North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Makes Quarterback Change
9/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Tony Haynes
And what a way to begin your college career as a starter: Evans will be in the saddle when NC State (1-2) opens ACC play Saturday night against Boston College (3-0) at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Amato made the announcement during his weekly press conference on Monday.
“After long discussions last night and today, we had to make a decision on the quarterback position,” Amato said. “We just felt we need more production out of our offense. Probably the biggest factor in this equation is that we saw what Daniel did in a condition when the game was out of reach and against their first team on the first drive and against quite a few on the second drive. We want to see what Daniel will do at the beginning of the game.”
NC State was trailing 37-10 with just over eight minutes left on Saturday night when Evans entered the contest. The first pass of his career went to freshman receiver Jarvis Williams for five yards. After an incompletion, he found Williams again, this time for 12 yards on quick slant. A seven-yard hook up with Donald Bowens was then followed by a perfect 21-yard strike to John Dunlap for a score. The drive was crisp, decisive and convincing.
Evans went on to complete 8-of-11 throws for 97 yards. He did have an interception late when noseguard Martavius Prince, who had dropped into short coverage on a zone blitz, picked off a short pass on the Wolfpack’s final drive.
Now 1-2, NC State has played three straight games in which it has tallied less than 300 yards of total offense. In those games, Stone completed 48.5 percent of his passes for 345 yards (115 average), four touchdowns and four interceptions.
“Marcus has been the epitome of a leader and he will continue,” Amato said. “It’s my job to put the best team on the field. When you make decisions like this, you hope everyone reacts properly to disappointment. He will because he has a lot of character and he understands. We have to do everything we can to help our team win a football game.”
Evans certainly has a strong NC State pedigree. His father Johnny was a quarterback and All-America punter for the Wolfpack in the mid-70s. But the similarities certainly end there. Characterizing himself mostly as a running back that played quarterback, Johnny ran the ground-oriented split back veer that the Pack first employed under coach Lou Holtz. Daniel, by contrast, is more of a conventional drop-back passer who first caught the attention of the NC State coaching staff when he passed for 3,796 yards and 37 touchdowns his senior year at Broughton high school.
“I had a running back mentality,” said Johnny Evans, who now serves as the color analyst on the Wolfpack Sports Network radio coverage of NC State games. “In the split veer, we threw some, but it was mostly play-action without any sophisticated reads. It was very physical based on quickness, power and aggression. Daniel is almost as opposite as he can be. He grew up in a spread offense there at Broughton. He isn’t a running kind of guy; he’s a thinker. He’s like the modern day quarterback who can survey the field. He’s a thinker, a timing guy and a rhythm guy, whereas I was more of a runner.”
Stone emerged from preseason camp just as he went into it: as the Wolfpack’s undisputed starter. Evans, meanwhile, had to battle freshman Justin Burke for the backup job. Now he finds himself as the man’ entering a critical ACC game at home.
“The young man earned it the other day,” Amato said. “The job is his. We’re going to do everything in our power and Marcus is going to do everything in his power to help him succeed.”
Although he was seeing the first college action of his career on Saturday, Evans looked composed and relaxed as he quickly moved the Pack down the field for a score.
“He showed some poise,” Amato said. “He threw some passes as someone was hitting him right in the kisser. Two years ago when we had the number one defense, we had a scrimmage before the opening game and he was the quarterback of the other team against some awfully good defensive players and he made some unbelievable plays under those circumstances.”
Should the field at Carter-Finley Stadium be called the field of dreams? For Daniel Evans, that will certainly be the case on Saturday night. Not only will he be the Wolfpack’s starting signal caller, he’ll be holding down the same position his father claimed 30 years ago.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of fan reaction and media reaction this week, but everyone else is going to be making a bigger deal of all that than Daniel is,” Johnny Evans said. “He’s much more laid back than I am. There is a fire and a grittiness that belies his physical stature, but there’s also an ability not to overreact. Maybe it’s because he’s kind of grown up in a football world.”
