NC State’s Davin Vann and the other ‘dogs’ up front are ready to lead defense in 2023

UPDATED AUGUST 04, 2023 4:29 PM
N.C. State’s Davin Vann was talking about playing defensive end in the Wolfpack’s 3-3-5 scheme, about being constantly double-teamed and taking a physical pounding while trying to make plays.
“You’re not getting the one-on-one’s that every D lineman dreams of,” Vann said this past week. “It is a very hard defense to play in as a D lineman. But I always tell my guys in the room that one thing the ‘stack’ will show you is if you’re a dog or not.”
For Vann, being a “dog” is a good thing. Tough, mean, relentless. He also said there are more than few “dogs willing to work” on the Wolfpack D line as the Pack prepares for the 2023 season.
That includes a healthy Savion Jackson, who missed a chunk of last season with an injury but has returned slimmer, stronger.
“He means a lot to us,” Vann said. “I mean, that’s a bad dude. Great run stopper, pass rush is good. He brings a lot to the table.”
The Wolfpack, arguably the best defense in the ACC last season, should start Vann and Jackson at the ends and C.J. Clark in the middle for the Aug, 31 opener at Connecticut.
“That’s a pretty stout front right there,” Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren said this past week. “Then you look at who we’re rotating in to play. Brandon Cleveland has gotten a lot better. Red Hibbler and Noah Potter. Travali Price was one of our better performers in the spring.”
Potter and Hibbler are new to the program – Potter transferring from Cincinnati after last season and Hibbler after three years of junior-college ball at Northwest Mississippi Community College.
Cleveland, a sophomore, and Price, a redshirt sophomore, received more game action as the 2022 season progressed.
‘I like the rotation, and it’s great having a seasoned player like Savion Jackson back,” Doeren said. ”I know he’s anxious to get back out there and play some games.”
Jackson, a 6-2, 290-pound senior from Clayton, has had his last two seasons marred by injuries that kept him out of the lineup and made him an antsy bystander.
Jackson went down in the Syracuse game in mid-October last fall, missing the final six games including the bowl against Maryland in Charlotte. But after putting in the rehab, after reshaping his body with better nutrition (“Rice, chicken, fish, keeping it simple”), he was excited to get back on the practice field this past week.
“It was amazing,” Jackson said. “It has been since Syracuse since the last time I touched grass, so to be back was amazing.”
Vann, a junior from Cary, started all 13 games last season and received the team award for best defenslve lineman. Listed at 6-2 and 280 pounds, he was at his best in the double-overtime win at North Carolina, tipping a Drake Maye pass that resulted in an interception by Tanner Ingle in the fourth quarter.
Clark started at defensive end after Jackson was injured. A handful at nose tackle at 6-3 and 305 pounds, the redshirt junior had a pair of sacks early in the season in the win over Texas Tech.
N.C. State allowed 19.2 points a game -- tying Louisville for the best scoring defense in the league -- and led the ACC in interceptions. Gone are such players as nose tackle Cory Durden and linebackers Isaiah Moore and Drake Thomas, but Vann said he believes this year’s defense can be better.
“I think so, one hundred percent,” he said. “I think our secondary has gotten a lot better. Our D line, having Savion and C.J. back, is going to be great. And our linebackers are going to be great, too.
“We’ve talked about it the other day. Our defense has done things that other defenses in the conference haven’t done. I, and the team, feel like we have a very tough defense and we have a certain standard we want to uphold this year.”
When the ACC released the preseason all-conference selections this past week, it did not go unnoticed at N.C. State – just one Wolfpack defensive player, cornerback Aydan White, was voted to the 2023 preseason All-ACC team.
Was that a snub?
“I don’t pay too much attention to that,” Vann said. “We’re not worried about what the outside says. We know what we have.”