Tim Peeler: Taking a look at NC State's previous midseason QB changes

It hasn’t happened often that NC State changed quarterbacks in the middle of the season for any non-injury reasons – well, at least not since last year.

This weekend, however, when the Wolfpack hosts Marshall, sophomore MJ Morris will be the new player under center for the second time in his career.

Monday, eleventh-year coach Dave Doeren announced Morris will take over for graduate student portal transfer Brennan Armstrong, who started State’s first five games this season, leading the Wolfpack to a 3-2 overall and 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference record. A lack of offensive productivity in a close win at Virginia and in a home loss to Louisville necessitated the change.

Last year, a similar change worked to the Wolfpack’s favor, when Doeren and former offensive coordinator Tim Beck were forced, for the first time in program history, to use four different starting quarterbacks in a single season: Devin Leary, Jack Chambers, Morris and Ben Finley.

Injuries were the main reason for those changes, as Leary suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Pack’s sixth game. Chambers replaced him, though that lasted only 2 quarters against Virginia Tech before Morris stepped in and threw 3 second-half touchdowns in a 22-21 come-from-behind victory.

Morris suffered a knee injury against Boston College and needed to be spelled by Finley, the brother of former Wolfpack starting quarterback Ryan Finley. The younger Finley started the season finale against North Carolina, leading his team to a double-overtime victory in Chapel Hill, and he was the Pack’s starter against Maryland in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte.

Despite the quarterback changes and a loss in the postseason game, the Wolfpack finished with an 8-5 overall record.

Interestingly, five of the best seasons of the last 50 years have been powered by a non-injury quarterback change, with two ending with eight wins (1972, 2023) and three ending with nine wins (1988, 1991, 1992).

Other changes have portended good things for the future. Famously, freshman Jamie Barnette relieved Jose Laureano in 1996 against Alabama and nearly pulled off an upset in the Crimson Tide’s only visit to Carter-Finley Stadium. Barnette maintained the starting role the rest of the season and for the next three years, becoming the Wolfpack’s all-time leading passer, until his replacement, Philip Rivers, completed his career.

In 1972 and ’73, Lou Holtz had the luxury of having the final two years of All-ACC selection Bruce Shaw at quarterback. A fine drop-back passer, Shaw didn’t always have the skills needed to run Holtz’s favored twin-veer offense. But young Dave Buckey, the first true freshman quarterback to start at NC State since before World War II, did.

Injuries plagued Shaw from the first game of the 1972 season, and Buckey was often inserted to run the Wolfpack’s productive ground game with running backs Willie Burden, Charlie Young, Stan Fritts and Roland Hooks. When Shaw broke his arm in the ’72 season finale, NC State installed Buckey as the starter for the Peach Bowl. In 1973, he started over Shaw, the senior, though they effectively split duties at quarterback, with Buckey handling the running game and Shaw handling the passing. Holtz’s choice for starter was more style over performance.

In those two quarterback-fluid seasons, the Pack went 8-3-1 and 9-3, respectively. (The 1973 team, the only team under Holtz to win an ACC title, will be on hand Saturday to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of that season. Holtz is expected to be on hand.)

That championship team averaged a school-record 272.3 rushing yards per game, 409.9 total yards per game and 33.2 points per game.

For the next decade, quarterbacks chosen as starters generally kept their jobs: Johnny Evans, Scott Smith, Tol Avery, Tim Esposito, first-team All-ACC and 1986 ACC Player of the Year Erik Kramer.

However in 1987, Dick Sheridan’s only losing season at NC State, Shane Montgomery began the season as the starting quarterback for the first three games and the Pack lost to East Carolina, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest. Sheridan made the call to start Preston Poag in the fourth game, a 42-14 victory over Maryland. Poag led the Wolfpack to three wins in four games, but suffered a knee injury in a home loss to East Tennessee State. Montgomery finished the season under center and passed for a school-record 468 yards in a win over Georgia Tech.

The next season, Sheridan juggled three different quarterbacks: Montgomery, Poag and Charles Davenport. Poag began the season as the starter, but Montgomery filled in when the offense needed to add energy for a defense that was among the best in the country. Montgomery was the surprise starter against North Carolina and blitzed the Tar Heels all day long with a no-huddle attack en route to a 48-3 whipping, the biggest margin of victory for either team in the 110-game series.

Davenport started the final game of the 1988 season, with Montgomery coming off the bench on passing downs. He was the starter in the Wolfpack’s win over Iowa in the Peach Bowl, scoring the game’s first touchdowns, but Montgomery came off the bench to throw a 75-yard touchdown to Danny Peebles.

While Davenport redshirted in 1989, Montgomery was the full-time starter during a 7-5 season. In 1990, following Montgomery’s departure, Davenport and Terry Jordan challenged each other for the starting job, with Jordan ultimately prevailing in the season’s sixth game while Davenport fought off injuries and an eventual move to wide receiver. The Pack again finished 7-5.

Jordan was the starter for the beginning of the 1991 season until he suffered a broken arm against North Carolina. Freshman Geoff Bender replaced him. He started the next four games until he too was lost with a separated shoulder.

That set the stage for freshman Terry Harvey to take over the offense for the final two regular-season games, both wins. Jordan was named the starter for the Pack’s Peach Bowl appearance against East Carolina. Despite a loss to the Pirates, the Pack’s three-quarterback season ended with nine wins, tying the school record.

Injuries forced Jordan and Bender to go back and forth as the starter in 1992. Bender and Harvey both started in 1993, with Harvey taking over as the starter for the final seven games in the team’s second-consecutive nine-win season.

Harvey started nine games in 1994 and all of ’95.

It took head coach Mike O’Cain a little time to find Harvey’s replacement in 1996 as Laureano started the season’s first four games before being replaced by Barnette, who went on to start 41 consecutive games. Barnette’s starts at quarterback are second only in Wolfpack history to Rivers’ 51.

A few quarterback controversies followed, just as the battle waged between Marcus Stone and Jay Davis to replace Rivers and the five-player preseason challenge in head coach Tom O’Brien’s second year that was eventually settled by future Super Bowl-winning quarterback Russell Wilson, who started nine games for NC State and became the first freshman in ACC history to earn first-time All-Conference honors at quarterback.

Doeren juggled Brandon Mitchell and Pete Thomas his first season, as Jacoby Brissett waited out his transfer season from Florida. There was relative stability at the position under Brissett and Ryan Finley, but three of the last five seasons have had their share of changes. In 2019, Matthew McKay began the season at quarterback before giving way to Leary.

In 2020, Leary started until breaking his leg against Duke, with Bailey Hockman taking over and leading the Pack to four consecutive wins to end the season. Leary was firmly entrenched as the starter in 2021, but his torn pectoral muscle against Florida State ended his Wolfpack career at State and threw the quarterback role into its current state of flux, with Chambers, Morris, Ben Finley, Armstrong and now Morris again starting in the 13 games since.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].