The North State Journal’s sports staff of editor Cory Lavalette and writers Jesse Deal, Ryan Henkel and Shawn Krest isn’t afraid to be fearless in 2024.
In our annual exercise, each member of the staff has made two bold predictions for the upcoming year. Some may be reasonable, others improbable, but no one can accuse us of being boring.
Jesse Deal, reporter
Hornets move on from Kupchak
After six years with Mitch Kupchak as president of basketball operations and general manager, the Hornets will go in a different direction and part ways with the three-time NBA champion and former Lakers executive.
New majority owners Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin will start installing their own people in the front office, which could also mean a coaching search to replace Steve Clifford.
It once appeared Kupchak’s draft choices and free agency decisions had the team moving in the right direction, but the Hornets have made little progress the past few seasons and are in as bad of a spot as they were when he was hired in 2018. The combination of poor roster construction, including adding injury-prone players without adding serviceable depth, and the handling of the Miles Bridges situation has warmed Kupchak’s seat.
In 2022, Charlotte awarded Kupchak an undisclosed multiyear contract extension to stay with the team. But in 2024, Schnall and Plotkin will close that chapter as they look to refresh and revitalize the Hornets.
49ers football takes leap forward
Charlotte football coach Biff Poggi made some daring proclamations before the 2023 season about how the 49ers would fare in his first year and the school’s inaugural campaign in the American Athletic Conference. While a 3-9 (2-6 AAC) campaign isn’t quite what was promised to Niner Nation, the Charlotte athletic department’s buy-in to his system of program-building will pay dividends in Year Two.
Florida transfer Max Brown and redshirt freshman Carson Black will battle it out for the team’s quarterback position — a spot where the Niners struggled mightily in 2023 — while the Charlotte roster as a whole becomes a little more talented and a little more effective at achieving the on-field results seventh-year athletic director Mike Hill wants to see.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Niners will continue to move forward after making the jump from dead last in the nation to 62nd in 2023. It will culminate in Charlotte’s first bowl game appearance since its Bahamas Bowl loss in 2019.
Shawn Krest, reporter
North Carolina’s ACC teams get wooed
With Florida State challenging the ACC’s grant of rights in court and potentially clearing a path for future defections from the league, some of the ACC’s signature teams will be targets for poaching by other power conferences.
UNC will likely be a target by both the SEC and Big Ten, as it is the most established basketball and football power in a state both conferences would like to add to their footprint. With NC State an option for the SEC, UNC will likely lean toward the Big Ten, breaking up the longtime annual rivalry games between the two schools. Another rivalry will also be at risk as Duke may be left out of the power conference shuffle due to its weaker positioning football-wise.
Panthers relocation rumors emerge
Following midseason coaching changes each of the last two years and a fan base that has stopped coming to games — including embarrassing turnouts against the Vikings and Cowboys that seemed like road games and a December game against Atlanta where tickets couldn’t be sold with a 45-cent price tag on the secondary market — Carolina Panthers team owner David Tepper will be rumored to be considering moving the team.
The Panthers’ 10-year contract that tied the team to Bank of America Stadium expired before the 2023 season. That means the financial penalties for moving the team have dropped significantly, and there appears to be little activity on renegotiating a new deal.
Ryan Henkel, reporter
NC State football makes expanded playoffs
With the NCAA expanding the field to 12 teams, 2024 will be the year NC State qualifies for the college football playoffs.
The Wolfpack finished this season with a 9-4 record despite one of their weakest offenses in recent years, struggling to cultivate any playmakers outside of star freshman KC Concepcion.
Coach Dave Doeren — with the help of some transfer portal magic — has added several new weapons for his team.
Coastal Carolina quarterback Grayson McCall, who’s thrown for more than 10,000 yards and 88 touchdowns in his career, Duke running back Jordan Waters, Notre Dame starting center Zeke Correll, Wake Forest wide receiver Wesley Grimes and UConn tight end Justin Joly are some of the offensive upgrades the Wolfpack will have on hand.
Combined with a solid defense led by recently extended defensive coordinator Tony Gibson, NC State may be able to put it all together in 2024.
The path to the NCAA playoffs starts with a 10-win season and ACC Conference Championship — two things that have evaded Doeren in the past — but the pieces are there for the Wolfpack to have a breakthrough.
Wolfpack wins first women’s basketball title
Things just feel different in 2023-24 for NC State’s women’s basketball team.
After a disappointing season a year ago that ended with a first round NCAA exit, the Wolfpack lost four of five starters and looked to be on shaky ground for the first time in the Wes Moore era.
It turns out Moore had everything under control.
Through 13 games, the Wolfpack were undefeated with wins over UConn and Colorado, who were ranked second and third in the country, respectively, at the time of NC State’s upsets.
The starting five is composed of returnees taking on bigger roles and has been complemented by promising young talent off the bench.
The Wolfpack already got revenge on the Huskies — who confusingly had the advantage of playing in their home state despite being the lower seed in beating NC State in the 2022 Elite Eight — and have all the momentum to win the program’s first national championship.
Cory Lavalette, editor
NASCAR plans return to Rockingham
After a second straight successful All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro in May, NASCAR announces plans to bring the exhibition race to another long-lost North Carolina track. Rockingham Speedway, which was repaved in late 2022, will land more funding from the state to improve its facilities, and with that comes a commitment to bring the All-Star Race to the track in the near future.
The mile-long oval last hosted the Cup Series in 2004, a race fittingly won by Matt Kenseth. Kenseth had kickstarted his career at Rockingham, winning his first Busch (now Xfinity) Series race at the track in 1998, passing Tony Stewart on the final lap for the victory. Kenseth (a two-time Cup race winner at the track) and Stewart are now both in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and there would be no better way to honor Rockingham than to bring it back for a new generation of fans.
Hurricanes ride Kochetkov to Stanley Cup final
After not winning a division title for the first time since the 2019-20 season, the Hurricanes still make it to the NHL’s final two. Carolina is led by goalie Pyotr Kochetkov, who seized control of the starting job in December and never let go, finishing third in Calder Trophy voting as the league’s top rookie.
The Rangers hold on to win the Metropolitan Division, and the two teams meet in Round 2 after the Hurricanes beat the Devils in the first round. Carolina dispatches the favored Blueshirts in six games and then — in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference final — tops the Panthers in a nail-biting seven-game series.
The Hurricanes, unfortunately, can’t get over the last hurdle and lose in six games to the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup final. Kochetkov still finishes second in Conn Smythe voting as playoff MVP and solidifies himself as Carolina’s answer in net.
