Wednesday Football Follow-up

General NCS Football24

We had our own “Wacky Wednesday” to follow-up an awesome preview of the Maryland game. But there were a few other ACC Football related items that we thought deserved a little emphasis:

* The folks at the N&O’s ACC Now Blog shared 3 or 4 nice ACC football tidbits that we thought deserved some attention. Couldnt’ agree more about the amazing John Tenuta. If John Bunting would have been able to keep his ego in check and keep Tenuta the Tarheels football program would look very different today.

* Additionally, CBSportsline ran an article on Georgia Tech football noting that the Yellow Jackets are having their best year since the 1990 National Championship run. The Yellow Jackets travel to Clemson on Saturday and ESPN’s College Gameday will be there.

* Our own beowolf shared some great comments in the interesting ‘conversation’ in our Wacky Wendesday entry.

Yes, Grey Blackwell attended NC State; he and I both drew cartoons for Technician. He was three years in front of me. It’s 16 years later and he’s still drawing cartoons. He’s got to be nearly 40, probably 38 or so. Verily, it’s hard out there for a hack — wouldn’t you say?

And as has been mentioned before, look at how the partisan press gets VICIOUS when a tarheel coach underperforms. If Bunting doesn’t resign before the season’s over, he’ll probably wind up being the Catholic priest who turned Mark Foley into a page-chasing bugger or something. I still can’t get over how Matt “True Blue� Doherty went from having SPORTS reporters talking about his hair to, in two short years, “SUDDENLY� turning out to be a PSYCHO who was DANGEROUS and lobbed basketballs at the poor dears’ heads and made Saint Dean turn over in his Basement Office…

* Always great stuff from Deadspin.

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General NCS Football

24 Responses to Wednesday Football Follow-up

  1. WP 01 10/19/2006 at 8:29 AM #

    The game will be in Clemson Saturday night. First time Clemson ever has hosted ESPN College Gameday….and their fans are pumped. My guess is the Tigers get caught up in the hype and come out and lay an egg. For all you gamblers, the spread is Clemson -7.5. The underdog is 11-0 ATS in the last 11-0 meetings!

    SFN: Sorry for the mistake. Typing way too fast!

  2. BoKnowsNCS71 10/19/2006 at 8:45 AM #

    I didn’t want to bring Mike OCain up again but consider his recent record. When he left us, as I recall, he went to UNC. That did not go well. After that he went to Clemson — they had a sad few years until Bowden let him go. So now he is at Virginia Tech — aren’t they doing well on offense this year? LOL. He is a nice guy but a person who played on the team told me that he was too easy going and the team did not fear or respect him (after Sheridan).

    Personally, I think being a coach is more like being a CEO. Tuberville at Auburn is a good example. He is a great recruiter but he leaves the offense and defense to assistant coaches who excell in that area (where he does not).

    If you ever watched Sheridan on the sidelines, his trusted staff did their jobs and he made the big decisions after getting input from his experts. I don’t know whether Chuck manages or micro-manages the offense or defense but his job is to be the CEO and get the best staff he can to do those jobs. Gailey does that at GT with Tenuta doing his thing. Beamer ahs done that at VT for many years. When we had people like that under Chuck — we did well.

    As for JB — he is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

  3. RAWFS 10/19/2006 at 9:54 AM #

    You can’t spell mediocre without MOC.

    I started this as a comment here, and then got on a roll: the next six games will define 2006 and perhaps an era.

    Basically, the more I think about that Wake game, and how we should have won the darn thing the sicker I get. After an embarrassing start, Chuck Amato and the Wolfpack were given a second chance for a good season on a silver platter, and we did what we always seem to do – pull an upset or two, then not win when we had to. Seems like the only time we get to see a top-form NC State team is against Florida State. Against Wake Forest, not so much — the Demon Deacons have won two of the last three with “less talent” than the Wolfpack ostensibly boasts. Why is that? Better coaching, perhaps? That’s the conventional wisdom in the press.

    Still, as a Wolfpack fan, hope springs ever eternal. It’s not over till it’s over, said Yogi Berra, and only halfway through the season, it’s too early to throw in the towel. We all know this team can win — we saw that in the second half of the last three games, against good teams. Whether we see it the next six games will be up to the players and the coaching staff that guides and teaches them. These games will reveal who they are — underachievers or champions. The choice is theirs to make.

    The talent’s here, Chuck. It’s time to win. No excuses.

  4. redfred2 10/19/2006 at 10:49 AM #

    “The talent’s here”

    It seems the ‘lesser’ the perceptions of the opponent, the less that TALENT is in evidence. It is making me crazy. I say they are still playing just to stay in ball games and hoping for a good result, instead of forcing the issue from the very first whistle and taking it to the other team, win or lose.

    Others teams ought to be playing in the catch up mode, there are just too many skilled offensive weapons on this team to be continually dictated to.

  5. RAWFS 10/19/2006 at 11:11 AM #

    Fred,

    I’ve been an NC State for almost all of 45 years on this rock, and I have yet to see an NC State team that didn’t “play down” to its opponent.

    I would like to see a Stever-Spurrier like edge to our team that says “we’re not going to just beat you, we’re going to beat you by 72 if we can.”

    Okay, maybe not quite that severe, but the avalanche mentality on the part of coaches and players would be a major improvement, especially when it comes to “lesser” opponents. All due respect to Wake Forest, over half of their starting 22 would be 2nd stringers here. The difference is here (he says, tapping his temple.) Wake has a huge mental advatnage, and they play a LOT smarter than NC State.

  6. RickJ 10/19/2006 at 11:33 AM #

    ^RAWFS – Nice post and I really enjoy your site. As bad as the Wake game felt, for me it doesn’t compare to last years game with them when we gave them 2 touchdowns via interception returns.

    I think we were a lot more talented than Wake last year, not so much this year. I thought we played pretty well against Wake but they played an extraordinary game in so many ways (zero turnovers, incredible kicking game). Give them credit and they are not playing with poor talent. I thought their defensive line was better that BC’s and a little better than FSU’s (astonishing thing to think).

    Since Evans has been starting, I really like the intangibles of the team for the first time since Rivers. We have responded very well in 3 straight games after being behind in the score – down by 5 to BC in the 4th quarter, down by 10 to FSU in the 3rd quarter & down by 8 in the 4th quarter to Wake. Obviously we could have won or lost all 3 of these games.

    You are so correct about the next 6 games – they will tell a lot.

  7. redfred2 10/19/2006 at 11:38 AM #

    RAWFS

    ^Agreed, 100%!

    I don’t know what it is? Some people around here seem to be confused, they think the act of throttling an opponent unmercifully, lessens the overall goodwill and oh so proper appearance of the university itself.

    I kinda disagree.

  8. Woof Wolf 10/19/2006 at 12:02 PM #

    Yes, those comebacks are exciting, especially when we win. And they do say a lot about the ability and character of our team.

    But wouldn’t it be nice for once to have a halftime lead to protect or build on. Why do we have to wait until we get behind before we start playing football?

  9. redfred2 10/19/2006 at 12:27 PM #

    ^Good question.

  10. RAWFS 10/19/2006 at 12:35 PM #

    Something I remember vividly from the hocket playoffs is one of the talking heads saying that part of winning a game or a series was removing a team’s will to win by letting them know early that no matter what they did, they were not going to win that night (or in the series.)

    I guess that’s long-speak for “showing the will to win” or something, or “killer instinct” maybe, but that’s what I would like to see: methodical dissection of lesser opponents that allow bench players to work on their games once the contest is decided but substantial time remains on the clock.

    We are only one play away from Marcus Stone being the QB again, for example. I would like to see Stone under center in lower pressure situations like the Pack up 4 tds in the early fourth quarter, so he could work on his game just in case he’s needed. As it is now, if Stone were to be called on, that young man’s self-confidence has got to be lower than it needs to be to be an effective player and leader.

    Add in defensive players that will be needed next year — they need snaps too.

    As do our bench kickers that have yet to make a try much less an important FG in college.

    Going for the jugular early gives the chance for these things to happen.

  11. choppack1 10/19/2006 at 1:37 PM #

    RAWFS – I liked your article and you’re spot on. Unfortunately, like you said, we always seem to be coming up just short in situations where we have a chance to do something special. (Also, in addition to FSU, it’s also worth noting that Amato has done very well in bowl games – and w/ the exception of the first 2 seasons, the bowl game is usually one of the better games we have.)

    This begs the question – “why”? We now have more talent that we’ve ever had in the ACC – in 2002 and 2004 we were in position to win at least a share of the title, and faulted down the stretch w/ fumbles. This year looks like more of the same.

    Unfortunately, for both football and basketball, this appears to define us early in the 21st century – talent and a certain level of success that leave us better than many other athletic programs, but mistakes which keep us from being even a Top 15 or so program and keep us from winning conference championships or even really special seasons.

    It sure would be nice if we can win at least 4 of these next 6 games – IMHO – that would make a successful season.

    Amato has shown he can get talent good enough to compete nationally for the title. It’s simply a matter of getting that talent to execute on gameday.

  12. redfred2 10/19/2006 at 1:50 PM #

    This is from previous thread:

    I keep hearing WFU’s ‘cover 2′ as the totally untouchable deep cover package.

    I don’t care if it were three defenders covering #88 James in the WFU versus the man coverage he had against FSU, those passes were thrown to the spot where only the receiver had an honest play on the ball. Same with the passes to #1 Dunlap in the BC and in the game also.

    Then I hear the occasional comment about Trestman holding back to let Evans develop confidence and learn the offense better.

    How much more evidence of confidence do you need to see??? Do you want to make him the start to think twice before letting go of the football??? Ah la Marcus Stone, deja vu, all over again. Can we for transfer the fearless enthusiam and momentum gained from the wins against BC and FSU without a pause to stop and reflect, and a chance for all of the players, especially the QB, to start second guessing things. Stop over analyzing and just keep playing with every asset available!!!

    Throw the ball down field, suffer the occassional consequences, but send the message that the threat is always there for later on in the game. It is absolutely better than punting it away after another way too predictable offensive series.

    Evans has shown a willingness and the ability, James came out playing right off the bat, Dunlap has been right he needed to be more that once, then there are Brown and Baker, what the hell is the deal?

    The kids are ready, the talent is there, is the staff shelfing all of that talent because they are the ones who don’t have any confidence? This offense continues to wallow, yet it seems to me it has all the tools to be explosive. ???

  13. Buddygreen 10/19/2006 at 3:52 PM #

    Trestman smart cookie. We still dealing with young kids here. Killed confidence in a college quaterback is fatal, has killed bigger programs than ours. We a young team. Soph QB, Soph running bakcs, freshman and soph wide receivers. And a young defense. I am sure we trying to win but we also got to think about next year, which is shaping to look pretty sweet with what we have returning. We seem to be red shirting more than in the past. We seem to be thinking more about the future. Which is good. But D— I hate losing to Wake, they just do not have the same talent. And I am with Fred, seems every state team plays down to who we play. I predict Buntings future will be played out before we play them and an annoucement will be made BEFORE the State Game so as to fire up the players to send their coach out on a winning note. And Go TECH tonight we need Clemson to lose. Can’t stand Clemson anyway! Bet Amato and staff lure some of those soft verbals away form UNC and Miami, recruits going to be looking elsewhere after Bunting Coker get waxed or a get the killer “Vote of Confidence”

  14. Buddygreen 10/19/2006 at 4:01 PM #

    O’Cain was quaterbacks coach at Clemson. His quaterback was drafted by NFL. O’Cain was promoted to OC his last year at Clemson pretty much in committe with Brad Scott. but Tommy still was in charge of offense. Firing O’Cain and other assitiants was part of fall out at Clemson after brawl. Plus tommy decided he wanted to hire somone he could just hand the offense to. O’Cain is quaterbacks coach at VT not OC. Beamer don’t hire idiots. O’Cain is well respected. We had some great quarterbacks under him while he was head coach and quaterbacks coach under Sheridan. Maybe some didn’t like his performance as head coach but nobody questions his ability to develop quaterbacks. Plus O’Cain has an excellent offensive mind. O’Cain is very much consulted on offensive schemes wherever he goes. O’Cain first exposed FSU as weak on the outside toss and you could throw against them across the middle. Don’t bash the man!

  15. choppack1 10/19/2006 at 4:31 PM #

    BuddyGreen – You are correct – MOC did have a good offensive mind. He was also a risk taker. We got some great victories w/ MOC – but he couldn’t even beat some really bad Tar Heel teams. Unfortunately for him and for all of us, the team suffered too many blowouts similar to the ones we are seeing in Chapel Hill on a regular basis.

    For the record, I think we are much better off w/ Amato than we were w/ MOC. Now, let’s focus on the here and now. A big game is taking place for us in less that 48 hours. We can beat UMd if we play as good as we have the last 3 weeks.

  16. redfred2 10/19/2006 at 5:03 PM #

    Buddyg

    I’m with you all the way on looking to next year, I do not mind that one bit!!!

    Just let ’em play!!!

    Let the incompletions and interceptions happen. Don’t curb the enthusiam gained by two great wins over ranked opponents by calling it too conservative on the very next trip out, and just because the opponent is possibly not as highly regarded.

    Give the play makers their shot.

  17. Buddygreen 10/19/2006 at 5:22 PM #

    Oh yea choppack, as Bobby Bowden would say, “Ol O’Cain” Certainly was some up and down times. The hurricane game beating Lou Holtz. Blocked kicks beating Texas. Jamie Barnett could look like Michael Vick sometimes. Good to see us having some enthusaim in the program with this Evans kid. He’s certainly someone to root for and bleeds Wolfpack red! And he’s got two more years. Let the good times roll! I hope we have Brown running two more years, he’s best back we had in a long time.

  18. Buddygreen 10/19/2006 at 6:45 PM #

    One thing I cannot stand is people saying we should not have high expectations for our football program or hearing the media talk about UNC’s football tradition. Here’s the facts take out the recent three new schools in the ACC (V. Tech, BC, & Miami). In the past twenty years in the ACC. NC State is the number four school in the conference. We have been the fourth best school in the conference over the last twenty years. Only FSU, Va., and Clemson have more victories. We have been better than G. Tech, Maryland, UNC, Duke, and Wake. We are the best program in the state of North Carolina the last twenty years. How come we never here that from the local media yet you can find these stats in publications such as Athlon? There’s a reason ESPN loves us for Thursday night games. We have been a consistently good program for years now. And our future looks even better. Those years include the MACk Brown “good years” Shows Mack Brown’s last two good years were more of an exception than the rule at UNC maybe they should cut Bunting some slack. And everyone is picking up on what school will be giving Jon Grobe a big raise next year. So don’t know if Wake will be able to keep him although I would hope so.

  19. choppack1 10/19/2006 at 8:34 PM #

    Buddy Green – I’d put Tech ahead of us. They did split a NC inthe last 20 years – and I can’t remember the last time they didn’t go bowling.

  20. Buddygreen 10/19/2006 at 9:23 PM #

    I got the numbers from Athlons preseason ACC preview magazine I was surprised we were a couple of wins ahead of GT. They took a dive for a few years after Bobby Ross left.

  21. Woof Wolf 10/19/2006 at 10:04 PM #

    Usinng your sample of the last twenty years, by my count we are 8 – 12 against Ga Tech and they have a tie for the National Championship.

  22. Packaholic1 10/20/2006 at 8:03 AM #

    First team talent at Wake and State pretty close. We were driving for a win. Game neck and neck like many ACC games this year. GT will have big challenge at CU. So will we.

  23. redfred2 10/20/2006 at 9:03 AM #

    ^I’m hoping Gailey and crew can at least give some insight as to how to handle the Tigers down in Death Valley. I think he’ll have to jump on Clemson early, otherwise they will wear you down and pretty much own you in the second half.

    Looks like the coach’s fate is pretty much sealed next door. Bunting, or is players actually, effectively eliminated the need for another Dougherty-like crucifixion with that performance last night.

  24. StateFans 10/20/2006 at 10:53 AM #

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