Jalen Ferguson’s profile on Twitter/X lists him as “2kFerg”. During the 2024 college football season, the redshirt junior quarterback from Clemmons actually was 3K.
Ferguson finished the most recent campaign with the most passing yards of any quarterback in North Carolina. Helping Lenoir-Rhyne to 10 wins and a Division II playoff berth, he completed 265-of-436 throws for 3,276 yards and 19 touchdowns.
Ferguson, who played his high school ball at West Forsyth, was one of only two North Carolina signal callers to join the 3,000-yard club in 2024. Appalachian State’s Joey Aguilar was the other. Aguilar finished with 3,003 yards and 23 touchdowns in his second season as the starter in Boone.
UNC Pembroke’s Colin Johnson and Duke’s Maalik Murphy nearly got to 3,000. Johnson passed for 2,991 yards over 11 games, while Murphy ended up with 2,933 passing yards in 12 appearances.
Johnson, a redshirt senior from Sanford (Lee County HS), was the runaway leader in touchdown passes for 2024 in our state. He finished with 36, including five in the season finale against Concord and four in conference games against Wheeling, West Virginia State, West Virginia Wesleyan and Frostburg State.
While Western Carolina’s Cole Gonzales finished seventh in passing yards in the state (2,543), he led the way in yards-per-game (317.9). Gonzales played in just eight contests before suffering an injury that ended his season.
Ferguson finished with the most completions and attempts. Murphy was the only other signal caller to throw at least 400 times, finishing with 421 attempts.
Others in the 2,500-yard passing club for 2024 included Wake Forest’s Hank Bachmeier and Gardner-Webb’s Tyler Riddell.
Below is a complete, sortable table of North Carolina collegiate passing leaders for 2024. Alas, many of our top performers have either exhausted their eligibility (Johnson, Bachmeier) or will be wearing different jerseys in 2025. Ferguson will stay in-state, signing with Campbell in December. Aguilar has transferred to UCLA, Murphy to Oregon State and Gonzales to Oklahoma. Ridell is in the transfer portal.
READ MORE: All-North Carolina Rushing Leaders: UNC’s Omarion Hampton leads the way
| YARDS | PLAYER (SCHOOL) | DIV | CLASS | GAMES | ATT | COMP | TD | INT | YDS/GM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3276 | Jalen Ferguson (Lenoir-Rhyne) | D2 | Jr. | 13 | 265 | 436 | 19 | 12 | 252.0 |
| 3003 | Joey Aguilar (Appalachian State) | FBS | Sr. | 11 | 218 | 390 | 23 | 14 | 273.0 |
| 2991 | Colin Johnson (UNC Pembroke) | D2 | Jr. | 11 | 194 | 315 | 36 | 17 | 271.9 |
| 2933 | Maalik Murphy (Duke) | FBS | Jr. | 12 | 254 | 421 | 26 | 12 | 244.4 |
| 2593 | Hank Bachmeier (Wake Forest) | FBS | Sr. | 12 | 224 | 357 | 16 | 10 | 216.1 |
| 2573 | Tyler Ridell (Gardner-Webb) | FCS | Sr. | 12 | 216 | 345 | 16 | 11 | 214.4 |
| 2543 | Cole Gonzales (Western Carolina) | FCS | Jr. | 8 | 205 | 332 | 12 | 7 | 317.9 |
| 2459 | Jacolby Criswell (North Carolina) | FBS | Sr. | 12 | 186 | 320 | 15 | 6 | 204.9 |
| 2413 | CJ Bailey (NC State) | FBS | Fr. | 12 | 196 | 302 | 17 | 10 | 201.1 |
| 2301 | Darius Ocean (Johnson C. Smith) | D2 | Jr. | 10 | 170 | 300 | 16 | 5 | 230.1 |
| 2112 | JR Martin (Mars Hill) | D2 | Sr. | 9 | 155 | 253 | 11 | 4 | 234.7 |
| 2093 | Ethan Beamish (Brevard) | D3 | Jr. | 9 | 151 | 232 | 25 | 7 | 232.6 |
| 2049 | Matthew Downing (Elon) | FCS | Sr. | 11 | 144 | 233 | 16 | 4 | 186.3 |
| 2035 | Brooks Bentley (Wingate) | D2 | So. | 11 | 155 | 274 | 15 | 7 | 185.0 |
| 2006 | Katin Houser (East Carolina) | FBS | Jr. | 9 | 149 | 245 | 18 | 11 | 222.9 |
| 1956 | Christian Peters (Shaw) | D2 | Sr. | 10 | 145 | 273 | 21 | 6 | 195.6 |
| 1952 | Dylan Trevillian (Louisburg) | JUCO | So. | 11 | 136 | 232 | 18 | 5 | 177.5 |
| 1882 | Walker Harris (North Carolina Central) | FCS | Jr. | 10 | 139 | 227 | 18 | 6 | 188.2 |
| 1802 | Deshawn Purdie (Charlotte) | FBS | Fr. | 9 | 100 | 200 | 10 | 6 | 200.2 |
| 1728 | Daylin Lee (Winston-Salem State) | D2 | So. | 10 | 144 | 264 | 14 | 5 | 172.8 |
| 1611 | Chad Mascoe (Campbell) | FCS | So. | 8 | 120 | 177 | 12 | 5 | 201.4 |
| 1573 | Justin Fomby (North Carolina A&T) | FCS | Jr. | 11 | 141 | 240 | 10 | 9 | 143.0 |
| 1545 | Joe Owens Jr. (Fayetteville State) | D2 | Jr. | 9 | 134 | 216 | 8 | 5 | 171.7 |
| 1432 | Chaz Hirschman (NC Wesleyan) | D3 | Sr. | 10 | 114 | 198 | 10 | 6 | 143.2 |
| 1428 | Taron Dickens (Western Carolina) | FCS | R-Fr. | 7 | 127 | 172 | 12 | 3 | 204.0 |
| 1426 | Jake Garcia (East Carolina) | FBS | Jr. | 6 | 109 | 181 | 8 | 12 | 237.7 |
| 1422 | Brennan Brucato (Methodist) | D3 | So. | 8 | 141 | 273 | 6 | 7 | 177.8 |
| 1374 | Maurice Smith (Chowan) | D2 | Fr. | 9 | 120 | 206 | 8 | 4 | 152.7 |
| 1194 | Caleb Robles (Guilford) | D3 | Fr. | 10 | 104 | 198 | 7 | 12 | 119.4 |
| 1150 | Trevor Nored (Barton) | D2 | So. | 9 | 103 | 197 | 3 | 7 | 127.8 |
| 1118 | Mike Chandler II (Campbell) | FCS | Sr. | 12 | 86 | 161 | 12 | 6 | 93.2 |
| 1019 | Preston Brown (Catawba) | D2 | Jr. | 5 | 84 | 116 | 10 | 2 | 203.8 |
| 826 | Demarcus Creecy (Elizabeth City St) | D2 | Fr. | 7 | 80 | 146 | 6 | 6 | 118.0 |
| 792 | Josh Sims (Greensboro) | D3 | So. | 6 | 63 | 127 | 4 | 3 | 132.0 |
| 769 | Kedrick Patterson (St. Andrews) | NAIA | Jr. | 7 | 80 | 162 | 4 | 9 | 109.9 |
| 747 | Mason Fortune (Catawba) | D2 | Fr. | 4 | 67 | 108 | 4 | 5 | 186.8 |
| 664 | De'Angelo Alston (Livingstone) | D2 | Fr. | 6 | 67 | 127 | 3 | 5 | 110.7 |
| 605 | De'yon Cannon (Greensboro) | D3 | Fr. | 4 | 39 | 67 | 4 | 5 | 151.3 |
| 572 | Javier Rice (NC Wesleyan) | D3 | Fr. | 8 | 36 | 65 | 4 | 2 | 71.5 |
| 561 | Max Brown (Charlotte) | FBS | So. | 5 | 43 | 93 | 3 | 6 | 112.2 |
| 560 | Luke Durkin (Davidson) | FCS | Sr. | 8 | 40 | 65 | 7 | 0 | 70.0 |
| 557 | Andrew Frazier (Davidson) | FCS | So. | 11 | 35 | 55 | 5 | 2 | 50.6 |
| 518 | Grayson McCall (NC State) | FBS | Sr. | 4 | 53 | 80 | 3 | 2 | 129.5 |
| 516 | Jayden Morrison (Greensboro) | D3 | Jr. | 6 | 33 | 88 | 4 | 6 | 86.0 |
| 513 | Demari Daniels (Fayetteville State) | D2 | Jr. | 6 | 36 | 73 | 4 | 4 | 85.5 |
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