Top 10 plays from NC State football in 2020

NC State finished the 2020 season 8-4 overall, including a program-record seven conference wins.

Throughout the fall, we ranked the top five plays from each of the Wolfpack's regular-season games. Now we've narrowed down the very best of the year to 10.

Here are the top 10 plays from the Pack's 2020 season:

Redshirt junior linebacker Vi Jones seemed to find his way into several big plays against the Blue Devils, but this may have been the most important. Down 10 with less than a minute to go until halftime, Jones found a way to block Duke's punt, which allowed redshirt junior safety Max Fisher to recover the ball and score a touchdown.

The play made up for NC State's own punt protection breakdown that allowed Duke to take an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter. Instead of trailing two possessions heading to the locker room, the scoop-and-score special teams touchdown pulled the Pack within three and gave it momentum at the break.

The punt block was Jones' second in two games after he was able to do the same in the previous contest at Virginia.

Freshman corner Aydan White's first career interception couldn't have come at better time for the Wolfpack. Down five with less than nine minutes remaining, NC State took over deep in Liberty territory after White was able to jump Flames quarterback Malik Willis' pass and complete a diving interception along the Pack's sideline.

The Wolfpack regained possession at the Liberty 26-yard line, and sophomore running back Zonovan "Bam" Knight was able to run in a touchdown six plays later to give the Pack a one-point lead it would eventually hang on to.

Leading 17-7 midway through the second quarter, NC State faced third-and-five from the Georgia Tech 43-yard line.

Redshirt junior quarterback Bailey Hockman dropped back to pass and thread the needle to find redshirt sophomore receiver Devin Carter, who made an equally impressive catch in double coverage for a 36-yard completion to put the Pack inside the Yellow Jackets 10-yard line.

The completion tied for the second-longest offensive play of the night and Hockman finished with a second consecutive 300-yard performance. The win marked the quarterback's first start of his career without throwing at least one interception.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been the top play from the game. Credit to offensive coordinator Tim Beck for pulling out the trick-play call on the Wolfpack's first drive to give the Pack an early 7-0 lead and give Hockman confidence that carried over through the rest of the game.

Redshirt junior receiver Thayer Thomas was able to get his first touchdown pass of the 2020 season and the third of his college career. Hockman was also able to show off his athleticism on the 31-yard touchdown run.

NC State had a seven-point lead with 3:31 remaining when junior placekicker Christopher Dunn nailed a 39-yard attempt to make it a 23-13 contest, effectively icing the game.

The kick was Dunn's 56th career make, which passed Niklas Sade's former program record of 55 career field goals. Dunn is now the all-time record holder at NC State with another two years of eligibility remaining after the season.

There is no debate on what the most electric play of the Miami game was. Knight was the third-string kickoff return man entering the contest, but he eventually won the job the rest of the way after this play.

Knight admitted after the game he probably should have downed the ball considering it was a kick into the end zone, but it was a good thing he didn't. He became the fourth player in NC State history to return a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown, joining Nyheim Hines, Tobais Palmer and T.J. Graham.

It may not have been the most important play of the game, but it was definitely the most impressive. Just moments after starting quarterback Devin Leary came out of the game with a broken fibula, Hockman took his place and was put in charge of maintaining the Pack's one-point lead late in the game.

His pass to the end zone was underthrown and tipped by a Duke defender, but redshirt junior receiver Thayer Thomas' stellar eye-hand coordination allowed him to control his body and squeeze the ball between one hand and his helmet.

It was potentially lucky that the ball wasn't intercepted, but credit Thomas for finding a way to make the catch which put the Pack up 28-20 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, a lead it was able to maintain to advance to 4-1 on the season.

Considering NC State had no timeouts remaining, Liberty had an opportunity to knock in what likely would have been a game-winning 39-yard field goal with 1:24 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Instead, Jones was able to sprinkle more of his special teams magic on the Pack's season and found a way to block the field goal attempt. The block marked Jones' third of the season on special teams, his first two being punt blocks against Virginia and Duke.

The play helped the Wolfpack seal its second win of the season against a ranked opponent.

Following Leary and Thomas' fourth-down conversion and a defensive pass interference on the next play, the Wolfpack had a first-and-10 from the Pitt 13-yard line with 29 seconds on the clock. There may have been time for three or four plays but only one was necessary.

Senior wide receiver Emeka Emezie battled the Pittsburgh defender on his way to the left edge on the end zone, where Leary's perfect pass just above the pylon was waiting for the senior receiver. This play didn't happen in isolation. Leary released the ball as Emezie crossed the 5-yard line, indicating that the QB-WR duo had practiced this numerous times in the offseason to build the trust to make this game-winning grab possible.

You probably already knew what the No. 1 play would be before you even clicked on the article. If you haven't seen this by now, do you live under a rock?

Junior nose tackle Alim McNeill's 18-yard interception return for a touchdown off of Virginia back-up quarterback Lindell Stone didn't just go viral this weekend, it was a crucial momentum swing for the Wolfpack with 11:10 remaining in the fourth quarter.

NC State missed a field goal attempt on the play before and Virginia had a chance to shrink the Pack's lead into a one-possession game. McNeill's "thick six" put the Wolfpack up by three possessions and completely drained the energy from the Cavaliers' sideline.

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