COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK EIGHT:
ACC QBs, Wake’s Ezell, Elon, Campbell, JCSU
Among DG’s ACC/NC “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs”
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Oct. 19, 2026)
While the focus of our weekly college football shows are forward-looking as often as possible, we always take a glance back at the previous week, too, and sometimes we’ll offer some quick mentions to those making impactful headlines on the gridiron, especially in the Atlantic Coast Conference and/or across North Carolina.
With that in mind, below are our Week Eight “Fun Facts and Shout-Outs,” brought to you by our good friends at Jimmy’s bar and King Neptune restaurant in Wrightsville Beach and the same folks’ latest creation, Jimmy’s Inland, their new bar in Wilmington.
Jimmy’s has a full bar, nightly drink specials and live music 365 days a year(!). (It’s a great place to watch a game, too.) Right next door in Wrightsville Beach, King Neptune has become one of the best restaurants in the greater Wilmington area. Jimmy’s Inland, which features live music, pool tables, darts, an arcade and the brand’s signature slushies, is located about a mile from the UNC Wilmington campus.
Week Eight “Fun Fact #1”
Fun Fact: The ACC still has plenty of room for improvement on the gridiron, but one thing the league is doing very well right now is producing more prolific quarterbacks than any other college league.
Miami’s Darian Mensah, SMU’s Kevin Jennings, Wake Forest’s Gio Lopez, Virginia Tech’s Ethan Grunkemeyer, Louisville’s Lincoln Kienholz, Georgia Tech’s Alberto Mendoza, NC State’s CJ Bailey and Pitt’s Mason Heintschel (prior to his season-ending injury) all rank among the national leaders in important offensive categories this season.
In an important “fun fact” within this “Fun Fact,” seven of those eight highly productive signal-callers — everyone except Jennings, who’s a fifth-year senior for the Mustangs — has college eligibility remaining after this ongoing 2026 season, although Mensah is a very strong candidate to jump to the National Football League, and it’s always possible that one or more of the others will enter the transfer portal after this current campaign.
Those are concerns for later, though. What’s happening with these ACC aerial attacks right now is pretty impressive.
Entering Week Eight, at the FBS level, all eight of those ACC quarterbacks — Mensah, Jennings, Grunkemeyer, Lopez, Kienholz, Mendoza, Bailey and Heintschel — rank among the nation’s 25 most productive passers, at more than 250 yards per game.
Mensah, Lopez, Jennings, Grunkemeyer and Heintschel also rank in the top 25 nationally in passing touchdowns, and Mensah, Jennings, Lopez, Kienholz, Heintschel and Grunkemeyer are in the top 25 in passing efficiency.
Ideally, the ACC would have more teams in the national Top 25 and, later, multiple teams in the College Football Playoff. For now, though, it’s still worth celebrating that many of its schools have a highly entertaining product, in part because they’re “throwing the ball all over the yard” better than anyone else.
Now on to this week’s shout-outs, brought to you by our friends at Muscle Milk, as we head into Week Eight …
#1—Shout-out to Wake Forest offensive coordinator Rob Ezell.
In the social media world, Ezell became famous about a decade ago for his truly brilliant impression of legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban.
Ezell was a walk-on player for Saban from 2007-10, a stretch that included Saban’s first national championship with the Crimson Tide, and he later worked in various roles on Saban’s offensive staffs in Tuscaloosa from 2015-20, a stretch that included three more national titles for the Tide.
(Quick side note: If you’ve never seen video of Ezell mimicking Saban’s voice and mannerisms, it’s definitely worth checking out on YouTube. Saban himself has said he has enjoyed those videos, although Ezell apparently has never done the full-blown impression in front of Saban.)
Now Ezell, who is still only 37 years old, is considered a rising star in the college coaching ranks himself, after success as an offensive coordinator at South Alabama in 2024 and — over these past two seasons — while working in the same capacity for coach Jake Dickert at Wake Forest.
After Ezell was a starting quarterback in high school and a reserve wide receiver at Alabama, his various coaching stops have included some years working specifically with the offensive line and tight ends, others working mostly with the quarterbacks and wide receivers, and most recently several years as the coordinator who’s asked to make sure all of those offensive pieces fit together in an efficient and productive manner.
That diverse background symbolizes Wake Forest’s offense over these past two seasons, as Ezell has helped bring out by far the best versions of 2025 starting quarterback Robby Ashford, 2026 starting QB Gio Lopez (a guy Ezell also mentored at South Alabama), 2025 All-ACC wide receiver Chris Barnes and 2026 midseason All-American wide receiver Carlos Hernandez, along with a number of the Demon Deacons’ linemen.
Even after losing star running back Demond Claiborne to the NFL and four other All-ACC honorees from last year’s team to graduation or the transfer portal, Ezell has the Wake Forest offense clicking even better than it did last season.
Entering Week Eight, the 6-1 Demon Deacons are third in the ACC in scoring offense, at 37 points per game, and that’s a big reason the team is considered among the top candidates to end up in this year’s ACC championship game.
#2—Shout-out, at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level, to Campbell quarterback Kamden Sixkiller.
The 6-1 Camels appear to be on their way to the best season in program history, and Sixkiller — the team’s veteran quarterback, whose last name traces to the Native American aspect of his heritage — is one of the biggest reasons why.
A 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior now in his second season as Campbell’s starter, Sixkiller enters Week Eight of the college football season ranked ninth in the FCS ranks in total offense, at about 300 yards per game. A dual-threat QB, Sixkiller is averaging 271 passing yards per game, a number that ranks 11th nationally, and he’s running for almost 30 yards per game, as well.
Originally from Norman, Okla., Sixkiller grew up as an Oklahoma Sooners fan, but he didn’t become a full-time starting quarterback at the high school level until his senior year, when a shoulder injury and ensuing surgery scared off many recruiters, even after a highly productive campaign.
Choosing from among multiple FCS scholarship offers, Sixkiller originally signed with McNeese State. After one year as a backup and one year as the starter at McNeese, there was a head coaching change there. That’s when Campbell coach Braxton Harris — who had competed against Sixkiller in his previous coaching stop — swooped in and beat out Eastern Kentucky, Fordham, Gardner-Webb, Lafayette and other FCS programs for the player’s commitment out of the transfer portal.
After enrolling at Campbell in January 2025, Sixkiller quickly earned the starting job in Buies Creek, and he then delivered one of the most prolific seasons in program history, including 2,154 passing yards, albeit for a 2-10 team that let a bunch of fourth-quarter leads get away.
This year, playing behind an offensive line that counts four returning starters and an FBS transfer, Sixkiller is playing the best football of his life … and perhaps for the best team of his life.
In Week One, after Campbell went on the road and beat a Top 25-caliber East Tennessee State squad 49-37, he was named the national player of the week in the FCS ranks, thanks to a heroic effort that included 343 passing yards, 95 rushing yards and four total touchdowns.
Almost two months later, Campbell is ranked in the national top 20, Sixkiller ranks among the best FCS quarterbacks, and both parties are able to dream about even bigger things.
#3—Shout-out, again at the FCS level, to Elon running back Kamerin McDowell-Moore.
A true freshman from the highly successful Tarboro High School program here in North Carolina, McDowell-Moore appears poised for Freshman All-America honors because of his first-year excellence with the Phoenix, and he actually has a chance to lead the entire FCS ranks in rushing this season, too.
Entering Week Eight, McDowell-Moore ranks third nationally with 135 rushing yards per game, and he remains within striking distance of the only players above him in that category. McDowell-Moore also ranks among the top 10 FCS players in all-purpose yards, with 145 per game so far this season. Even in Elon’s game last Saturday at Stanford, a Power Four opponent from the FBS ranks, he posted 21 carries for 164 yards and a touchdown.
McDowell-Moore was a four-year starter at Tarboro High under legendary coach Jeff Craddock, who has led the Vikings to nine of their amazing 10 all-time state championships. The Tarboro program previously has produced star running backs such as former UNC stars Kelvin Bryant and Shaun Draughn and former Georgia star Todd Gurley, all of whom ultimately played in the NFL.
A two-time state champion and four-time 1,000-yard rusher at Tarboro High, McDowell-Moore completed his prep career with 6,360 rushing yards and 96 touchdowns for teams that collectively posted an amazing 55-4 record. Prior to his final high school season, in August 2025, McDowell-Moore committed to Elon coach Tony Trisciani, turning down FBS offers from Charlotte, Kennesaw State and Old Dominion, and he stayed true to the Phoenix after his sensational senior year.
Now, thanks largely to McDowell-Moore’s highly productive running and another strong Elon defense, Trisciani appears poised to post his sixth consecutive record of .500 or better with the Phoenix, and McDowell-Moore has an opportunity to put an exclamation point at the end of his first season of college football.
Last, but certainly not least…
#4—Shout-out, at the Division Two level, to Johnson C Smith running back Fabian Duncan.
A 5-foot-10, 215-pound redshirt junior who was away from football for more than three years between high school and college, Duncan now ranks among the top three players in the Division Two ranks in both rushing yards per game (153) and all-purpose yards per game (179).
A 2019 graduate of North Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, Duncan initially enrolled at Johnson C Smith University but then stepped away from academics — and football — until a 2023 encounter with his former high school coach and then a soul-searching conversation with his father, who is now deceased.
Inspired by those two mentors, Duncan launched his college playing career at Allen University, a D2 program based in Columbia, S.C., which is just a 90-minute drive down Interstate 77 from Charlotte. Duncan had a solid season for the Yellow Jackets in 2024, then a break-out campaign in 2025, when he rushed 265 times for 1,297 yards and 15 touchdowns on his way to the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s player of the year honor.
Duncan then transferred home to Johnson C Smith, which had just completed perhaps the best season in program history.
Under coach Maurice Flowers, the Golden Bulls posted their highest win total ever (with a 10-2 record), they captured the CIAA championship for just the second time in literally 100 years, they made the D2 playoffs for the first time ever, and they finished with a #18 national ranking, which also represented the best in program history.
Now, thanks in large part to Duncan’s powerful running and one of the top D2 defenses in the nation, JCSU is 6-1 this season, tied for first in the CIAA standings, and once again in the running for another conference title and another D2 playoff invitation.
Congratulations, Fabian Duncan, on your admirable perseverance … and on making your college football dream come true, even if it took a lot longer than you originally expected.
