The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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JULY 2018 ■ 47 FOOTBALL PREVIEW 2018 Turner went on to help the Ottawa Rough Riders win the CFL's Grey Cup in 1951. Into The ACC The Wolfpack had a settled starter at quar- terback when the school became a founding member of the ACC in 1953. Sophomore Eddie West of Alexandria, Va., started for three years at the position, completing 39, 43 and 42 passes in his sophomore, junior and senior seasons, respectively. In his three seasons, he completed 12 touchdown passes and became the first quar- terback in school history to throw two scoring passes in a game, when he did so in a 34-13 win over Villanova in 1955. However, the Wolfpack did not win an ACC game with West at quarterback. Bill Franklin was the first quarterback to win an ACC contest, leading the Pack to a season-opening 26-6 win over North Ca- rolina in 1956. He shared the position that season with Tom Katich. The Wolfpack mostly relied on the running of Dick Hunter and Dick Christy plus the stingiest defense in school history to win its first ACC championship in 1957. Katich, who split time with Ernie Driscoll under center, completed just 11 passes for 182 yards the entire season. Driscoll threw the longest pass that season, a 46-yard touch- down to Christy against Florida State that pushed Seminoles cornerback Burt "Buddy" Reynolds into a career in acting. Gabriel was the groundbreaker. No team in school history had ever approached 100 pass- ing yards per game in a season. The closest it came was 80.4 yards a contest during West's senior season. In Gabe's sophomore season of 1959, the first-year starter broke every imaginable NC State and ACC passing record, including most completions (23) and attempts (28) in a game in the season finale against Maryland. He led the nation in completion percentage at 60.4 percent. The Pack, though, finished that year 1-9. The next two seasons, he honed his pass- ing skills, previewing what he could do dur- ing his 16-year NFL career. He became the first quarterback in ACC history to complete more than 100 passes and throw for more than 1,000 yards when he connected on 105 attempts for 1,182 yards in 1960, numbers that seemed unmatchable by anyone. Gabriel was twice named the ACC Player of the Year and an All-American, but the Pack had only one winning season with him in the lineup — a 6-3-1 mark and second-place ACC finish during his junior year. Head coach Earle Edwards found winning combinations throughout the 1960s without having a superstar like Gabriel under center. Edwards' Wolfpack won outright or shared four more ACC titles and only once had an All-ACC quarterback, two-year starter Jim Rossi in 1963. Rossi was part of the Wolf- pack's "Italian Mafia" backfield that included running backs Joe Scarpati, Tony Koszarsky and Peter Falzarano. Rossi, a native of Asheville, N.C., owns the distinction of being the Wolfpack's only starting quarterback during the modern era (since 1950) to lead the team in both passing yards (873) and rushing yards (423) during the same season. Ron Skosnik and Charlie Noggle were the starters for the titles in 1964 and '65, followed by two seasons of Jim Donnan, who was the quarterback of record for one of the best teams in school history. Donnan led the Wolfpack, defined primarily by its White Shoes Defense, to the first bowl victory in school history, a 14-7 win over Georgia in the Liberty Bowl. Thanks to a second-quarter touchdown pass to Harry Martel, the quarterback was named the game's Most Valuable Player. In 1968, Edwards won the final of his five ACC title with Donnan's two-year under- study Jack Klebe. The first-year starter had almost three times more interceptions (14) than he had touchdown passes (five), and the Wolfpack ranked last in the league in passing yards per game. Darrell Moody and Pat Korsnick led the team in passing in 1969 and '70, but threw only one touchdown pass between them those seasons. Veering Into Greatness Bruce Shaw took over as the starter mid- way through the 1971 season, when Al Mi- chaels replaced Edwards and served as the interim head coach. The next year, Shaw broke the school record with a 294-yard pass- ing performance against Wake Forest in Lou Holtz's first season as head coach. Shaw be- came the second passer in school history to throw for more than 1,000 yards, when he amassed 1,708 in 1972 and led the ACC in total offense with 1,763 yards. The first Wolfpack quarterback to earn All-ACC honors since 1963, Shaw also set the NC State record with the longest pass in school history — a 98-yarder to Pat Kenney against Penn State — and finished his career one yard shy of 3,000 passing yards. Holtz used a senior-freshman platoon of Shaw and newcomer Dave Buckey at quarter- back during his team's 1973 ACC champion- ship season, which featured the most efficient split-back veer running offense the school ever had, thanks to running backs Stan Fritts, Wil- lie Burden, Charley Young and Roland Hooks. The veer was designed to give offensive decision-making responsibilities to the quar- terback, and Holtz always found smart, ca- pable quarterbacks to do what he wanted. Buckey personified that philosophy over the next two years, often finding twin brother Don for big pass plays against defenses con- centrating on stopping the Wolfpack's dan- gerous running game. Don Buckey averaged 17.0 yards per catch during his career, while teammate Elijah Marshall averaged 18.4 yards per catch, both of which still rank in the school's all-time top 10 in that category. Dave Buckey, the school's first quarter- back to throw for more than 4,000 career yards, was named first-team All-ACC in 1975, the year that tailback Ted Brown took over the offense with his record-setting rush- ing. Buckey and Johnny Evans marshaled the offense during that era, but Brown, who remains the ACC's all-time career rushing leader with 4,602 yards, and his offensive line shined for Holtz replacement Bo Rein. Amazingly, the Wolfpack won the 1979 ACC championship with a quarterback who did not throw a single touchdown pass in his first year as a starter. Scott Smith, though, didn't need to pass much during Touchdown Ted's senior season of 1978, but he came back the next year to become a 1,000-yard passer who threw five touchdown passes to help the Wolfpack fin- ish 7-4 and win the ACC title over Clemson. In 1962, Roman Gabriel became the first quar- terback from NC State to reach the pro ranks, going No. 1 overall in the AFL Draft to the Raiders and No. 2 overall in the NFL Draft to the Los Angeles Rams. He was the NFL MVP in 1969 and a four-time Pro Bowl selection. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS