The quarterbacks of QBU

In the seven decades since NC State began to veer away from the single-wing offense with the departure of old-school head coach Beattie Feathers, there have been more than 75 players who have taken snaps from center at the line of scrimmage for the Wolfpack.

Famously, six of those quarterbacks are currently on NFL rosters, with Philip Rivers of the Los Angeles Chargers, Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks and Jacoby Brissett of the Indianapolis Colts heading into next week’s season openers as the starters for their teams. Other former Wolfpack quarterbacks on current rosters are Ryan Finley of the Cincinnati Bengals, Mike Glennon of the Oakland Raiders and Jalan McClendon of the Washington Redskins.

If you want to get real technical, a seventh — Jakobi Meyers — was recruited to play quarterback at NC State and started his career there before moving to receiver and is now poised to make the New England Patriots roster.

NC State can obviously claim the title of QBU, despite the fact that a supposedly knowledgeable sports broadcasting company did not list the Wolfpack among its top 10 quarterback-producing schools.

You might think it would be difficult for Matthew McKay, who was named NC State’s newest starter on Monday by head coach Dave Doeren, to stand out in such a successful crowd before he ever runs out onto the turf of Carter-Finley Stadium.

But it’s not.

When McKay, who saw limited action last year as a redshirt freshman, takes the field, the Wakefield High School graduate will become just the second Raleigh native in the last 70 years to lead the Wolfpack offense, making him a hometown rarity at QBU.

The other starter was Broughton High School’s Daniel Evans, son of former NC State quarterback and punter Johnny Evans. The younger Evans, who now lives in London, made 17 career starts in three seasons under head coaches Chuck Amato and Tom O’Brien.

“I loved playing and starting for NC State in Raleigh,” Evans said by email earlier this week. “It was unique with the family legacy piece. It’s hard for me to parse out what parts of my experience were attributable to family legacy versus playing in my hometown.

“Even trying to put that aside, to play just a couple miles from my high school and still be rooted and connected to my family, friends and church community made for a really cool experience.”

And it made it easier to handle all that Evans went through, from winning and losing the starting job, to adjusting to a new coaching staff when O’Brien took over for Amato.

“I think I was able to ride out the highs and lows of things a bit better because of all that was around me,” Evans said. “Being able to enjoy some of the highs in the community where I was born and raised was special. Having established relationships in the community that knew me beyond just being a football player made the lower moments easier.

“These were people who I had a relationship with even before I started playing football, so an interception or loss didn’t affect my personal relationship with them.”

Of course, having a dad whose career was still fondly remembered by older fans and still on the sidelines for every game both Daniel and his wide receiver brother Andrew played was special as well.

“I grew up hearing people in the community come up to my dad and refer to his 78-yard quick kick punt against Penn State in 1975 or his MVP performance in the 1977 Peach Bowl, both of which took on mythical proportions in my imagination,” Evans noted.

“My 7-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son have heard people come up to me and talk about ‘that pass against Boston College’ or ‘that fourth quarter against Florida State.’ It’s a unique thing to see their brains processing what I was processing 25 years ago.

“It’s also a unique thing to be able to write this email from a café in London where no one knows nor cares about NC State football, or any kind of football that is not round.”

There have been some other Wake County residents who have taken their turn at running the Wolfpack offense, such as Garrett Leatham, a walk-on from Middle Creek High, respectively, who saw some limited game action.

For years, looking for a quarterback has taken Wolfpack coaches from coast to coast. Historically, the most fertile area for NC State quarterbacks has been Pennsylvania, which was the home recruiting base for legendary head coach Earle Edwards. The Penn State engineering graduate once had a coaching staff made up entirely of Pennsylvania natives, and his recruiting classes showed it.

Even after Edwards retired in 1971, NC State stayed active in the Keystone State, with its biggest recruiting coup being Kevin Scanlon of Beaver Falls. Scanlon broke all the high school passing records of predecessor Joe Namath, but had trouble beating out Johnny Evans from 1974-77. Scanlon eventually followed coach Lou Holtz to Arkansas, where he played for two years and earned All-America honors in 1979.

The most recent Pennsylvanians were Marcus Stone (2004-06) of Steelton and Geoff Bender (1991-94) of Pittsburgh.

In addition to Pennsylvania, NC State has shipped in starting quarterbacks in Alabama (Philip Rivers), Arizona (Ryan Finley), Florida (Jacoby Brissett, Jay Davis and Terry Jordan), California (Erik Kramer and Tim Esposito), Georgia (Terry Harvey, Preston Poag and Scott Smith), Virginia (Bruce Shaw, Russell Wilson and Mike Glennon) and Ohio (Dave Buckey and Shane Montgomery).

Not surprisingly, there have been a few successful North Carolinians under center as well — two-time All-American and ACC Player of the Year Roman Gabriel of Wilmington, two-year starters Charlie Noggle of Shelby and Jim Donnan of Burlington, three-year starter Johnny Evans from High Point, three-year starter Tol Avery of Four Oaks, record-setting passer Jamie Barnette of Roxboro and the aforementioned Daniel Evans.

Below is a list of every NC State player who has lined up under center as quarterback since 1949, though that stipulation is a little fuzzy in the first decade after World War II, when teams still utilized run-oriented offenses that had halfbacks, wingbacks and blocking backs, all of whom were just as likely to take direct snaps or throw passes as a traditional quarterback.

(NOTE: Starting lineups were not kept officially in year-end statistics and start totals before 1975 are incomplete.)

The list doesn’t include famous North Carolinians Torry Holt of Gibsonville, who completed the only pass he attempted as a collegian, and Ted Brown of High Point, who threw an interception in the only pass of his freshman season.

Brown, who still owns the ACC’s all-time rushing record, eventually turned the halfback pass into a dangerous weapon for head coach Bo Rein’s veer offense: he completed 10 of 22 passes for 202 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.

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