NC State and Appalachian State will line up in Raleigh on Saturday, and the matchup comes with a little family drama baked in. On one side is Wolfpack tight end Preston Douglas, No. 19, a sophomore who has already become a useful piece of the offense. On the other is Mountaineer tight end Luke Douglas, No. 85, a junior and Preston’s older brother.
The Douglas connection runs deep. The brothers were born 16 months apart, and in high school in Jupiter, Fla., Luke played quarterback with Preston as his favorite target.
This won’t be their first time facing each other from opposite sidelines, either. Luke spent the last two seasons at Florida State before moving to App State, which left Preston with a 1-0 edge in the brother-versus-brother ledger.
Their parents, Andrea and Jonathan Douglas, will be in the NC State section on Saturday, pulling for at least one player on each team.
Preston has done his part for the Wolfpack in 2026, catching nine passes for 121 yards and a touchdown.
He’s not the only pass-catcher making noise. Junior receiver Keenan Jackson has clearly become CJ Bailey’s top option, stacking back-to-back 100-yard games.
That’s the first time an NC State receiver has done that since Kelvin Harmon and Jakobi Meyers in 2018. At Vanderbilt, Jackson set a career high with nine catches and became only the 12th player in school history to score three or more receiving touchdowns in a game.
He sits third in the ACC in touchdown receptions and sixth in receiving yards per game at 77.
Defensively, Popo Aguirre has wasted no time making his presence felt. The transfer linebacker from Miami opened the season with a career-best 18 tackles against Virginia, the second-highest single-game total for a Pack defender under Dave Doeren.
Only Payton Wilson’s 19-tackle day against Duke in 2020 has been better during Doeren’s tenure. Aguirre’s 18 stops also rank as the 10th-best total since the turn of the century, and his nine tackles per game put him second in the ACC and 21st in the FBS.
NC State has also leaned on versatility up front, and Teague Andersen has been right in the middle of it. The senior had started the last 14 games he played at right tackle before the Vanderbilt game, and his background is even broader than that.
At Utah State, he made 16 starts at right tackle, plus one at left tackle and one at center. When Spike Sowells went down with an injury against Richmond, Andersen moved over to center for 24 snaps.
He then started at that spot against Vanderbilt and played 82 snaps.
The Wolfpack have also gotten a heavy dose of their youngest players. Fifteen different true freshmen have already seen the field in the first quarter of this season, and 10 of them have played in more than one game.
Defensive ends Elijah Satchell and Josh Warren, nickel Chino Aguirre and corner Jordyn Best have all appeared in each of the team’s three games. Satchell and linebacker Jordan Moreta lead the freshman group in scrimmage snaps with 30 apiece, while Chino Aguirre is fourth on the team with 29 special teams snaps.
In Other News...
Former NC State Official Now Faces Serious Charges In Wolfpack Case
A former N.C. State sports medicine director was arrested in Florida on Sept. 23 and now faces extradition to North Carolina after being indicted on multiple felony and misdemeanor sexual abuse charges. The case has put a painful new spotlight on allegations from more than 30 former Wolfpack athletes, with the indictments tied to incidents said to have taken place from 2016 to 2021.
N.C. State has already acknowledged the charges and said it will cooperate with law enforcement as the case moves forward. For a program that has spent years building trust with athletes and families, the scope of the allegations makes this more than a legal matter, and the next steps in the extradition process will be closely watched in Raleigh. [Read more 🡒]
NC State Gets An App State Test Built Around Two Big Concerns
App State comes into NC States world with a lot of new faces and not nearly as much proven production, which makes this matchup feel less about what the Mountaineers were last year and more about what theyre trying to become now. Theyve rebuilt heavily through the portal, bringing in 75 new players, but the bulk of that group does not bring much starting experience, leaving plenty of uncertainty for a team ranked near the bottom of the Sun Belt in returning production.
Still, there are real issues for the Wolfpack to account for. Malachi Singleton has settled in quickly and already given App State a passing game that can move the ball, while the ground attack has lagged behind and struggled to consistently generate efficient yards. For NC State, the test is built around sorting out which part of that identity shows up and whether the Wolfpack can force the Mountaineers into the kind of one-dimensional game that has not yet looked like a strength. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Faces A Big Recruiting Test With Ian Condon Decision Looming
Ian Condons September 29 commitment date is now one of the bigger recruiting checkpoints on the 2027 calendar, and NC State is firmly in the mix for the top-100 prospect. The Wolfpack are one of eight finalists, alongside Syracuse, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Boston College, Stanford, Georgia Tech and Florida, which gives this race the feel of a broad national search rather than a regional battle.
For NC State, the appeal is obvious: landing a player rated among the classs best would give the program a major early boost in the cycle and another signal that it can win against a crowded field. Condons scouting report points to a player with a defined style, clear strengths and a few areas still to sharpen, which is exactly the kind of profile that can make a final decision interesting when several high-major programs are still pressing for the same prize. [Read more 🡒]