TOP 10 PLAYS: No. 7 Ryan Finley's 1-Hander vs. Syracuse
July is here, which means football is right around the corner!
This week we started a month-long feature at Inside Pack Sports where we look back at NC State's top offensive and defensive plays from the 2017 season.
The plays are selected on a variety of factors, ranging from level of difficulty, overall impact, importance to the game/season, etc...
James, Steve, and Bryant reviewed the best plays and submitted their top ten plays on each side of the ball. We put together a composite list, and we will be releasing each play daily, so enjoy!
NOTE: To view each play click the video above, which includes voice-over thoughts from James Henderson.
Our first three plays in this series were catches made by NC State's returning wide receivers, and No. 7 is another catch, this time by Wolfpack signal-caller Ryan Finley.
Finley came down with a nifty one-handed grab in NC State's home win over Syracuse... a well-designed play by offensive coordinator Eli Drinkwitz. While the play was a good call, Finley actually makes a difficult catch... one-handed over his shoulder. Anyone who watched the Super Bowl knows how hard these plays can be for quarterbacks (or just ask Tom Brady).
Finley made it look easy, which really isn't surprising given he's an underrated athlete who was a very good high school basketball player.
NC State was up 19-7 at the time so the Wolfpack could afford to take a chance with the playcall, and it paid off. Often in a series like this several are trick plays that often result in wide open long gains. That's not the case here because the catch wasn't easy, especially for a quarterback.
Wideout Gavin Locklear threw Finley a touch pass, and the senior reached up one-handed to secure the pass... that was No. 7 in our Top 10 offensive plays from the 2017 season.
NOTE: To view each play click the video above, which includes voice-over thoughts from James Henderson.