UNC QBs in the NFL…or the Lack Thereof

ACC College Football NCS Football Stat of the Day26

Over the weekend during the NFL draft, there was some discussion and questions on SFN’s Twitter account about UNC quarterbacks in the NFL. Thanks to Pro Football Reference (all the stats in this entry are based on stats from this site) I was able to shed some light on the situation which actually ended up getting picked up on Twitter by CBS Sports.

T.J. Yates now makes the 6th UNC QB to be drafted by the NFL, the first since Chris Kupec in 1975. None of those previous 5 draft picks threw a single pass in the NFL.

Scott Stankavage is the only UNC QB to throw a pass in the NFL. He played 1 game for the Denver Broncos in 1984 and 3 games in 1987 for the Miami Dolphins. His career stats are 8 of 25 for 66 yards with 0 touchdowns, 2 interceptions and a rating of 7.9.

No UNC player has ever started at quarterback in the NFL.

Overall passing stats for all 17 UNC players that have thrown a pass in the NFL are 26 of 106 for 395 yards with 2 touchdowns, 18 interceptions and a rating of 24.7. That rating is less than half of Ryan Leaf’s career QB rating.

UNC’s career passing leader in the NFL is HB Ed Sutton who went 5 of 15 for 146 yards and 1 TD for the Washington Redskins from 1957 to 1959.

Amazing that a school that has been playing football since 1888 has never had an NFL starting QB.

Just for comparison, let’s look at some similar statistics for NC State.

Roman Gabriel, Erik Kramer and Philip Rivers have started 304 games at QB in the NFL.

Overall passing stats for all 11 NCSU players that have thrown a pass in the NFL are 5308 of 9411 for 65,498 yards with 437 touchdowns, 311 interceptions and a rating of 79.8.

In a single game Philip Rivers has thrown for more yards than all UNC players combined in the history of the NFL. Rivers has done that three times.

In the process of looking up those stats over the weekend, that got me curious about QB stats from other BCS schools. I found a few interesting things and am planning on sharing those in another entry when I get the chance to put it together.

About WV Wolf

Graduated from NCSU in 1996 with a degree in statistics. Born and inbred in West "By God" Virginia and now live in Raleigh where I spend my time watching the Wolfpack, the Mountaineers and the Carolina Hurricanes as well as making bar graphs for SFN. I'm @wvncsu on the Twitter machine.

ACC College Football NCS Football Stat of the Day

26 Responses to UNC QBs in the NFL…or the Lack Thereof

  1. theTHRILL 05/03/2011 at 2:52 PM #

    As far as sports stats go, that’s truly astounding.

  2. Old MacDonald 05/03/2011 at 3:05 PM #

    Without looking it up, I would bet that Stankavage’s 3 games in 1987 were for the scab strike team.

  3. hoop 05/03/2011 at 3:31 PM #

    Other intriguing QB facts: which college has the most Superbowl winning QBs? It’s Purdue and Alabama tied with three. Len Dawson, Bob Griese, and Drew Brees threw at Purdue. Alabama’s QBs are Bart Starr, Joe Namath, and Ken Stabler.

  4. WV Wolf 05/03/2011 at 4:44 PM #

    Edit: A previous comment was deleted so my mini-rant that was here is no longer necessary.

    I appreciate you guys reading.

  5. bradleyb123 05/03/2011 at 5:31 PM #

    Ronald Curry was drafted as a receiver and for special teams. But he has also thrown some passes.

    He’s 0-for-4 in his career, according to this page:
    http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CurrRo01.htm

  6. DFMo 05/03/2011 at 6:04 PM #

    WV Wolf, I guess to appease some folks, you just have to be more creative with the title .. you did end up comparing UNC vs NCSU and plan a follow on with other BCS schools. So …

    UNC QBs in the NFL (or lack thereof) vs NCSU QBs in the NFL

  7. Wolf74 05/03/2011 at 6:51 PM #

    I am glad CBS finally noticed. I have been calling UNC-Cheats “the Graveyard of Quarterbacks” for 20 years. The place high school quarterbacks go to disappear.

    Just go down the list of HS AA QBs that have been swallowed up by that cesspool over there. Mark Maye to Paulus and many that I have forgotten.

    If my son was a HS QB, I wouldn’t even drive by Chapel Hill on I-40 because I would be afraid he might catch something!

  8. Texpack 05/03/2011 at 7:26 PM #

    The drafting of TJ Yates will only intensify the prayers of Texans fans for the good health of Matt Schaub.

  9. BJD95 05/03/2011 at 7:49 PM #

    Don’t knock scab ball. That’s how EK got his start! But he didn’t suck as a scab, and parlayed it into a starting gig a few years after the strike ended.

  10. Wolfy__79 05/03/2011 at 8:09 PM #

    obviously i’m a NC STATE fan for life.. but i can’t knock yates, i mean.. i loved the yates’ patented int in a crucial moment. but, he’s solid.. do i think he’ll turn into a good starting qb? not at all, but he did impress at the nfl combine. is there any reason for matt shuab & co to panic.. no chance. but, as far as the unc-ch draft went, i was happy for the young fella getting drafted.

    so in my lifetime, yates and curry make up the two unx draftees at the qb slot. curry was making some noise at wr for a while but he had 0 chance at starting.. i’d say yates’ odds are a tad better.

    still, i’m suprised at the fact that unc-ch hasn’t produced a starter in all time nfl history.

    wolf74.. i’d also like to throw in the guy from my hometown of laurinburg NORTH CAROLINA cam sexton that was tossed aside for the likes of yates and paulus?? i think.. you don’t see much from that but that was “the carolina way” loud and clear. meanwhile, our laurinburg STAR!, tmanning is poised to really crack some skullz this year! lbg baby.

    off subject i know, but i will give yates a little credit for surviving that place. also like to throw a shout out to willie parker who doesn’t claim the clowns!!

  11. redwolf87 05/03/2011 at 8:15 PM #

    Years ago, in the mid-90’s, there was a video game iteration (for PC) of ABC College Football, complete with Keith Jackson doing the play-by-play. They only included 25 all-time teams, with players across many different eras. As you may already suspect, UNC was included but not NC State.

    Would you like to know who this game had listed as the all-time greatest starter at UNC at QB?

    Chris Keldorf.

    Yep. The guy was either still in school or a year removed, and they still thought he was better than any other QB that played there.

    It’s funny, but fairly amazing that their QB’s have been such busts. You’d have thought they would have had one that was any good.

  12. Wolfy__79 05/03/2011 at 8:25 PM #

    any of you SFN big dawgs know if we are going to switch to nike or under armour yet??

  13. novawolf 05/03/2011 at 10:21 PM #

    Interesting article. I often get on my “unc friends” on their exceptionally week qb history.

    BTW, I got this quote from one of the tarheel sites. Figured that statefansnation would get around to commenting on it… “UNC Record Nine Tar Heels Taken In NFL Draft……and all we have to show for it is a lousy Music City Bowl trophy and 0-4 record versus NC State.”

  14. SuperStuff 05/03/2011 at 10:44 PM #

    I’m guessing Maryland has probably put more QBs in the NFL out of the ACC. If you heard Yates the other day he was just happy to play division 1 football when UNC offered him. As much as I hate UNC-CH I gotta give Yates some credit. His fans didn’t appreciate him last year and he did good things for them this year. The only other QB at UNC-CH that I had a little respect for was Darian Durant. They kept trying to push him out of the way for Ronald Curry, but he just kept doing better.

  15. BJD95 05/04/2011 at 7:15 AM #

    For the record, Yates is a smart kid with a good arm. He profiles as a very serviceable backup at the NFL level, at least to me. Nothing to sneeze at.

  16. packplantpath 05/04/2011 at 8:40 AM #

    Prior to last year, Yates’ decision making was questionable at best, especially on the short passes. Last year, I kept expecting him to crack but he held up and played pretty darn well if you ask me. I agree with BJD, should be a great backup and could well crack a starting roster if he keeps improving.

    I’m happy for him.

  17. Sam92 05/04/2011 at 9:13 AM #

    at the risk of being run off the site, I have to say that our series win-loss record against the holes means a lot more to me than the performance of our quarterbacks after they leave us.

    it is good that our former players have done well in the NFL, but I’m way more focused on how our own team performs. on that note, what TOB has done vs. UNX is great.

  18. triadwolf 05/04/2011 at 10:48 AM #

    If I interpolate everything correctly it would appear that as a group UNC non-QB’s have more completions, TD’s & a combined higher passer rating than combined UNC QB’s.

  19. NCSU84 05/04/2011 at 12:38 PM #

    Don’t get me wrong, I like to bash the heels as much as anyone. But I believe they had 9 players that were drafted this year to our 1 player (Nate). If we start comparing ALL positions (not just QB), we would probably be on the short side of things.

  20. bradleyb123 05/04/2011 at 12:50 PM #

    I believe only one ACC team has ever had a #1 draft pick, and that’s the Wolfpack (Mario Williams). Not sure if that was a pre-expansion ACC or not. Seems like Miami would surely have a #1 draft pick at some point, but if they did, it was before the joined the ACC.

  21. TOBtime 05/04/2011 at 3:54 PM #

    I personally have trouble believing Matt “the cupcake” Baker didn’t set the NFL on fire. Perhaps his ego and actual talent didn’t mesh.

    I don’t give a rats rear how many holes were drafted this year. I’ll take the caliber of person over their numbers any day. How many of the 9 drafted played the whole season? A better question may be how many of the 9 will be part of a 2009 forfeiture of wins because they played? Time will tell.

  22. Gene 05/04/2011 at 7:04 PM #

    The two positions, where NCSU has had some stand outs is at QB and WR. Mike Quick was a stud in the mid-1980’s, before injuries cut short his career. Torry Holt had a nice career with the Rams. Neither played long enough to put up Hall of Fame numbers*, though they had the talent. Also, I’d throw in Heywood Jefferies, who had a few Pro Bowl years with the Oilers during their run-and-shoot days.

    *If you think Torry Holt’s ever getting in the Hall of Fame, keep in mind Chris Carter and Tim Brown, the second and third leading receivers ever, have yet to get inducted and both have been eligible for a few years now.

    Also, Art Monk, who when he retired was the all time leading receiver in the NFL (though people knew it was only a matter of time before Jerry Rice broke his record, so it wasn’t as memorable as other record breaking players), the first WR to catch more than 100 passes in a season, and played on the power house Redskins teams of the 1980’s and early 1990’s, that went to 4 Super Bowls and won 3 of them, took many many many years before the voters finally voted him in.

    They didn’t even give him any love for having to catch passes from the Mark Rypin’s and Jay Shroeder’s of the world, as opposed to Joe Montana and Steve Young.

    Knock on Monk was that he was a possession receiver. He averaged 13.7 yards per catch. HoF voters didn’t find that sexy enough of induction. Holt’s around 14 yards per catch. Holt’s contemporaries, Randy Moss and Terrell Owens, each have over 100 TD’s. Holt only has 74. His long time teammate Isaac Bruce has more catches and total yards than Holt.

    I think the only other hope for NCSU getting someone into the NFL Hall of Fame is for Phillip Rivers to keep doing what he’s doing and hopefully win a Superbowl. Offensive numbers are so inflated now, there doesn’t seem to be a floor that would make people think a player’s a Hall of Famer. Voters really seem to be going on “intangibles” like how much their teams won. I think this is especially going to be true for QB’s.

    Mario Williams could have the ability, but he seems injury prone and isn’t able to take his game up to the Bruce Smith / Reggie White level, though he has the physical talent to be that good.

  23. Gene 05/04/2011 at 7:11 PM #

    Weakest position NCSU has had with regards to getting players in the NFL is RB. After Brown, I can’t think of any NCSU RB’s, who played in the NFL.

  24. TOBtime 05/04/2011 at 8:23 PM #

    ^Gene, Gary Downs had a decent career and Oliver Hoyt played fullback for the Cowboys though he was a linebacker at State. I always thought Andre Brown was going to be the NFL tailback but he may never get his shot. I hope I’m wrong.

  25. ChemE79a 05/04/2011 at 9:00 PM #

    Actually Teb Brown played for the vikings for a number of seasons. He never approached being an all star but he was a solid contributer for a pretty good while.

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