NC State transfer QB Grayson McCall sets high expectations — for himself and the Pack

After leading UConn in receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches last season, Justin Joly was one of the most sought-after tight ends in the transfer portal.

The 6-foot-3 New Yorker with two seasons of eligibility remaining had his choices among several major programs. When he was making his decision, there was one factor that outweighed the rest.

Who was going to be playing quarterback at his new school? Or, more simply: Who is throwing Joly the football?

When Joly was considering N.C. State, that was initially an uncertainty. Brennan Armstrong was about to exhaust his eligibility and MJ Morris had entered the portal.

Then, on Dec. 13, Grayson McCall committed to the Wolfpack. The next day, so did Joly.

“He was one of the reasons I committed. I needed a QB here,” Joly said Wednesday inside the Murphy Center in Raleigh. “I was texting him a few days before and he was like, ‘Let’s do it.’”

McCall comes to N.C. State after spending the previous five seasons at Coastal Carolina. He has one season of eligibility remaining, and it is widely presumed that he will be the Wolfpack’s starting quarterback on Aug. 29 when it hosts Western Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium to open the 2024 campaign.

In his final year of college ball, the Indian Trail native is aiming to impress pro scouts and win big games for the Wolfpack.

“I mean, our expectation is to be in the final 12 at the end of the year,” McCall said, referencing the new 12-team College Football Playoff format. “Obviously, we want to win the ACC… We want to win. We expect to win. And you know, that’s the reason I’m here.”

McCall has been one of the best quarterbacks in college football since his redshirt freshman season in 2020.

In Conway, South Carolina, on the teal field outside of Myrtle Beach, he excelled in former head coach Jamey Chadwell’s offense — a system akin to a hybrid triple-option, played out of the shotgun with a lot more passing than one might see from a service academy squad.

From 2020 through 2022, McCall won three consecutive Sun Belt Player of the Year awards while throwing for 8,061 yards and 77 touchdowns to just eight interceptions. He also ran for 1,054 yards and 17 touchdowns in that three-season span, during which the Chanticleers won 31 games, were ranked as high as 14th in the AP Top 25 Poll, won a conference title and made three bowl appearances.

Chadwell left Coastal at the end of the 2022 season for Liberty. In a new pro-style offense this past season under Tim Beck — the former N.C. State offensive coordinator from 2020 to 2022 — McCall’s numbers dipped a bit, but he still played well, totaling nearly 2,000 yards of total offense and 11 touchdowns through seven games. A concussion McCall suffered in an Oct. 21 win at Arkansas State kept him sidelined for the remainder of the season.

Having adjusted to a new offensive system once already in his college career, McCall is hoping that adapting to offensive coordinator Robert Anae’s schemes at N.C. State will be smoother.

“Anytime that you are learning a new system, it’s always tough, it’s always a challenge,” McCall said. “I do know that it’s going to be an easier transition. We’ve already kind of dug into the playbook a little bit.”

Before committing to N.C. State, McCall also visited UCF and fielded interest from other major programs. After the 2022 season, he entered the portal and flirted heavily with Auburn before ultimately returning to Coastal.

This time around, it was Anae’s offense that pulled him away from Conway.

It’s a system that allows its quarterback to be mobile — Armstrong rushed for 665 yards and seven touchdowns this past season — and one that emphasizes getting the ball into the hands of its top playmakers, like Kevin Concepcion.

“Coach Anae’s system is very unique, something you don’t see often. Last year, you saw (Concepcion) in the backfield, you see him taking wildcat snaps, you see him out wide, you see him in the slot. With those elite guys, you can put them all over the place and do a lot of different things,” McCall said. “So, that really attracted me. And then, just seeing myself playing the system as a dual-threat quarterback and what they were able to do last year with Brennan. I think it’s going to be a really good fit.”

For his career, McCall averages 9.8 yards per passing attempt, which is good enough for fifth in FBS history since 1956. The last Wolfpack starting quarterback to finish a season with more than nine yards per passing attempt was Phillip Rivers in 2003 (9.3). McCall has a career completion percentage of 69.9%, which is third all-time in FBS history.

Unlike Joly, Wesley Grimes didn’t wait to see who N.C. State’s quarterback was going to be before he decided to join the Wolfpack from rival Wake Forest. But the Raleigh native was ecstatic to see McCall join the team.

To say Grimes can’t wait to catch his passes would be an understatement.

“I’m super excited,” Grimes said. “We have all the pieces here. On paper, we look great. On paper, we look like a top 12 team.”