he had a legendary pass-catcher, Torry Holt, as his primary receiver, who also went on to shatter several records, including the ACC single-season receiving yards record in 1998.

Barnette ranks 12th all-time in the ACC for career passing yards and 20th all-time in the conference for career passing touchdowns with 59 scores during his four years in Raleigh.

From a team standpoint, 1998 was likely the most memorable of Barnette's tenure as NC State's quarterback. As previously mentioned, the Pack finished 7-5 but ended up losing to a ranked Miami team in the MicronPC Bowl (now dubbed the Cheez-It Bowl). The Wolfpack floated around the Top-25 early on in the 1998 campaign, but a 5-3 record in the ACC kept the team out of the national rankings at the end of the year.

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