There are some constants in redshirt freshman quarterback Devin Leary’s life.

The fully grown beard he sports has been in place since he was a sophomore in high school.

“I was like, ‘This is sharp, I am keeping it,’” Leary recalled.

The No. 13 he wears at NC State is the same number he had as a record-setting quarterback at Timber Creek High in Sicklerville, N.J. Although Leary is a big fan of former NFL Super Bowl-winning quarterback Kurt Warner, it is not a tribute to him. Nor does it have anything to do with one of the most prolific passers all time in former Miami Dolphin Dan Marino, who like Warner wore No. 13 in the NFL.

It’s simpler than that. The quarterback who held the New Jersey high school football record for most passing yards in a season is also from Timber Creek High. His name was Dan Williams, and he wore 13. Williams finished Timber Creek the year before Leary was a freshman.

“I took it, and now my little brother wears 13,” Leary noted. “It’s just like a tradition. I am pretty sure my little cousin, he’s real young, wears 13.”

Leary’s younger brother is on his way to being a college football quarterback. Donovan Leary is already standing 6-3, 195 pounds according to Devin. The class of 2022 product holds early offers from Maryland, Rutgers, Temple, East Carolina, Central Michigan and Massachusetts.

Devin Leary has a general philosophy to football — a goal-oriented approach with an end result of simply being better than the day before.

“I set a goal before every single practice,” Leary said. “I just try to get better at one thing every single day. It can be something as little as opening up 6 o’clock on an inside zone or even just being able to identify coverage, that just helps me stay focused.

“That was how I was raised. If you are going to set a goal, don’t ever underachieve yourself. You could compete with yourself and as long as you set your goal, that is a standard. That’s what we go off of even in the weight room.

"You set a standard and once you hit your own standard, you raise your goals.”

It’s natural that one of Leary’s goals this fall would be to become the starting quarterback at NC State. He’s locked in a competition with redshirt sophomores Matt McKay and Bailey Hockman for that job.

The last time Leary can recall competing for a job was before his sophomore season at Timber Creek. Three years later, he had set state records for career passing yards and throwing touchdowns, and was a four-star signing in NC State’s well-regarded 2018 class.

Leary felt that coming to Raleigh would be a good life decision for him.

“My dad always told me if anything happened to you and you’re not able to play football anymore, would you still want to be at the school?” Leary remembered. .

“I remember I was at Talley [Student Center] on my visit, eating lunch with Coach [Eli] Drinkwitz, me and my family, … I am down South for the first time ever, and I was like, ‘I could just see myself going here. Forget the football.’”

That enthusiasm would be a bit tested during the recruiting process. Shining performances at the Elite 11 and Rivals Five-Star Challenge during the summer before his senior year heightened his profile nationally. Some schools tried to persuade Leary, who was already committed at that point to NCSU, to reconsider.

“This is something my mom always taught me, once you are committed to something stay committed,” Leary said. “There is no point of committing and then decommitting. That was really the biggest thing for me. ... I was Wolfpack all the way.”

After redshirting last year while Ryan Finley, now with the Cincinnati Bengals, en route to first-team All-ACC honors, Leary is hoping to be next in line at “QB U.” But he is also being pragmatic.

He understands he is a rookie, and his main job is to make the team better. Leary feels that can be one of his best assets as a quarterback.

Although the 6-2, 212-pounder is noted for his rocket right arm that is probably the strongest on the team, Leary is quick to rattle off three other characteristics that he feels more aptly describes his attributes.

“A winner, first and foremost,” Leary said. “I put winning over everything. If it means we have to run the ball the entire game and we have to win in that way, I’ll run the ball the entire game. I want to win.

“Competitive — I am going to compete my butt off as much as I can, just give all that I have to the team.

“And third — selfless. If a guy is down, no matter if I talk to him once a day or 10 times a day, I am going to be very observant and notice and make sure everything is okay.”

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