CHARLOTTE — The Panthers are going to have a first-ballot Hall of Famer in the house tonight, one who shares a few distinctions with Julius Peppers.

This week's Panthers Legend of the Game is former wide receiver/quarterback Armanti Edwards, and he'll hit the Keep Pounding drum leading into the fourth quarter tonight against the Jets, giving the fans a chance to get on their feet and share in the moment with a true Carolinas icon.

The native of Greenwood, S.C., will be honored in December as a member of the College Football Hall of Fame (Peppers is in this class, too), chosen on the first ballot after his years of breath-taking, record-breaking exploits and championships at Appalachian State.

He led the Mountaineers to two FCS titles and was famously part of "that team that beat Michigan" in 2007.

He had a 42-7 record as a starter for the Mountaineers, amassed 14,753 yards of total offense and 139 total touchdowns, and holds the FCS record for career rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 65.

His Panthers career may not have brought the same kind of acclaim, through some circumstances not of his own making. Drafted in the third round in 2010, he joined a team with a coach in the final year of his contract who had little interest in developing rookies and didn't get a true offseason in the crucial second year because of the NFL lockout. After getting some quarterback snaps in practice in 2010, the Panthers drafted some guy named Cam Newton the following year, which meant he spent the rest of his time as a receiver and return man, and former coach Ron Rivera famously declared him the MVP of training camp in 2013.

His professional career made its way through Canada, where he was briefly a teammate of Panthers Director of Legends Affairs Jeremy Kelley and won a Grey Cup with the Toronto Argonauts.

But his college career was one of a kind, as he was the first quarterback in NCAA history to throw for 10,000 yards and rush for 4,000 in a career, and he was the first back-to-back winner of the Walter Payton Award.

Panthers.com caught up with Edwards this week to talk about his past with the team and what it all means now.

Q: What does it mean to come back to Bank of America Stadium and be recognized for the entirety of your career?

Edwards: "It's just been a whirlwind of a year being inducted into the College Hall of Fame and everything that has come along with it. It's always good to be able to come back and just see that there is a big base of support here in Carolina, and it's still here today. So I'm looking forward to coming back."

Q: You've had chances to catch up with former teammate Steve Smith and your former position coach Ricky Proehl lately. As you look back on it, what do those relationships mean to you?

Edwards: "They've been great. Because those guys have been the same person from day one when I met them. I had an opportunity to catch up with them when Steve was inducted into North Carolina's Hall of Fame about a month or two ago. It was great talking to Steve then and if I have the opportunity to see him again Saturday night, it'll be great again.

Q: What was Steve like as a teammate when you were trying to learn a new position? He's always been willing to mentor young players, what was that like learning from a player as accomplished as he was?

Edwards: "Steve, I mean, it's possible that he's one of those great mentors that you hear a lot of people talk about. He's definitely one of those mentors that you would want to have as a young guy. I know the media love to paint a different kind of picture of him, but he was totally the opposite. He poured in a lot of time and gave a lot of knowledge to us young guys at the time, as well as still finding the time to put in his own work and go out there and do the things that we all got to see him do as well.

"He was he was a great mentor, no doubt."

Q: Speaking of mentors, you had another pretty good one in Proehl. What was it like learning from a receiver who accomplished as much as he did?

Edwards: "He was actually the guy that helped me the most as a receiver when it started clicking. Not to be talking down on my previous coaches from Carolina, but he's the first and only one who actually took the time and put in time to teach me the position. And that's when I really started coming along and understanding how to be a receiver. That was all because of him."

Q: Because of your college career and staying close to your roots here, I'm sure you're recognized a lot around town. How often does someone come up to you asking about the Michigan game or Appalachian in general?

Edwards: "That's pretty much all the time. If somebody recognizes who I am or approaches and we have a conversation, the Michigan game, of course, is always coming up.

"It's a part of the conversation now. I'm well beyond used to it, and I expect it now."

Q: So what are you doing now?

Edwards: "I'm back in Charlotte and just recently joined Northwestern Mutual as a financial rep this summer. I was a graphic art major at Appalachian, but finance was my minor.

"I've always been drawn to numbers. Math has always come easy to me. Then, once I got into the NFL and started to understand finances, through the good times and the bad times, and dealing with a lot of quote-unquote financial guys at that time and seeing how players were done on the good side and bad side, I just wanted to try to be one of those people that can be an advocate for the next generation.

"Especially with the NIL (name, image, and licensing rights in college), kids are having to be exposed at an earlier age than we were when it comes to finances and dealing with guys that claim they want help, but they're only in it for themselves. So I just want to be one of those guys who can be an advocate for them."

Q: It had to feel like a reunion of sorts coming back here when you recall that you and Jeremy Kelley actually crossed paths in the CFL.

Edwards: "It was a kind of a small world, just talking about the last time we saw each other, the first time last year when we went out to eat. We were both in minicamp in Saskatchewan. What's crazy is we both got hurt in that minicamp with Saskatchewan, so we were in the training room together. It absolutely is a small world."