North Carolina State University Athletics
Football Names Team Captains, Assistant Captains
8/18/2026 9:22:00 AM | Football
NC State head coach Dave Doeren has announced the five players who will serve as team captains for 2026, as voted on by their teammates. This season, for the first time, the Wolfpack will also have assistant captains to help provide leadership to the team.
Quarterback CJ Bailey and running back Duke Scott will represent the offense as captains, while linebackers Popo Aguirre and AJ Richardson and corner Brian Nelson II will represent the defense. Those five will alternate participation in the coin toss each week.
Receiver Keenan Jackson, offensive guard Kamen Smith and defensive tackle Isaiah Shirley will serve as assistant captains.
The team's leadership council has been working with leadership expert Mike Erwin, who also works with the Carolina Hurricanes, for the past two seasons. With voting for team captains extremely close, Doeren decided to adopt the hockey model of having team captains and assistant captains.
"All eight of these men have shown great leadership through our offseason conditioning program, spring practice and fall camp and I'm proud of how all of them represent our program," said Doeren. If you look across most organizations, there are leadership hierarchies in place. Whether it's in the military or Fortune 500 companies, these levels are created for a reason: to empower leaders who have earned that responsibility and to train future leaders under them. It was obvious to me after speaking with Mike that this group of men has tremendous leadership value and for me to empower not only the Captains but also the Assistant Captains who also got a lot of votes from their teammates made perfect sense."
Bailey will serve as captain for the second straight season, while the other captains are in their first years in the role.
