Doeren said he “looked at him as the future after Ryan, but you never really know how long it’s going to take a guy to play.” That made Leary’s freshman year challenging, though. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself.” “He just kind of has that ‘it’ factor, like you saw him late in those games (against Clemson and North Carolina in 2021),” Drinkwitz said. Wolfpack teammates say they’ve seen him throw the ball 80 yards in the air. Leary finished his career at Timber Creek as the state of New Jersey’s all-time leader in passing yards (9,672) and touchdowns thrown (117). Leary checked all the boxes: mentally and physically tough, loved the sport, didn’t turn the ball over at a high rate, accurate, had leadership qualities. “In our system, this was a guy who really fits and could really excel.” Once he figures it out at the top of the college level, he’s going to be able to do the same things. “He had elite arm talent,” said Drinkwitz. There were similarities in terms of style and accuracy, but Drinkwitz felt Leary had a bigger arm. “He went from three stars up, especially as he got invited to Elite 11 and things like that.”ĭrinkwitz, now the head coach at Missouri, remembers zeroing in on Leary as the guy to take the baton from Ryan Finley, the starting quarterback at the time. “Once we got the commitment, we had to hang on,” Doeren said. Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Eli Drinkwitz liked him right away, telling Leary he’d evaluate him during his junior season and get back to him. His performance drew the attention of then-Wolfpack assistant George McDonald, who recruited New Jersey. (“We won,” Devin would like to point out.)Īs a sophomore, Leary attended a camp at NC State along with some high school teammates.
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He’s the one who taught Devin how to throw a football, so of course it worked out that Devin’s first start as a freshman at Timber Creek came against his uncle’s team. His uncle coached football at another high school in the district where the Learys lived. Leary had to wrestle for the full season. He wrestled that one wasn’t his favorite, but his parents didn’t raise quitters, so whatever any of the kids started, they had to finish. He played football, baseball, hockey and some pickup basketball. (His brother Donovan is about to be a freshman quarterback at Illinois.) One of the first toys Devin received as a baby was a football. Devin’s father and uncle played football in college, and each of Leary’s four siblings played something growing up. They were a family that really, really loved sports. They’d be playing the card game Crazy Eights and all the high cards would strangely go missing … only to be discovered at an opportune time by Devin.īut of course the Learys had competitive card games. His mother Lorie noticed this about her son at a young age.
If that’s the case, it may be more than just the ACC championship this team gets to play for.Īnd Leary will think about what it took to get here. Leary believes he can be even better than he was a season ago. Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren believes Leary is the best quarterback in the country. Now Leary and his teammates have a legitimate chance to break a 42-year ACC championship drought this fall. He delivered a thrilling double-overtime win over Clemson and a wild fourth-quarter comeback to beat North Carolina. He led NC State to a 9-3 season last fall, with a stunning 35-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio. … If I can embrace that every day, I’m not going to have any regrets.”Īnd finally, Leary is having the on-field success he always dreamed about. “When I saw what an injury could take away, it was like it didn’t matter what I thought in the past. “I was pressing more than I needed to, but it was just because I wanted to be as good as I could be and be the best teammate I could be. “I think, before, I was just so anxious to be the starter, so anxious to be successful at the position,” Leary said. He has endured isolation and rehabilitation and everything that comes with it. He has lost his starting spot due to COVID-19 contact tracing, only to win it back, only to suffer a season-ending injury. It’s been a tale of twists and turns for one of the best high school quarterbacks in New Jersey history, who set multiple state records and was a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year. Some college football career trajectories follow straight lines: highly touted prospect arrives, starts, plays well, team wins, everyone gets their happy ending. They’re reminders of what he’s endured to get here, proof that it wasn’t easy. There’s one on the inside of his left ankle and another on the outside. Devin Leary tugs his sock down, so the not-exactly-faded pink scars can show.