The post-Rivers mediocrity of Wolfpack football has many causes. Jay Davis wasn’t Philip Rivers and at times wasn’t Tol Avery. The team was often poorly disciplined and poorly coached. An apparent – and hopefully eradicated – “star system,�? whose poster child was the insufferably annoying T.A. McClendon, took its toll. And assistants came and went at a rate that made carnies look like stable, long-term employment prospects.
Still, one can point to an overall issue: NC State football seems to require less of an injection of talent than an adjustment in attitude. John Bunting may be a boastful toolbox and all-around no-goodnik in our eyes, but let’s give the guy some credit. He’s regularly beating our (supposedly) more talented, glitzy program by producing teams with a simple, traditional desire to kick our ass every time we meet up. You know, the way Dick Sheridan’s teams used to punk Mack Brown’s spiffy blue chippers with our “inferior�? players. It’s as if the two programs have switched places.
Worse, Chuck Amato himself led the new Pimp My Program trend. Amato can be an immensely charismatic guy, but let’s be honest. With the red shoes and sunglasses, Chuck evolved into Hurricane Clown Show last season. A sad but undeniable fact of life is that the difference between winning and losing is also the difference between being an interesting eccentric and a laughingstock.
The clown outfits disappeared as the Pack went into meltdown last season, and Amato gets huge credit for reviving a team then lurching toward historic disaster. But Amato needs to go further. It’s time to get back to basics – the let’s get it done attitude of the Rivers era. And a good way to signal a return to seriousness is: Discard the cheesy, pro-style uniforms and go back to looking like a college football team again.
A minor point, you say? Perhaps. But it’s an immensely symbolic one. Does no one else recall the seriousness, and traditionalism, signaled by ditching the O’Cain uniforms (which were left over from Sheridan anyway) and returning to a solid Block “S�? and traditional red and white ? Does no one else agree that in temporal terms if nothing else, things began to unravel at precisely the same time as the traditional uniforms were ditched for the silly “pro-style�? togs the team now uses?
Look at this picture. Look who it is. Look at the uniform:
Now, this sadly familiar one:
The older uniforms are the symbol of the renaissance that marked Amato’s earlier years at State. They’re the uniforms in which Notre Dame was beaten – and UNC too, most of the time. Those uniforms said, “We’re serious, traditional, and here to play.�? The new uniforms say, “We’re a half-assed version of the Atlanta Falcons.�? I can’t imagine wanting to emulate the Falcons in any fashion, let alone sartorial.
Some, reading this, are no doubt claiming I’m making a mountain of a molehill. But seriously, this isn’t Queer Eye For The Football Guy here. Appearances say something. If you doubt me, and you are old enough to remember the great Dallas Cowboys teams of the Seventies, do you remember this picture?
Or do you remember this one?
The Cowboys whipped everyone on their white uniforms and just as regularly imploded in the blue ones. Any time the Cowboys wore the blue uniforms in the playoffs, people worried – and usually with good reason. It got to the point where they were capitalized: The Blue Uniforms, as in, The Anthrax Virus.
And that makes no intrinsic sense. The team that played in white was the same team that played in blue. But, like I said, appearances mean something. Penn State’s simple blue and white means something, as does the blue and gold of Notre Dame. While the latter may do a “special uniform�? thing from time to time (and they usually seem to lose when they do), can you imagine either school getting rid of those uniforms with the goal of resembling, say, the Philadelphia Eagles or the Indianapolis Colts? Of course you can’t.
Lose the pro look, Chuck. Go back to being NC State again. Please.
