As he did for most of the previous 12 games of the 2025 season, NC State captain and All-American linebacker Caden Fordham fielded questions from the media following the Wolfpack’s comfortable Gasparilla Bowl win in Tampa on Friday.
Fordham has been a certainty for NCSU, and not just with addressing the press. He could be counted on for maximum effort in the highest and lowest moments.
His numbers this season are elite; All-American status is not obligatory. If the topic is tackling leaders in the nation, whether it be those enrolled at ACC schools, players at Power-4 colleges, or simply linebackers in general, Fordham’s name has to be mentioned early in the discussion.
It cannot be easy immediately following players like Payton Wilson, Drake Thomas, and Isaiah Moore, while also manning a position at NC State that has seen leaders and stalwarts like Bill Cowher, Vaughan Johnson, Stephen Tulloch, and the trio of Nate Irving, Audie Cole, and Terrell Manning, among others.
NC State fans know good linebacking when they see it, and they have witnessed quite a bit.
Like those before him, Fordham is now an alumnus, and his time with the Pack is limited to memories.
NCSU improved from last season to this past campaign, and he turned it on late in November (and a bowl game in December) to give its supporters some hope for a better future -- in the immediate and long-term.
The numbers and performance late in the season should be enough, but if there was any doubt that Fordham was deserving of the honor of wearing NC State’s number one jersey or his devotion to the cause, it was eliminated forever when Wolfpack Nation saw him still running around on the field late in the fourth quarter of a bowl game that NCSU had clinched victory in long before.
Fordham did not leave NC State looking for what he could get out of his final bowl experience. The All-American finished his college career wanting to give back to those who provided the platform he used to achieve greatness.
And so Caden Fordham earned his right to be mentioned with the NC State greats at his position. Years from now, fans will walk the concourse at whatever the Wolfpack’s football stadium is called, and they will see Fordham’s name among the All-ACC and All-American performers.
The native of Florida went out a winner and leader in his home state for NC State. It is poetic. Should the Wolfpack continue to ascend, someone will have to fill big shoes, and Fordham’s name will be mentioned with the others at linebacker.
If NC State gets more linebackers and players at other positions who attack the game with the passion the way Fordham exhibited, the Wolfpack will reach great heights sooner than later.
