ACC football record book: NC State’s Torry Holt grabbed spotlight with 5 TDs against FSU
Editor’s note: This is part of a 10-story series focusing on ACC football records. See the bottom of this story for a list of all the other content in the series.
RALEIGH — Torry Holt hears about it all the time.
He doesn’t bring it up, not one to toot his own horn, but occasionally a fan will ask him about it, or it’s mentioned on social media. A few years before he became known as ‘Big Game Holt,’ Holt had a very big game against one of the top teams in the nation.
In 1997 Florida State was still a powerhouse. The Seminoles were undefeated and No. 3 in the country heading into an early November showdown in Tallahassee.
FSU’s defense was stocked with future NFL talent, including four members of its secondary. Holt was a junior wide receiver at N.C. State. Well known by local fans, he had yet to make a big splash on the national scene. A huge performance in Tallahassee on November 1, 1997 changed that.
The Noles won 48-35, but Holt left his mark on the ACC with 12 catches for 168 yards and an ACC record five touchdown receptions, a record that still stands.
He scored 30 of the Wolfpack’s 35 points. To put that into perspective, FSU had only given up 21 combined points in the previous two games. The Seminoles’ defense surrendered just 15.1 points per game that season.
“I don’t think there was anybody, or a team, scoring five touchdowns against Florida State,” Holt said. “For one individual person to do that was pretty incredible. I think people, when they see me in person or on social media, often ask me about that or remind me how dominant that performance was.”
For Holt, the success versus FSU started during practice. Some of the Seminoles coaches and defensive players had been talking a little smack about Holt, saying he wasn’t that good, which made its way back to Raleigh. Holt heard it loud and clear. Even if he hadn’t, his coaches and teammates weren’t about to let him miss it.
“The game plan was good, the preparation was fantastic. The bulletin board material Florida State provided for us that was posted all in my locker,” Holt said. “That was my motivation.”
The way N.C. State used Holt that season — switching him from the slot to out wide, lining him up in the backfield, keeping him on the move — made it hard for the Noles to get a feel for where he would attack from.
And frankly, Holt caught the Noles off guard. He had a modest first two years in Raleigh — 41 catches, four touchdowns — although he did show flashes. One of his classmates, cornerback Lloyd Harrison knew something the Seminoles didn’t, having practiced against Holt since they arrived at school together in 1995.
“I knew how good he was when we both stepped on campus,” Harrison said. “To me he was as good, if not better, than everyone we had at N.C. State, day one.”
Harrison, who played three seasons in the NFL with the Redskins, Chargers and Dolphins, remembers enjoying Holt’s performance against FSU from the sidelines with the rest of the defense. They all knew how talented FSU was, but they were also well aware of how good Holt was. They had a front-row seat for the showdown.
“In our minds Florida State was the best we were going to see all year, as far as defensively,” Harrison said. “We knew that it would be a challenge, and we knew that Torry was good, so we were like OK let’s see what happens. And he ended up going off and not stopping.”
Holt got into a groove and said it got to a point where he didn’t have to say a word, he just gave the coaching staff a look and they knew to get the ball in his hands. Holt gave a lot of credit to not only the coaching but his teammates. Quarterback Jamie Barnette passed for 267 yards and the Wolfpack battled back to make the final score respectable after falling behind 27-0 in the first quarter. Barnette went down with an injury late in the game and Holt still was able to snag a score from the backup, Charles Berry.
“He was definitely the best player on the field,” Harrison said. “Our offense as a whole did a great job. It just so happened that Torry was a star and he played like a star that day.”
At the end of the 1997 season, Holt was named First-Team All-ACC for the first time.
“I think I was underrated, I think I’m still underrated,” Holt said. “It was an opportunity for me to show a national audience that I could play and I could play with the elite.”
After the 1998 season, Holt was drafted in the first round (Pick No. 6) by the St. Louis Rams. He won a Super Bowl as a rookie, was named First-Team All-Pro in 2003 and played in seven Pro Bowls. With all he’s done, Holt still ranks that FSU game as one of his top-five college performances.
Many of the former Seminoles he played with or against in the NFL did, too.
“I have buddies who played at Florida State, but I never brought it up,” Holt said. “The Florida State guys will make some reference ‘you got us for five’ or something, but I never bring it up unless it’s brought up to me.”
But when it is mentioned, Holt is more than happy to interact.
“I did a speaking engagement with Bobby Bowden a couple of years ago,” Holt recalled. “I didn’t bring it up, he brought it up and once he brought it up I didn’t let it rest.”
THE SCHEDULE FOR THIS SERIES
(Dates the stories will be posted online)
MAY 27 — N.C. State wide receiver Torry Holt has the record for most receiving touchdowns in a game with five against Florida State, which was ranked No. 3 in the country.
MAY 29 — Duke receivers Conner Vernon and Jamison Crowder are tied for the ACC career receptions record with 283 apiece. They were teammates for a time in the early 2010s.
MAY 31 — North Carolina’s Kendric Burney has the record for most interception return yardage in a game — 170 against Miami in 2009.
JUNE 1 — N.C. State’s Ted Brown still holds the ACC career rushing record, a mark he set from 1975-78.
JUNE 2 — Wake Forest’s Tanner Price has the ACC passing record by a left-handed quarterback.
JUNE 3 — A quick roundup of other interesting and important ACC footbal records leads with the 2011 Clemson team, which became the first in ACC history to win three straight games against ranked opponents. That team had a bevy of kids from the state of North Carolina.
FROM THE ACC RECORD BOOK
Career receptions — 1 (tie) Conner Vernon (Duke, 2009-12) — 283; 1. (tie) Jamison Crowder (Duke, 2011-14) — 283; 3. Rashad Greene (Florida State, 2011-14) — 270; 4. Tyler Boyd (Pittsburgh, 2013-15) — 254; 5. T.J. Rahming (Duke, 2015-18) — 253
Season receptions — 1. Jamison Crowder (Duke, 2013) — 108; 2. Steve Ishmael (Syracuse, 2017) — 105; 3. Sammy Watkins (Clemson, 2013) — 101; 4. Rashad Greene (Florida State, 2014) — 99; 5. (tie) Kenneth Moore (Wake Forest, 2007) — 98; 5. (tie) Mike Williams (Clemson, 2016) — 98
Career receiving yardage — 1. Rashad Greene (Florida State, 2011-14) — 3,830; 2. Conner Vernon (Duke, 2009-12) — 3,749; 3. Jamison Crowder (Duke, 2011-14) — 3,641; 4. Peter Warrick (Florida State, 1996-99) —3,517; 5. Sammy Watkins (Clemson, 2011-13) — 3,391
Season receiving yards — 1. Torry Holt (North Carolina State, 1998) — 1,604 yards; 2. Amba Etta-Tawo (Syracuse, 2016) — 1,482 yards; 3. Sammy Watkins (Clemson, 2013) — 1,460 yards; 4. DeAndre Hopkins (Clemson, 2012) — 1,405 yards; 5. Jerricho Cotchery (North Carolina State, 2003) — 1,369 yards
Career receiving touchdowns — 1. Clarkston Hines (Duke, 1986-89) — 38; 2. (tie) Torry Holt (North Carolina State, 1995-98) — 31; 2. (tie) Peter Warrick (Florida State, 1996-99) — 31; 4. (tie) E.G. Green (Florida State, 1994-97) — 29; 4. (tie) Greg Carr (Florida State, 2004-08) — 29; 4. (tie) Rashad Greene (Florida State, 2011-14) — 29
Season receiving touchdowns — 1. DeAndre Hopkins (Clemson, 2012) — 18; 2. Clarkston Hines (Duke, 1989) — 17; 3. Torry Holt (North Carolina State, 1997) — 16; 4. (tie) Andre Cooper (Florida State, 1995); 4. (tie) Calvin Johnson (Georgia Tech, 2006); 4. (tie) Kelvin Benjamin (Florida State, 2013) — 15
This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "ACC football record book: NC State’s Torry Holt grabbed spotlight with 5 TDs against FSU."