Why NC State defensive lineman Noah Potter chose the Wolfpack via the transfer portal
N.C. State’s Noah Potter is a 6-foot-6, 274-pound defensive lineman who has played major-college football, is a graduate student and was a 4-star high school recruit.
Care to guess how many contacts he had after putting his name in the NCAA transfer portal last December?
“I had to turn my phone on ‘Do Not Disturb.’ It was kind of overwhelming,” Potter said Tuesday.
Such is the nature of college football, college sports. The portal is overflowing with names, and college football staffs spend many hours analyzing the athletes and how much they can help a program. Recruiting the portal can be relentless.
Potter, from Mentor, Ohio, first signed with Ohio State and spent three seasons with the Buckeyes. He then transferred to Cincinnati, giving the Bearcats an aggressive edge rusher with size and speed, but decided to leave after the 2022 season.
College coaches covet defensive linemen who can move and make plays, whether coming out of high school or now in the NCAA portal.
Potter said Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren called on the first day he was in the portal. Later, defensive coordinator Tony Gibson and defensive line coach Charley Wiles did the same as the Pack, Potter said, “Showed a lot of love early on.”
“I knew N.C. State was one of the schools I was hoping to hear from,” Potter said. “When I got the 919 area code… I was keeping my eye out for that one.”
It all added up. The Pack program has been successful. N.C. State uses the 3-3-5 stack defense, a scheme Potter played at Cincinnati. Plus, he said, he has family in the Pinehurst area who are N.C. State fans.
“There were a certain number of schools I was looking to hear from and wanted to go, and I did my research,” he said. “It was pretty easy to go from there. This was a place where I could win and make an impact, so that was a big deciding factor.”
Potter is taking part in spring football workouts with the Pack, joining other transfers such as quarterback Brennan Armstrong, defensive back Robert Kennedy and offensive lineman Dawson Jaramillo.
But if the portal has altered the college sports landscape and scope of recruiting, so has name, image and likeness. NIL opportunities that are available are important and factor into decisions, Potter said.
“I mean, I think in this day and age it has to be,” he said. “It wasn’t the main deciding factor. Especially at every Power 5 school, they have collectives and other different types of endorsement opportunities.
“I’m not a guy who is looking for that, but your name is your brand and your play is your brand, so it’s definitely part of the conversation now more than ever. So just to do your due diligence, you have to have it part of the conversation.”
At N.C. State, the Pack of Wolves Collective announced an NIL plan to award a minimum of $25,000 to each scholarship football player in 2023. And that can be just a starting point for earning potential.
Potter is from a competitive, athletic family. He said his brother Micah Potter, a 6-10 forward, was recruited by former Pack basketball coach Mark Gottfried before going to Ohio State and later Wisconsin.
Caleb Potter was on the West Virginia baseball team and their younger sister, Emma, might be the family’s best athlete, Noah said. She’s a sophomore sprinter on the Ball State track and field team.
Noah Potter has overcome a serious eye injury and a season-ending foot injury. Nearly blinded in his right eye, he said, “One of the toughest things is thinking about losing your eye, but on top of that I lost my life. Football is my life. ... It took everything in my power to get back to really feeling the drive to be the best player I can be.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2023 at 6:13 AM with the headline "Why NC State defensive lineman Noah Potter chose the Wolfpack via the transfer portal."
