NC State secured a commitment on Monday from quarterback Gunner Rivers, the son of program legend and longtime NFL standout Philip Rivers, according to 247Sports. The four-star recruit and No. 42 overall prospect in the 2027 class is one of the 20 highest-rated commits in Wolfpack history.<\/p>\n
Rivers, a junior at Fairhope (Ala.) St. Michael, has been tied closely to NC State since last season. He completed a visit during the final week of the regular season when the Wolfpack thumped rival North Carolina in a 42-19 blowout and progressed through his recruitment in the months since, leading to his commitment nearly a year in advance of the 2027 class’ National Signing Day.<\/p>\n
While Rivers also held offers from Auburn, Boston College, Miami and South Carolina, his familial link to NC State made the Wolfpack difficult to beat. Dave Doeren offered him a scholarship in May 2024, getting a head start on his recruitment after a strong freshman year of high school.<\/p>\n
Rivers plays for his father, who is the coach at St. Michael. He earned the starting job as a freshman and increased his production over the ensuing seasons, leading to a 2025 campaign in which he completed 237 of 343 passes for 3,176 yards and 46 touchdowns with five interceptions. He also ran 33 times for 196 yards and a touchdown. Rivers has yet to pass for fewer than 3,000 yards in a season.<\/p>\n
The terrific junior season led Rivers to secure an ASWA Super All-State selection, and he was a finalist for the 4A Back of the Year award. He guided St. Michael to a 13-1 record and a semifinal berth in the state 4A playoffs for the second consecutive season.<\/p>\n
247Sports director of scouting Andrew Ivins evaluated Rivers last week and described him as a “skilled passer with elite pedigree that has a chance to be a high-end distributor in college and beyond.” Like his father, Rivers is described as having a “shot put-like release” and puts prolific touch on his passes. He is the No. 6-ranked quarterback in his class and has a chance to contend for five-star status during his senior year of high school.<\/p>\n
Rivers will not suit up for NC State until the 2027 season but could be in line to contend for the starting job as a true freshman. Incumbent starter CJ Bailey has two more years of eligibility but could be a candidate to depart early for the NFL Draft, potentially opening the door for Rivers to contribute straight away.<\/p>\n
Source: RhinoEasy News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NC State secured a commitment on Monday from quarterback Gunner Rivers, the son of program legend and longtime NFL standout<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}