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Leary, Emezie Earn ACC Player of the Week Honors

Devin Leary connected with Emeka Emeza for the game-winning touchdown with 23 seconds remaining in Saturday's game at Pittsburgh. Monday, both NC State players were recognized by the ACC as their respective position group's Player of the Week

Brett Friedlander

Devin Leary's start against Pittsburgh on Saturday was officially the seventh of his career at NC State.

In reality, though, it was the first time the redshirt sophomore quarterback had been in a game with a healthy offensive line in front of him and a full complement of playmakers surrounding him.

The difference showed as he completed 28 of 44 passes for 336 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions in leading the Wolfpack to a come-from-behind 30-29 victory against the 24th-ranked Panthers.

That performance and the poise he showed under pressure in driving his team to the winning touchdown with just 23 seconds remaining have earned Leary selection as the ACC's Quarterback of the Week.

He is the first State quarterback to earn the conference honor since Ryan Finley against Louisville in Week 6 of 2017. In addition to his ACC recognition, Leary was also chosen as a Manning Award star of the week.

'Devin was nails," Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren said after Saturday's win. "He did a great job of reading coverage and putting the ball where it needed to be."

He was right on the money with his final pass, a 13-year strike to wide receiver Emeka Emezie for the game-winning touchdown. Emezie was also recognized by the ACC, sharing the conference's Receiver of the Week award with Pitt's D.J. Turner.

Emezie finished the game with seven catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns,

"Emeka is definitely his biggest critic, but the kid is a baller," Leary said. "He’s got so much talent. Being able to see him play today with so much joy and to be able to get all the guys around him upbeat as well was very pleasing to see." 

Emezie had just as much praise for his quarterback, who got off to a quick start by engineering an epic 17-play, 85-yard drive on State's opening possession, helping to slow the momentum Pitt had gained by striking for a touchdown on the second play of the game.

But it was Leary's performance over the final 1:44 that helped solidify his status as the Wolfpack's leader.

"In the two-minute drive he was just so calm," Emezie said. "It’s really good to see from your quarterback. You just get calm too. It’s like ‘alright, whatever.’ He knew where to go with the ball. He did his reads and everything. It was really, really confident for all of us."

Despite not having any timeouts, Leary quickly moved the ball downfield -- converting a fourth down along the way -- before hitting Emezie just inside the pylon from 13 yards out for the game-winning score.

As dramatic as the touchdown and the victory might have been, Leary insisted afterward that the final drive was nothing more than business as usual.

"It’s just something that we practice every single week, different situations depending on where the ball is, how many timeouts we have, how much time is on the clock," He said. "Usually in practice we practice with under a minute and 40.

"We’re a tempo team, so just being able to get everybody on the ball set, everyone on the same page was very critical in those last couple seconds coming down the game. The last play, like coach (Tim) Beck tells me all the time, it’s just ‘give our guys a chance.’ As long as you give them a chance, that’s all you could do."

Leary had been penciled in as the Wolfpack's starting quarterback since before the start of spring practice, but because he missed 20 days of practice during preseason camp because of contact tracing, he was replaced by backup Bailey Hockman for the first two games this season.

He finally saw his first action during the second half of last week's loss at Virginia Tech and did enough to convince Doeren and Beck that he was ready to take over and lead the offense.

"As hard as it was for him not to play in the Wake Forest game, I think it was the right thing for us to do coming out of the quarantine that he had," Doeren said. "It’s given him time to get back to where he needed to be, and he’s done a great job of taking coaching from Coach Beck."

Although Leary completed only 48 percent of his passes and had trouble getting the ball into the end zone during his six starts at the end of last season, Doeren said that wasn't a true indication of his quarterback's ability because of the adverse circumstance into which he was thrown.

"It was nice to see him with starting wideouts and starting offensive linemen and three rotational tailbacks and all the tight ends," Doeren said of Saturday's game. "I think you got a good glimpse of what he is and what he could be. ...

"We’ve been waiting for him to become the guy. We’ve always known what his arm was. This team believes in him. You can see it in the locker room. They rally around him. He’s just calm and poised. He’s got a really, really good arm. He’s a tough kid and he really played a heck of a football game. I’m very proud of him and very happy for him."

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