The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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48 ■ THE WOLFPACKER FOOTBALL PREVIEW 2018 Passing Records Galore The transition to a more pass-oriented offense began with Tol Avery, who was the starter for head coach Monte Kiffin's three- year tenure. Avery (profiled on page 158 of this issue) played under three different sys- tems that featured running back Joe McIn- tosh as its primary weapon. The versatile and athletic Avery had a strong arm that he used to hit receivers like future NFL star Mike Quick and Ricky Wall. The transition to a full-fledged passing offense was completed with the arrival of quarterbacks coach Dana Bible, who was hired by head coach Tom Reed. Bible re- cruited the school's first junior college quar- terback, Tim Esposito from Long Beach (Calif.) City College, and he started for two seasons. Esposito not only became the first quar- terback in school history to throw for more than 2,000 yards in a single season (2,096 in 1983), he was also the first to hit double figures in touchdown passes (10 in 1984). Bible brought in two junior college trans- fers to replace Esposito, Kramer and John Heinle. Even though Kramer never started in high school and started only one season in junior college, he won the starting job in the spring, and was named first-team All- ACC the next two seasons and the 1986 ACC Player of the Year under first-year head coach Dick Sheridan. Kramer was blessed with one of the strongest receiving corps in school history, with future NFL players Haywood Jeffires, Danny Peebles and Nasrallah Worthen. Since then, the Wolfpack has been blessed with strong-armed passers, no matter who was the coach. Shane Montgomery started for three con- secutive seasons under Sheridan, leading the Pack to back-to-back bowl appearances in 1988 and '89. He is the first Wolfpack signal-caller to throw for more than 1,000 yards for three straight seasons, which seems like a low-bar accomplishment in today's terms, but was significant in Sheri- dan's multiple offense. Montgomery still owns the single-game passing record with 535 yards against Duke in 1989 and finished his career as the school's all-time leading passer, a record that stood until 1995 when two-sport star Terry Harvey broke it. In between, Sheridan called on Charles Davenport, Terry Jordan and Geoff Bender to run the offense for three consecutive bowl teams and a pair of ACC runner-up finishes (1991-92). Harvey, who was drafted four times by Major League Baseball teams as a pitcher, returned to NC State each year to play quar- terback for the Wolfpack football team. He won the starting job under first-year head coach Mike O'Cain as a sophomore in 1993, and led the Wolfpack to nine wins and a Peach Bowl victory over Mississippi State in 1994. After Harvey, the Wolfpack had the first four-year starter in school history, Jamie Barnette, who owned just about every pass- ing record in school history when he com- pleted his career in 1999, never throwing for fewer than 1,500 yards in a campaign and becoming the school's first 3,000-yard passer in 1998. He also had the benefit of All-American wide receiver Torry Holt, Barnette's primary target for his first three seasons as a starter. As a senior, Barnette passed for 2,320 yards with another future NFL receiver, Koren Robinson, as his primary target. The story of Wolfpack quarterbacks be- comes much more familiar after Barnette, who was replaced by freshman Philip Rivers when Chuck Amato took over the program in 2000. Rivers threw for 3,054 yards as a freshman and 4,491 as a senior, with two well-balanced offensive seasons in between that included the best record in school his- tory, an 11-3 mark in 2002 that was capped by Rivers' MVP performance in a Gator Bowl victory over Notre Dame. Amato had trouble finding a suitable im- mediate replacement for Rivers between Jay Davis and Marcus Stone, which was one of the reasons he was not retained following the 2006 season. Davis twice led the team in passing and was replaced by the Wolfpack's only sec- ond-generation quarterback, Daniel Evans, son of former starter Johnny Evans. The younger Evans started during Tom O'Brien's first season in 2007, but was replaced by future Super Bowl-champion quarterback Wilson, who won a four-man preseason competition. He eventually be- came the first freshman in league history to earn first-team All-ACC honors and was entrenched as the starter for three seasons. Glennon took over when Wilson, who had graduated, left for one season at Wisconsin. Glennon started for two seasons, throwing for more than 7,000 yards and becoming the first quarterback in school history to throw more than 30 touchdowns in consecutive seasons. When he was hired for the 2013 season, Dave Doeren turned to Colorado State trans- fer Pete Thomas and Arkanas grad transfer Brandon Mitchell to run the team while waiting for Florida transfer Jacoby Brissett to become eligible. Brissett was extremely consistent in his two years as the starter, throwing for 2,606 yards and 23 touchdowns as a junior and 2,662 yards and 20 scores as a senior. Finley has thrown for 6,577 yards and 35 touchdowns in his first two seasons with the Wolfpack and can increase his stock as the next NFL quarterback from NC State with a strong senior year. And that will give Gabriel a little more to brag about during his morning workouts at the gym. ■ Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu Dan Buckey (1972-75) was NC State's first quarterback to throw for more than 4,000 career yards. It would be 11 years before Erik Kramer (1985-86) joined him. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS