Senior Spotlight: A.J. Cole

RALEIGH, N.C. - A.J. Cole, III will leave NC State as one of the best punters to play for the Wolfpack. The senior entered the 2018 season with the third-best career punting average in program history and is the ACC's leading returner in punts and punting yards. He continues to position himself as one of the team's most consistent players, providing a sense of reliability on fourth down.

"Every time I go out there, I just want to put the defense in as good of a position to get the ball back as possible," said Cole. "I'm here to do whatever I need to do to help the team win."

Cole makes it his goal to live out the #1Pack1Goal mentality every time that he steps onto the field. He wants to play his part in NC State's united mission to win a championship, and he's also the first to credit his fellow teammates for the roles that they take on to accomplish that same mission.

"I have a great group of people around me," Cole said. "The coaches have done a great job working with me and making me believe that I'm going to succeed, and the guys around me on the field make it so I feel confident out there."

While his numbers on the field continue to cement him as a great college football player, Cole has also established himself as a leader off of the field. He picked NC State for that exact reason, the chance to develop himself in all areas of life.

"You can't beat the combination of competing athletically in one of the best conferences in the nation and getting one of the best degrees for my engineering major," Cole said. "It's something I really couldn't get anywhere else, and it was the perfect fit."

The College Park, Ga., native has taken advantage of everything that NC State has to offer for him as a student, as an athlete, and as a member of the community.

Cole is consistently one of the Wolfpack's best performers in the classroom, earning national and conference academic recognition and boasting the team's top GPA in 2017. He spent his last five spring breaks placing a focus on helping others by volunteering at a school in Nakuru, Kenya, and he was named to the 2017 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team in honor of his community service efforts.

"Football has given me an incredible platform to have access to opportunities that I wouldn't otherwise have had access to," said Cole. "I've been able to meet and encounter so many incredible people, and I'm trying to absorb everything that I can out of this opportunity."

Cole will graduate in December with a degree in industrial engineering and aims to train for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at a shot in the NFL. But when all is said and done with his football career, Cole wants to be recognized not just for the athlete that he is but for the person that he is.

"I want people to say that I gave everything I had," Cole said. "With academics, athletics, with people, I want to be someone who did everything I could to help myself and the people around me."

North Carolina State University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos