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NC State football countdown to kickoff: 15

MattCarterby:Matt Carter•08/19/22•

TheWolfpacker

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Former NC State quarterback Ryan Finley (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

The NC State football season opener for 2022 is at East Carolina on Sept. 3 — or 15 days away from Friday. The Wolfpacker continues its countdown for the season with notes about the number 15.

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15: Significant notes involving the number 15 in NC State football history

In 2016, NC State football had a quarterback competition battle between Jalan McClendon and Ryan Finley.

The former was a smooth athlete with a cannon arm and prototype size. The latter a tall, lean (almost skinny) QB with decent arm strength and impressive accuracy. The former was a popular player on the team from Charlotte and a member of head coach Dave Doeren’s first full recruiting class. The latter a Boise State transfer who had just arrived weeks before the start of training camp.

The competition lasted through the 2016 season opener, an easy 48-14 win over William & Mary. Each player were given a first half opportunity to lead the NC State offense. Finley began with two touchdowns drives. McClendon threw an interception on his first possession.

The QB competition was over, and the job would firmly belong to Finley.

Finley would wear No. 15 for the next three seasons as a starter at NC State and find himself second behind Philip Rivers on many of the NC State passing records. One mark he did set was completions in a game, 45 in the season-opener in 2017 against South Carolina. He also broke the record for highest career completion percentage at NC State at 64.5 percent.

Finley’s 10,505 passing yards make him the second in NC State football history to go over the 10,000-yard mark, and his career-yards per game average of 269.4 edged Rivers’ 264.4 for a new school best.

In 2018, Finley in passing yards (3,928) on his way to being named first-team All-ACC, a year after he was a third-team all-conference selection.

Following his days at NC State, Finley was drafted in the fourth round by the Cincinnati Bengals, where he played two seasons in the NFL, including making four starts. He has not been in the NFL since being waived by the Houston Texans, who had acquired Finley in a trade, during the offseason following the 2020 season.

Finley’s younger brother Ben Finley is a third-year redshirt freshman quarterback on the NC State football roster and has played in five games in a Wolfpack uniform.

For those who wonder, McClendon transferred from NC State to Baylor, where he was a part-time starter to finish out his career. However, McClendon’s physical skills were so obvious that McClendon was still able to receive a training camp invite with Washington in the NFL.

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