It seems fitting that Philip Rivers’ favorite class at North Carolina State was statistics.
Rivers, the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, rewrote the league’s record book as a four-year starter for the Wolfpack. The N.C. State quarterback owns the ACC career records for passing yards (13,009), total offense (13,087), pass attempts (1,050), completions (1,665), touchdown passes (90), 300-yard passing games (17) and 400-yard games (six).
He’s also the only quarterback in league history to have three seasons with more than 3,000 passing yards.
“There’s not a better quarterback in the country,” said N.C. State football coach Chuck Amato, whose team will meet Kansas Monday in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla. “If you don’t believe me, ask anybody that played him.”
Rivers (6-foot-5, 236 pounds) didn’t pile up his glossy statistics against weak opponents. He passed for 315 yards and four touchdowns against reigning national champion Ohio State in a nonconference matchup and had 422 yards and four TDs against perennial ACC powerhouse Florida State.
Did we mention that both games were on the road?
“I think he’s the best football player in the country,” Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said.
More people might have noticed Rivers had he played on a more successful team. The Wolfpack (7-5) lost both of the aforementioned games. Florida State prevailed, 50-44, in double overtime, while the Buckeyes survived a three-overtime thriller, 31-24.
Consecutive losses to FSU and Maryland in the final weeks of the season ended the Pack’s shot at the ACC title and sent them back to Orlando for the second time in three years.
NCSU had the lead and the ball in the waning moments against the Terps, but a late fumble by running back T.A. McLendon allowed Maryland to kick a field goal for a 26-24 victory.
“We’re a couple of plays away from being conference champs,” said Rivers, who completed an ACC-record 71 percent of his passes this season. “It’s been one extreme to another. It’s been tough to be in all those close games, but we fought through it. We lost two in a row. The seniors want to end with an win.”
The Wolfpack will get their chance against a Kansas defense that allowed averages of 392.6 yards and 28.3 points per game during the regular season.
N.C. State’s defense has problems of its own. The Wolfpack allowed averages of 417.5 yards and 29.9 points.
Rivers — who was a finalist for the Walter Camp and Davey O’Brien awards — likely would have been a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, but that shaky defense prevented the Wolfpack from living up to their preseason billing. N.C. State — which finished the 2002 season 11-3 and ranked 12th in the nation after a 28-6 rout of Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl — was ranked as high as 14th early this season.
“Certainly we were shooting for it all,” Rivers said. “Anything less is somewhat disappointing. But it’s a fun game. We came two years ago. The bowl game is a reward for our season. We’re going to have a good time, but we have a goal to win that game. We need to remember why we’re down here.”
Rivers has cemented his place in N.C. State lore and thought his classmates had done the same with their fourth straight bowl trip.
“I think our senior class will able to look back and say we set the foundation for the future,” he said.
N.C. State posted a 25-32 record in the five seasons before Amato and Rivers — an early high school graduate — arrived in the winter of 1999.
“We were a package deal,” Amato said.
Amato, who was a longtime assistant to Bowden (1982-99) at FSU, has posted four straight winning seasons. No doubt Rivers has been the centerpiece of his rebuilding effort. On the day he was introduced as the Wolfpack’s new coach, Amato traveled to Athens, Ala., to secure Rivers’ commitment.
“They were my No. 1 choice,” said Rivers, who was leaning to NCSU before the coaching change. “I had to make sure. I wanted to make sure they were going to have a passing offense.”
Passing offense? Amato has referred to his system as the “Philip Rivers offense,” and it didn’t take the quarterback long to take control. He was named ACC Rookie of the Year in 2000 when he passed for 3,054 yards and 25 touchdowns.
Did Amato know the freshman would be that good that fast?
“We knew he was going to have to be because of what else was in the program,” Amato said. “The only other scholarship quarterbacks in the program at that time were freshmen. They all had to learn a new system, so the other guys didn’t have anything on him.
“The first day of practice he was the third-string quarterback. The second day he was the second-team quarterback, and by the third day he was the first-string quarterback, and he hasn’t been anything else since.”
Dan who?
N.C. State has done a good job or protecting its most valuable commodity. The Wolf-pack have passed 450 times this season and allowed 17 sacks.
“He works the pocket very well,” Amato said of Rivers. “He makes outstanding decisions. Our offensive line has done a great job of protecting him. When you look at the number of times he’s thrown the football, that’s incredible.”
It also will present an interesting challenge for KU (6-6), which has faced few drop-back quarterbacks in the Big 12 where mobile, multi-threat quarterbacks such as Kansas State’s Ell Roberson and Missouri’s Brad Smith are the norm.
“We have played against a lot of good quarterbacks in this league,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “They all have the run-pass dimension. (Rivers) is more of a pocket passer. The thing that makes him really unique among the top quarterbacks in the country is he has a very, very quick release. He gets rid of the ball very quickly. As soon as he knows who he wants to get the ball to, it is gone. I haven’t seen a release like that in a number of years from a college quarterback.
“Although he doesn’t run with the ball as some of the quarterbacks in our league do, he has great escapability from the pocket. He feels pressure, and what he does really well is he keeps his eyes downfield on his receivers as he is flushing the pocket and continues to find people open and gets the ball to them.
“He is really a talented guy. We have to be sharp and play well so we don’t let him hurt us on a bunch of big plays.”
Rivers, for the record, set the school’s single-season record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 10 last year. He has three this season and 17 in his career.
But it’s that quick, awkward release that fascinates Mangino. Rivers sometimes throws over the top, sometimes sidearm and sometimes in between.
“He has one of the quickest releases I have seen since Dan Marino,” Mangino said, referring to the former Miami Dolphin.
“Sometimes his elbow is down low when he throws, which usually means those balls are easily batted down, but his launch level is still higher than a lot of quarterbacks because he is such a big guy.”
Rivers, who graduated this week with a degree in business, is a fan of statistics but not necessarily his own.
“I enjoy looking at other quarterbacks and keeping up and seeing what other guys are doing,” he said. “I’m not too caught up in it.”
In fact, when his college career ends it won’t be the passing yards or touchdown passes that stand out in his mind from his record-setting career.
Of what will he be most proud?
“The fact that I’ve been able to start 50 straight games,” Rivers said of his NCAA record. “I’ve been fortunate to stay injury-free. That’s a different kind of achievement. I’ve been banged up, but nothing to keep me out of a game.”
That attitude has made the senior a role model . So has his life off the field. He married his high school sweetheart, Tiffany, in 2001, and they started a family 14 months later.
“He has brought the name of N.C. State to the forefront nationally,” Amato said. “He will be a special, special name in the history of N.C. State football forever and ever. He needs to be put up there as one of the best quarterbacks who has ever played.”
