Akron @ NC State

'06 Football General154

ESPNUad

We’re going to use this entry as our game entry.

For pre-game, we urge you to check out the following pieces:

* Weekend #2 Television Schedule

* What the hell is going on at the N&O?

* Preparing for Akron

* A Tip for Saturday

* Rebate? 18.3 Plays Per Game Lost!

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'06 Football General

154 Responses to Akron @ NC State

  1. noah 09/09/2006 at 6:39 PM #

    (don’t forget about Harrison Beck)

  2. Wolfpack4ever 09/09/2006 at 6:50 PM #

    Wasn’t Earl undefeated when he lost to William and Mary, a Southern Conference team, 7 to 6? His post game analyisi? “We handled William pretty good.” I’m pure guessing but I believe some guy named Holtz coached that team.

  3. Cardiff Giant 09/09/2006 at 7:39 PM #

    Noah:

    Mike o Shame never lost to MAC team at home, even though Baylor was just as bad, I agree. The Sheridan crack is unfair, because I don’t believe Dick was seven years into his tenure at that point.

    Face it, Chuck Amato sucks. I have zero confidence in him right now. I’ve seen enough futility, thank you.

  4. bTHEredterror 09/09/2006 at 7:55 PM #

    I think we actually played well in the second half (with some mistakes) but the first half was horrible. Stone took some shots deep in this game, and most of the deep balls were to far ahead of the WR’s. He underthrew the INT slightly, but really it was a good throw and the Akron SS made a great play. He was throwing groundballs to WIDE open receivers in the first half on chain moving hooks and and that flash screen they run to the x. Anthony Hill dropped a ball on a great throw from Stone, but made up with some good RAC’s in the second half. The Line was fairly stout, but the running was tough because they rarely dropped their LB’s, and Andre got hurt, then looked to be ok, and then we don’t see him again after the first quarter? Baker played fairly well, but there never seemed to be any lanes. I thought Bowens should have caught the ball in the Corner of the Murphy end zone, but he one handed it. Dunlap didn’t make a great deal of plays, but made a timely catch and run late. He and all the WR’s were blocking down field well, on those rare occasions when we broke the 3 yard barrier. They played better against better competition, but still turned the ball over at the worst possible times. I thought we got short spotted on the fourth down option.

    The defense got gashed early and gave up a couple of big plays that they converted late. There were some missed tackles, but those were the fault their little RB. The QB leads, but the RB was their primary weapon, and due to his success (and the blitzes that followed) we got caught in man coverage a few time which their QB exploited painfully. Reggie made a few good plays, and got better as the game went on. Lowry made some great plays and got caught a few times. Martin played ok at times, but mostly i didn’t notice him. Our D-line got better as the game wore on, as the whole team did. Old school penalties, celebration from the bench to the field, late hits, and offsides. Three turnovers and first half slumber. I feel our mostly young team, got taught a lesson about being ready to play by a tough, tested team. Despite all that, and being gutshot that we lost, there were some good things in this game, they showed some flexibilty with the option, Stone passed a little better (16-31 209 yds and a couple dropped balls) and we showed some grit and emotion. They must get better, and they will lose some more games, but if they can consistently play like they did in the second half and avoid giving up the big play. They can stay in there with most of the teams we play.

  5. SaccoV 09/09/2006 at 8:32 PM #

    In the final analysis, whether it’s recruiting, coaching, or whatever area you want to grade him, Chuck Amato is NOT a successful football coach. We had a top defense last year and barely won seven games. We have a good defense this year, and we can’t make a first down. I don’t care the areas he might be better than O’Cain or Sheridan in, he’s not good at getting his team to win ball games against mediocre opponents. He can find the next Montana, Rice and Bo Jackson, but if they don’t play well ON THE FIELD, they’re not worth having. And trust me, I’m to the point where I would have almost anyone coaching our team than Amato. Shane Montgomery is coaching at Miami-Ohio. I’m sure he would be happy to have the job. Put in someone who will get maximum effort out of his players. Not someone who whines about not having Philip Rivers the same year as his best defensive team.

  6. tvp 09/09/2006 at 9:04 PM #

    For what it’s worth, we may have gotten hosed:

    http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/wolfpacker93/100_0826.jpg

  7. Astral Rain 09/09/2006 at 9:09 PM #

    Let’s not judge until a few more games- for all we know Akron may end up ranked. Also with the ACC down this year, We might still end up 4-4 or 5-3 in conference. Besides, after the bball search last year, I’d rather be patient.

    Honestly, I think Akron could finish 5-3 in the ACC this year if they played our schedule.

  8. Cardiff Giant 09/09/2006 at 9:09 PM #

    If more of “you people” had shown up at the Walk of Champions…

  9. Micky McCarthy 09/09/2006 at 9:23 PM #

    IMHO, nothing will change until we find a way to get Jon Holt to the bench. He is awful. When Lathan returns, I want to see Harris at RG and Crouch at RT. No more bad snaps, please. (WTF is that all about anyway?)

    If you think about it, Amato has been tinkering with this kind of loss since year one (Arkansas State anyone? How about @SMU in ’01? UConn in ’03? MTSU last year?).

    I’ve always wondered why it looks like our offense is flying by the seat of their pants. Even when Rivers was here, our team would break the huddle and receivers would be flip flopping all over the field right up to the snap b/c they had no clue where to line up. Same stuff goes on now. Our offense has no cohesion, isn’t “tight” in its execution at all. Even the plays that work look like busted ones.

    I am of the opinion that the problems that have dogged us repeatedly over the last 5-7 years can be blamed on the one constant over that time, Amato.

  10. Micky McCarthy 09/09/2006 at 9:25 PM #

    “Also with the ACC down this year, We might still end up 4-4 or 5-3 in conference.”

    Gotta love the Lee Fowler logic.

  11. Micky McCarthy 09/09/2006 at 9:29 PM #

    One final thing. I’ll copulate right in my drawers if you assure me that I never have to see another draw play out of the shotgun formation. Has that played ever produced more than (-3) yards for us?

    One final, final thing. Why aren’t our fatass offensive tackles coached to get into a three point stance on running plays? When you simply “crouch” 3/4 style into your stance, your pads are not low enough to drive a block. Get down, son!

  12. 1.21 Jigawatts 09/09/2006 at 9:37 PM #

    3 Turnovers and 3/15 (20%) on Third Down Conversions. ….Groundhog Day.

    Ain’t going to win many games with stats like these every game.

  13. Wolfpack4ever 09/09/2006 at 9:37 PM #

    Micky,

    I’m new here. How about explaining the “Lee Fowler logic.” I don’t get it.

  14. Micky McCarthy 09/09/2006 at 9:46 PM #

    Lee Fowler logic assures us skeptics that we can expect our team to fare better in conference play during years that our neighbor rivals are rebuilding, or at least that was supposed to be the case with this most recent basketball season.

  15. wayofthemaster 09/09/2006 at 11:24 PM #

    NC State = 15 drives total in game.
    NC State = 12 drives were 5 plays or less.
    Any questions?

  16. Wulfpack 09/09/2006 at 11:29 PM #

    “Let’s not judge until a few more games- for all we know Akron may end up ranked. Also with the ACC down this year, We might still end up 4-4 or 5-3 in conference.”

    Well whoopidity-do. Let’s just allow a marginally ranked team from the MAC walk into our house and hand it to us. Honestly, I don’t care if they end up ranked or not. Should we not desire/expect/demand to be better? Weren’t we once in position to vie for the conference title? I’m sorry, but even IF we have the good fortune to finish 5-3 or 4-4 in league, it still isn’t good enough for me. Face it, folks, we are regressing into a maze of mediocrity. We lost to freaking Akron at home.

  17. SaccoV 09/09/2006 at 11:39 PM #

    Here’s a question I’ve posed my closest friend (also now a disgusted and disgruntled State fan), which situation would you prefer? Our current one with a quarterback who can’t convert a third-down or throw down field? Or UNC, which has two bad quarterbacks and no defensive capabilities? We beat a 1-AA opponent and lost to a mid-major opponent at home? UNC lost to what appears to be a good Rutgers team and a good Va Tech team at home? But don’t worry. However the season turns out, we should be thankful that we have Amato because we can’t find anyone who ACTUALLY WANTS TO COACH at NC State!! (insert sarcasm)

  18. wayofthemaster 09/10/2006 at 12:01 AM #

    What’s the record going to be after Southern Miss., Boston College, and Florida St.?

  19. wayofthemaster 09/10/2006 at 12:03 AM #

    Reece Davis and Mark May absolutely shredded the Wolfpack on College Football Scoreboard. Words like “embarrasing and hot-seat” were thrown around. Lou Holtz was more positive. Gotta love Lou.

  20. highstick 09/10/2006 at 12:43 AM #

    Noah says:

    “The ACC is a far tougher league than it was when Amato first got here. It’s not just the expansion…the league has really taken a couple of steps forward. Everyone has talent and you’ve really got to have a great recruiting class each year to keep pace.”

    Did you forget neither of the past two weeks have been against ACC teams????? Division II and the MAC and we’re struggling. Jeez, think Arizona State needs a football coach and AD. We’ll make them a “package deal”.

  21. WestCoast 09/10/2006 at 2:10 AM #

    How much more frustrating can it get. That last TD by Akron should have been in garbage time. Seven years in…we should be scoring more than 17 points on a MAC team. Our offense should have had at least 35 on the board at that point.

    We stink and Southern Miss will be ready next week. I’m sure they smell blood.

  22. Jeremy Hyatt 09/10/2006 at 2:10 AM #

    @bTHEredterror

    thanks for your synopsis, i unexpectedly caught the first quarter and a half on espnu and was frustrated by how quickly and often we went 3 and out. and stone couldn’t complete a pass and looked really out of sync. I’m glad we played better in the second half regardless of the outcome. Good point about having many young players this year. I don’t know what was going on in the first half, and remembered reading posts earlier in the week about concerns about the passing game. I hope they practice well this week.

  23. whitefang 09/10/2006 at 7:02 AM #

    The reason to fire Amato is not because we lost to Akron as embarrassing as that is. The reason is that he has proven himself incompetent as a college head coach. One game is nothing in the long run of a coaching career. Hell, when Pete Carroll was def coach at State we won less than half our games. But face it, our program is deteriorating and will likely only get worse from here. Can we hire a worse coach? Probably, but that is no reason not to try to improve. There are good coaches out there. Shit, Charlie Weis was a freaking high school coach when Parcells hired him at the Giants. I am sure Fowler is not capable of finding the next Weis or even the next Sheridan, but he is out there. And if we do find him, he’ll only be at State 4 or 5 years, but that is better than where we are now.
    I know it won’t happen this year and maybe not next, but State’s football program has to go in a different direction (other than down) at some point.

  24. vtpackfan 09/10/2006 at 7:59 AM #

    The ACC might be the worst BCS conference this year. Florida State squeking one out vs. the real men of Troy? Sadly it will come down to VT and Miami on one side, and BC trying not to squashed by Florida St. as they back into a conference title, ala 2005. Thank god for expansion or they would probably be looking to give our BCS exemption to the MAC.

  25. GAWolf 09/10/2006 at 8:52 AM #

    Right now the only thing that makes fall saturdays in Raleigh worth the money I’ve spent to participate in them is the weekly reunion with good friends I seldom get to see. And guess what? Our all-knowing University is doing all they can to strip us of that.

    Walking out at halftime a girl collapsed at the top of our sectionfrom what clearly was a heat-like stroke. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she was out for at least three minutes. Very scary. It hit me right then that sitting in the blazing sun and putting my girlfriend who also was comaining of being dizzy at risk was not worth watching the horrible product we get from the field.

    I love NC State and have been watching games at Carter-Finley for over 25 years, and what I saw yesterday was the worst show of ineptitude I’ve ever seen. It’s pitiful, and damn sure not worth “it.” It being so many things that I’ve sacrificed through the years to do my little part to support this program.

    Yesterday I got all the way home to watch the end of the game from the comfort of my air-condition and couch. It was painful to see, but not as painful as if I was still sitting with my overly hot and pissed off brethren in section 2.

    I’m not mad, just numb.

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