NC State cornerback James Valdez has torn ACL, will miss rest of season

We’re about to a point where the coaching staff is going to have to get really creative to fill out the secondary each week. Redshirt freshman corner James Valdez will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL suffered against Marshall, Dave Doeren confirmed Thursday morning.

Valdez a couple dozen snaps as a reserve last weekend and, alas, that’s all he’ll get this season. Football’s cruel.

I’m not sure the secondary situation was tenable with Valdez available, much less now. Mike Stevens can only help so much, and only if he gets back to 100%. For this week, State has Stevens and Johnathan Alston on one side and Nick McCloud and Bryce Banks on the other.

Banks, like Valdez, is a redshirt freshman. He has not played a snap yet this season but I’d imagine that will be changing in the near future. Welcome to the party, son, ready or not.