Random Football Thoughts

'06 Football General68

Jeff said that he was giving Daniel Evans one chance to reignite his enthusiasm for FB before the BC game. I guess I’m a little harder to ignite. I was absolutely tickled to death with the BC win…but didn’t expect to do much against FSU. By the final FSU drive in the fourth quarter, I was truly excited about the 2006 season…and would have stayed that way even without the game saving interception and clever illegal procedure “play� to help run out the clock.

With a renewed enthusiasm for football, it is only natural to harness a little of that energy and start providing some meaningful commentary around here. So I have decided to throw a semi-random collection of thoughts together and see what I could come up with:

Deja Vu

Did anyone else notice a similarity between the State game on Thursday night and the Chargers game on Sunday night? Neither offense did much in the first quarter. A little down field passing opened up the running game. With the complete offensive playbook in use, both offenses were able to put points on the board, occupy the clock, and let their defenses seal the win.

A balanced offense is so incredibly important for success at any level. Defenses are too sophisticated and the talent is too evenly spread for one-dimensional offenses to succeed. State will probably not win every remaining game. However, they will now be favored in most of them and will not be prohibitive underdogs in any game (barring major injuries). Being able to salvage seven wins after the Akron and USM losses would qualify as a very good season in my book.

Defense

I simply can not get a feel for how good State’s defense is this year. Sometimes they have looked great and sometimes not. I can’t project how they are going to perform from one quarter to the next….not to mention one game to the next. However, they have been good enough the last two weeks. Any time you have an offense that can score more than the defense gives up….you have to be happy.

With all of that said, the defensive stats are pretty depressing.

I have some advice for State fans:

– Don’t slit your wrists because of the stats.
– Don’t start buying tickets for the Orange Bowl either.

The next three games will tell us a lot more. WF, UMd, and UVa should all be winnable games….but State would not be a prohibitive favorite if any of these three teams were scheduled for this weekend (and could well be considered an underdog against Wake and UMD).

Has anyone seen the betting line for Saturday against Wake? (I am just curious. I’m not looking to place a bet.)

Wide Receivers

I don’t know when I have ever been more impressed with the entire receiving corps at State. Evans would throw the ball up and the State receivers would go up and over the DB’s, make an amazing grab, and come down with the ball. However, I have no doubt that Coach Dixon has spent this week pointing out the many mistakes that were made during the course of the game. (That is why I work for an engineering company and he is an outstanding receivers coach.)

Here’s my advice for the receivers:

– Be very, very happy about your performance against FSU. You done good!
– Listen to Coach Dixon and I will come to expect that type of performance, rather than be pleasantly surprised. (Which is a really, really good thing for you and for State fans.)
– Call Jerrico Cotchery if you want to know what kind of return you can expect if you work hard and learn what Coach Dixon is trying to beat into your heads.

Wake Forest

Hopefully we’ll have some more thoughts around here about this weekend’s key match-up (look for that phrase to be worn out the rest of the year). I don’t know anything at all about the key personnel suiting up for the Deacons. However, having seen Coach Grobe’s teams play over the last several years, there are several things that you can say about the Deacons without even watching a single play.

The key to stopping the Deacons offense is the defensive line. If you can blow up their complex blocking schemes, their runners simply have no where to go. Look for the 240 lb defensive ends at State to spend a lot of time on the bench…especially on first and second down. IIRC, Ray Brooks (as a true freshman) replaced Manny Lawson in the last game in Raleigh. After that change was made…State’s defense held the Deacon offense to virtually no yardage in the third quarter and allowed State to get back in the game (won by State in OT).

If the Wake running backs are getting to the linebackers….then it could prove to be a long day in Raleigh. This was true in 2003 and State’s LB’s are not the strongest part of the defense this year.

Wake’s defense is always “decent�, but never outstanding. I hesitate to draw conclusions based strictly on stats generated mostly against weak teams (Liberty and Clemson are the only two teams with winning records)….but Wake’s defense may be the best that Grobe has ever had. If Wake’s defensive stats to date prove to be prophetic….then Wake is not going to flame out this year like any number of message board geniuses have already proclaimed.

I have the utmost respect for Coach Grobe and what he has accomplished at Wake Forest. Let’s wrap this entry up with a little non-football related talk about Coach Grobe.

I have a cousin who has lived in Winston Salem virtually her entire life. She is a school teacher there and went to the Wake Forest campus for one of those teacher conferences that tax payers love to under write. Coach Grobe was the scheduled speaker and my cousin said that she was dreading the thought of listening to a football coach (said with a tone that means “knuckle-head�).

In direct contrast with my cousin’s expectations, the seminar was one of the best that she has ever attended. The parallels between teaching elementary students and teaching football to scholarship athletes were simply amazing to her. She said that Coach Grobe was entertaining, interesting, informative, and extremely well-spoken.

I have absolutely no problem pulling for Wake Forest every week except one during football season.

About VaWolf82

Engineer living in Central Va. and senior curmudgeon amongst SFN authors One wife, two kids, one dog, four vehicles on insurance, and four phones on cell plan...looking forward to empty nest status. Graduated 1982

'06 Football General

68 Responses to Random Football Thoughts

  1. primacyone 10/11/2006 at 3:24 PM #

    Anyway Amato pulls a JTIII/Chris Wright with Greg Little the way he did with AJ Davis? Amato knows how to play that game.

    Why were we not on Little’s list. It seems he would rather stay local than go to Notre Dame. I mean if he wanted to go to Notre Dame the choice between them and UNC would be easy.

    He should come to State where it is warm and they get plenty of water breaks. Plenty of water beaks . . . and no critics.

  2. BoKnowsNCS71 10/11/2006 at 3:27 PM #

    Love those water breaks. Love those water breaks.

    Maybe CA is a savant genius like the Rainman. Yeah. yeah.

  3. Wolfpack4ever 10/11/2006 at 3:31 PM #

    noah Says: OLB = outside linebacker Pat Lowery = Inside linebacker

    Oops. Got as far as linebackers and my 6th grade mind took over and leapt forward without seeing OLB. 3 or 4 seems about right. I expressed my concern for Reggie Davis already but Rumph seemed to be there. Could be that after their early success hitting Booker swinging out of the backfield, and with us stopping the run, OLBs had a different cover responsibility. The killed us early on with their receivers runing us off the ball and that little swing pass early on. Not so later in the game.

  4. noah 10/11/2006 at 4:05 PM #

    There were a couple of plays where the linebackers were waaay out of position and ended up giving up pretty big plays on the ground. That was obvious when ESPN would go to the reverse angles.

    Still…I haven’t been real pleased with our linebackers (minus Lowery) this year. I hope they’ll improve.

  5. Wolfpack4ever 10/11/2006 at 4:20 PM #

    ^noah, I’m glad I have your eyes on this one. Hard to see from Section 328 in the NEZ. This may be ridiculous but I have to wonder about Raymond Brooks at the SLB. He can motor and can be a major factor in stopping the run. I saw a lot of #35 Gurlin Dervil (sp) and #48 Voyt (sp) but don’t have a clue how they did.

    I could see both and Garland Heath in on the TE in passing downs in a LB position. This may be more platooning than Dunbar wants to do, however.

  6. Wolfpack4ever 10/11/2006 at 4:22 PM #

    ^both DeJuan Morgan and Garland Heath

  7. statered 10/11/2006 at 4:22 PM #

    Actually forever if your eyesight is good and you are high enough in the endzone that is the perfect spot from which to see the LB play.

  8. Wolfpack4ever 10/11/2006 at 4:22 PM #

    Duh, Heath tipped the pass that Morgan intercepted

  9. noah 10/11/2006 at 4:27 PM #

    We don’t ever play cover-2. Or at least…I can’t remember us every playing cover-2 under Amato. In Cover-2, the safeties basically line up even with one another and take deep drops. Each is responsible for half the field.

    Technically, our strong safety is a “roverback” (a cross between linebacker and safety) so you’ll see Heath playing even with the linebackers. Sometimes he’ll drop back into coverage, sometimes he’ll blitz. And of course, he’s there for run support.

  10. choppack1 10/11/2006 at 4:41 PM #

    “This is why Wake continues to boggle my mind. I’ve yet to see a good explanation of how they do what they do with such success. They’re predictable yet they don’t have tons of talent. They have to be one of the most overachieving teams in all of college football.”

    Actually, you may know the basic play they are going to run, but you don’t know where the ball is going. Grobe has modified the “flex-bone” this year since more teams were using it or using elements of it, but they still rely on a lot of misdirections and reads. Defending this type of attack requires discipline moreso than athleticism. If one or two guys get out of position, Wake has good gaines. The offense isn’t designed to be a mano-mano slug-fest – it’s about technique and execution. It’s the classic way to beat a team where athleticism often trumps execution. If our guys do what they are supposed to do, we can shut them down the way Duke did. If they don’t – well, we’ve seen the kind of #s they can put up on us…

  11. Mookie 10/11/2006 at 6:05 PM #

    “Did anyone else notice a similarity between the State game on Thursday night and the Chargers game on Sunday night?”

    YES, but I believe the similarities started well before anyone kicked the ball off. I was reading all week the comments from the defense of both Pittsburgh and FSU. The defensive players were talking about how they were going to confuse the young QBs with different formations, different coverages, yada yada yada.

    It is true that Rivers and Evans are young players in their respective leagues, but they are also very smart guys with great composure under fire. They knew all week they would be under pressure (hell…the defense was telling them as much) so they were mentally prepared for the rush when it inevitably came, but the defenses were not ready for the QB’s to PUNCH back.

    I for one have NEVER been a big fan of teams (especially defenses) talking about how they were going to handle this or handle that leading up to a game in the press. It only adds a false sense of security that often leads to disaster for that team.

    The QBs simply took the defense’s best punch at the start of the game, picked them self up off the ground, and punched them squarely back in the mouth. The defenses were than on their heels the rest of the game.

    “Everyone has a plan until they get smacked in the mouth” – Amato 🙂

  12. Titus 10/11/2006 at 7:34 PM #

    Noah, expand on your comment about USC leaving the ACC

  13. Wolfpack4ever 10/11/2006 at 8:12 PM #

    statered Says: Actually forever if your eyesight is good and you are high enough in the endzone that is the perfect spot from which to see the LB play.

    One out of ain’t bad. Actually there is another ingredient that may be missing and that is the phenomenon of what a scientist sees when he looks through a microscope and what I see. He sees all sorts of interesting things and I see this indistinguishable mass of moving stuff.

    It’s like Noah sees stuff on ESPN that I have to run 3 or 4 times on my DVR to see.

  14. Woof Wolf 10/11/2006 at 10:55 PM #

    4ever

    It’s a bitch to get old, but it’s better than the alternative. I know that you are thankful you can still get to the games.

  15. Mike 10/12/2006 at 9:41 AM #

    For those of you concerned about what Chuck says………maybe his short answers are a hint from the PR (Ok, can’t beleive our PR would actually try to coach anyone) to shut up. Chuck has put foot in mouht too many times trying to explain his answers, and the more he explains, the deeper he digs. When in a hole, quit shoveling. Maybe he has been told to be brief to prevent foot in mouht disease again.

    Perfect point, after FSU win on ESPN, when asked about Evans, his answer was “ice” “ice”. When asked about critics, “what critics?” “what critics?”.

    Chuck of the past would have rambled on and said something that the media would have blown it all out of proportion.

  16. redfred2 10/12/2006 at 11:20 AM #

    “I see this indistinguishable mass of moving stuff.”

    I don’t think you’ve lost quite as much as you think you have. If it’s true though, I sure as hell wouldn’t have wanted to open any of our earlier debates a few years back.

    Hang in there 4ever, you see more on the gridiron than most at any age. That would be including and not afraid to admit, one redfred himself.

  17. Wolfpack4ever 10/12/2006 at 2:45 PM #

    redfred, Thank you for your generosity and graciousness. I love your passion for Wolfpack football and all Wolfpack sports and I will in the future bear that in mind before I put my mouth (fingers on the keyboard) in gear before I engage my brain.

    “I don’t think you’ve lost quite as much as you think you have.” Actually in some ways I have actually gained. My children think I’m a lot smarter now than I used to be. 😉

  18. packgrad2000 10/13/2006 at 11:25 PM #

    choppack1 & wolfpack4ever: Thanks…that makes sense. Actually last year if I remember correct they didn’t run on us that much, although I think they did break open a few plays. It was more the INT’s their D got from Davis & Stone that did us in. I was there last year and in 2003, and it has to be the most frustrating thing to watch the Pack implode against a seemingly weaker opponent. Hopefully our D will play disciplined this time!

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