Brandon Cleveland enters the 2025 college football season off the back of a breakout campaign for the NC State Wolfpack. A full-time starter for the first time last fall, he’s making moves and noise at the heart of the defensive line. Yet, as he blossoms into an integral part of the program, the senior nose tackle has an equally powerful and important role to play in the community.
Brandon Cleveland Is A Force On and Off The Field At NC State
“I’m a football player, but I’m more than that.”
In a sporting world of statistics and scouting reports, of social media scrutiny and cynicism, where the measure of a student athlete is often the size of the supercar the latest NIL deal provided, it can be easy to forget that underneath the pads and helmet of every football player who steps foot on the field is a person — and people are capable of achieving incredible things.
The AFCA Allstate Good Works Team recognizes those who accomplish greatness away from where the light shines brightest. In the week that he earned a nomination for the 2025 team, Cleveland sat down with PFSN to talk about why football doesn’t define him. It’s what he has done, but isn’t necessarily who he is.
This isn’t his first rodeo. The NC State nose tackle was nominated to the 2024 Allstate Good Works team while featuring on the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award Watch List, an award centered around leadership both on and off the field. He was also nominated for the prestigious Wuerffel Trophy, college football’s premier award for community service, last fall.
“You know, I love giving back to my community and doing good for other people,” Cleveland explains the magnitude of being considered for awards like these. “So it means a lot to be recognised for something other than football. And me being a servant leader off the field means a lot to me.”
For the past three years, “my community” has been Raleigh. Cleveland isn’t a local; his journey of sports and servitude has taken him over 600 miles from his hometown of Tampa to the epicentre of North Carolina. Yet, as the people wrap their supporting arms around the football program every fall Saturday, that connection is a two-way street of mutual affection.
“I mean, NC State football would be nothing without the community, you know. All the people that come out and support us. The least we could do is spend time and give back. We love the community. I’m always out in the community, saying hi, taking a picture, whatever. They support us, and I love that, and it helps us to be great.”
A pursuit of greatness on the field comes secondary to Cleveland. He’s a visible presence around Raleigh whose influence extends beyond a smile or a photograph. His community efforts have been tangible and multiple, making a real difference to the lives of those less fortunate than himself.
Those endeavors have seen him start a program to feed the unhoused in Raleigh once a week. He also helped raise $10,000 for Feed the Pack Pantry, an initiative that addresses on-campus food inequality and insecurity by providing groceries for a range of people at NC State, whether they’re students or faculty staff.
“You know, everyone’s not blessed to be able to support themselves in that way. Like, you’re going through college, you’re not making as much money. Like, it’s hard. People don’t really realize that,” Cleveland explains how the initiative helps.
In the week he was nominated for the @WeAreAFCA Allstate Good Works Team, I sat down with NC State’s Brandon Cleveland to talk about his work in the Raleigh community, including efforts to tackle food insecurity via the Feed the Pack Pantry initiative, and much more pic.twitter.com/0soCBhc7nd
— Oliver Hodgkinson (@hodgkinsonsport) July 17, 2025
“So Feed the Pack Pantry is great for them to come and get groceries and be able to eat and make it through the week,” he continues. “You know, there’s a lot of people that don’t have a place to sleep, don’t have nothing to eat, and that’s not how it should be. You know, so I want to do anything I can to make sure those people are taken care of.”
A self-confessed foodie with a string of Instagram posts that would make you drool and a penchant for grilled steak, potatoes, and asparagus, it isn’t by happenstance that there’s a focus on tackling food insecurity issues at the heart of his drive to give back to the community.
“I’m always eating a good meal, and I feel like everyone deserves a good meal,” Cleveland explains when asked why the subject is at the center of his efforts. “You might not have the most money, the most shoes, the most clothes, but I feel like everyone on the planet deserves to eat a good meal and go to sleep, not hungry and starving. So, that’s just my thing.”
Cleveland’s Origins of Serving the Community
“My mom set a great example for me growing up and shaped me the way I am.”
Before embracing Raleigh, Tampa, FL, was “my community.” Born and raised in the Sunshine State, Cleveland grew up and was surrounded by “a lot of great mentors and a lot of great people.” The place where he is and the place where he’s from are two very different areas, but with crucial similarities. Wherever you are, wherever you go, there are inspirations and people in need.
Cleveland returns to Tampa at Christmas. It’s a time of year for celebrating and giving. It’s a time for family. Yet, it can also be a difficult time. It can be an unforgiving time. It can be a time of hurt. In those times, the selflessness of others comes to the fore, where the spirit of the season is less in a pile of presents, but in the sacrifice of time to attend to the needs of others.
It’s from times like those that the origins and inspiration of Cleveland’s community-focused endeavors were born.
“My mom, she’s a nurse at Brandon Regional Hospital, and Christmases, she’d be at work. It’s another instance like people don’t know that, see that, pay attention to that. My mom’s at work on Christmas, all these nurses are. It’s like, they want to be at home with their family, but they’re putting themselves second and making sure they take care of people that need help.”
His desire to help in the community has been elevated by his status as a football player, but the origins are there in Tampa. When he returns home at Christmas, he goes to Brandon Regional and works there, continuing the mission of care and servitude that started with an example set close to home.
“It’s just like putting yourself in other people’s shoes and just looking out for people who aren’t doing right, you know? My mom set a great example for me growing up and shaped me the way I am. She’s very selfless, works hard, no complaints, and just cares for people and does right by people. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be doing the things I’m doing today.”
The Importance of Dave Doeren in Cleveland’s On and Off Field Success at NC State
“I mean, I get up at like 5:00 every morning, so I have a lot of time in my day,” Cleveland laughs as he’s asked how he juggles a major in sports management, the time demands of being an NC State football player, and the community initiatives that have earned him a nomination for the Allstate Good Works Team.
“You always find time for something you’re passionate about and care about. So I always find time to make sure I’m doing that, and it makes me feel good, honestly, to give back and put a smile on someone’s face. I mean it’s just like if one of my teammates likes to play video games and that’s his thing he does to relax and chill.
“I like to give back, that’s my thing that keeps me sane.”
It also helps when you have a head coach who is in lockstep with your mindset and desire to deliver in the community. While there is clearly a player-led element of NC State’s interaction with those in Raleigh who need help, Cleveland sees Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren as a driving force within the program.
“Coach Doeren is a great leader in that space. He cares about people. He wants to help others. So, I mean, it’s amazing, and it’s just an amazing culture we have that everyone wants to get out in the community. If you want to reach out to him, and you don’t know where to start or know what to do, he’ll find something.”
“Coach Doeren’s a great guy,” Cleveland continues as he talks about the relationships in recruiting that led a four-star high school prospect out of Florida away from the Miami Hurricanes and to NC State. “Anything I need, I could go to him. I feel comfortable talking to him, and then from a football standpoint, he’s a great coach who puts the team in the best situations.”
Since taking over at NC State, Doeren has led the team to 87 wins, nine bowl games, and a winning record in all but two seasons. Arriving in 2022, Cleveland had experienced nothing but winning campaigns in Raleigh, using the players around him as a blueprint to forge his own path through the college football landscape and powering his ascent from backup to starter.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to see Alim McNeil and his process from NC State to the NFL. So, it’s just like, you know, Payton Wilson, Thayer Thomas, Drake Thomas, like you’ve seen guys do the right thing and make it to where you want to get. So, you just follow those tracks and hopefully it works out for you, too.”
In 2024, however, NC State recorded its first losing season since Cleveland joined the Wolfpack. Going 6-6 in the regular season, they fell to the East Carolina Pirates in a bitter bowl game that included all the tension you’d expect from a rivalry. With a season-opening rematch looming in Week 1, you’d expect some reflection-fueled inspiration to be guiding preparation.
MORE: Project the 2025 Season with the Free PFSN College Football Playoff Predictor
But, according to Cleveland, that’s not the case.
“You’re always looking forward, so never looking back. Last year, it didn’t go our way, but all we can do is put our heads down and work, and you know, we’ll play them on August 28.”
Before that Week 1 clash with East Carolina kicks off the 2025 college football campaign for NC State, Cleveland has another important engagement. Sticking true to his mantra of finding time for something you’re passionate about, the Wolfpack nose tackle will squeeze another event in with an initiative close to his heart before the action begins in earnest.
“Well, right now we’ve got a back-to-school bash Friday, July 25, at the Raleigh Boys and Girls Club. So, we’re going to be handing out 200 backpacks, 100 to elementary, 100 to middle school. It’ll be pizza, games. It’ll be a good time.”
