A Word About Saturday / TOB Staff Coming into view (Updated 4:30pm)

General NC State Administration NCS Football Tom O'Brien78

As NC State’s Basketball team gears up for a key home game against Boston College, Tom O’Brien’s coaching staff may be come together.

* We discussed TOB’s staff in this entry earlier in the week. The N&O followed up with the following today:

Although O’Brien has not officially announced new staff additions, those from his former Boston College staff who will join him at NCSU are: associate head coach/recruiting coordinator Jerry Petercuskie, offensive coordinator Dana Bible, offensive line coach Don Horton, tight ends coach Jim Bridge, running backs coach Jason Swepson and defensive line coach Keith Willis.

* We continue to hear promising things regarding the potential for UVA’s Mike London to join the staff.

* Today, the N&O discusses another high-profile defensive coordinator who has talked with the Pack. Click here for the link to the story about Mike Archer.

Archer interviewed for the Wolfpack’s defensive coordinator position this week, Kentucky athletics spokesman Tony Neely confirmed Thursday night. Neely said Archer was in Raleigh on Wednesday and returned Thursday to Lexington, Ky.

O’Brien and Archer were on the Virginia staff of former Cavaliers coach George Welsh in 1991 and 1992. Archer went to UVa after being fired as head coach at LSU, where he led the Tigers to the 1988 Southeastern Conference title.

* We don’t think that landing London or Archer HAS to be an either/or situation. We wouldn’t be surprised to see one of the two coaches take the responsibility of defensive coordinator and see the other accept a different role on staff. We also think that landing both of these coaches would elevate the talent on what appears to be TOB’s staff exponentially. Both of these guys would be home runs.

But, regardless if TOB’s staff is complete by Saturday, we would like to see Coach O’Brien at the RBC Center for the Wolfpack’s game vs Boston College. TOB did attend the Heritage game in Reynolds, but as far as we have seen he has not yet made a Wolfpack Basketball game in the RBC. It would be very nice for him to step in and show his support for the basketball program and get public recognition from the NC State Athletics Department.

We are unclear as to the number – if any – of high school football recruits who will be taking a visit to NC State this weekend. But, if ANY kids are in town, State would be foolish to NOT to introduce and honor Coach O’Brien in such an atmosphere. It would be REALLY impactful if ‘they’ chose to introduce TOB’s new staff for the first time at the game. Maybe make an announcement to please try to stay near your seats at halftime for a special announcement and have Coach O’Brien introduce his new staff to the fans.

Both the fans and the recruits would enjoy this.

4:30pm Update
GoPack.com has announced Tom O’Brien’s offensive staff today in this article.

NC State head football coach Tom O’Brien has announced that all four of his offensive assistants from Boston College will join him in Raleigh. That group directed the Eagle offense that led the ACC in total yards in 2005 and ranked second in 2006. Boston College also led the league in passing offense this past season.

Dana Bible will serve as the Wolfpack’s offensive coordinator and will coach the quarterbacks and wide receivers.

This will mark the 31-year coaching veteran’s second stint at NC State, as he also coached the quarterbacks and wide receivers for head coach Tom Reed from 1983-85. Bible, who has spent the last eight seasons with O’Brien at BC, coached Wolfpack greats Erik Kramer, Haywood Jeffires, Naz Worthen and Danny Peebles during his earlier time in Raleigh. At BC, Bible coached Matt Ryan, who was the 2006 first-team All-ACC quarterback.

Don Horton will coach the offensive line.

Jim Bridge will coach tight ends.

Jason Swepson will coach running backs

after serving in that same position at BC for the past eight years. Under Swepson’s guidance, an Eagle back rushed for 1,000 yards in each of his first five season at the school. He has been in coaching for 15 years.

Additionally, WKYT in Kentucky is reporting that NC State has offered our defensive coordinator position to Mike Archer.

North Carolina State has offered its defensive coordinator positiion to UK’s Mike Archer. The offer could max out with incentives at $500,000 per year. Archer met with N.C. State coach Tom O Brien on Wednesday. Those two worked together previously at Virginia for two years. Rich Brooks has a previously schedule news conference set for Friday at 12:30.

Lastly, we have responded to some of the previous comments left in our comments section of this entry.

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General NC State Administration NCS Football Tom O'Brien

78 Responses to A Word About Saturday / TOB Staff Coming into view (Updated 4:30pm)

  1. BJD95 01/05/2007 at 10:02 AM #

    It would be surreal to honor him at the BC game. That would get the fans really pumped up. He was on the jumbotron at the Alabama game, and just that got a really nice ovation from the crowd.

  2. sautz 01/05/2007 at 10:03 AM #

    I like the idea of London and Archer. Hopefuly we will hear something soon.

  3. roandaddy 01/05/2007 at 10:08 AM #

    Umm.. seriously.. Kentucky wasn’t good b/c of defense. Why are we paying so much to a D coach that gave up almost 400 yards a game this year??
    Can some one help me with the reasons to hire Archer besides the fact TOB used to coach with him? Thanks

  4. Girlfriend in a Coma 01/05/2007 at 10:11 AM #

    “Both the fans would enjoy this”

    I know attendance has not been great, but I think this is going overboard.

    SFN: LOL!! We’ve fixed this

  5. crackdog 01/05/2007 at 10:18 AM #

    “Kentucky was last in the SEC in scoring defense and total defense but led the league in turnover margin at plus-13.”

    Well… I can’t say that has me overwhelmed. The turnovers would be a nice change, but the rest not so much. From his bio on the Kentucky site, it sounds like they had a lot of injuries on the defensive side of the ball.

    Maybe I’m underestimating how bad Kentucky usually is relative to it’s SEC peers. Sometimes when someone is coaching in a bad situation, you have to compare what they’ve done to what has historically been done there- and I don’t have the time to do that right now.

    Statefans, can you explain why you think that hire would be a home run?

  6. BoKnowsNCS71 01/05/2007 at 10:24 AM #

    Wouldn’t it be kind of tacky having TOB make the big appearance at the BC game? Kind of like rubbing it in their face? I’d think TOB would not want to do that. Time will tell.

  7. ruffles31 01/05/2007 at 10:26 AM #

    With multiple relatives who graduated from Kentucky, I can tell you that none of them think much of Archer. The quote I had when watching the Music City Bowl was “if you take away our turnover margin, our defense is nothing but a giant sieve.”

    To me Archer is the defensive equivalent of Mazzone.

  8. choppack1 01/05/2007 at 10:31 AM #

    Ideally – I’d like to see Archer come in to coach LBs and London be the DC. That would definitely be a home run.

    However, no London and Archer as DC, well, I’m not exactly sold on Archer as a great DC when I look at his KY #s (that were provided by Section 6 in a thread on PP.)

    I do like the fact that Archer was once a HC – and maybe we can’t judge what he’s done at KY, but his #s thus far are disconerting.

  9. st0rmin 01/05/2007 at 10:39 AM #

    I was there when Dick Sheridan and his staff were introduced at Reynolds. I was there when Chuck walked out at the RBC Center. TOB would do well for himself, his staff, and his program by showing up.

  10. packbackr04 01/05/2007 at 10:44 AM #

    I HAVE TO AGREE that ARCHERS NUMBERS ARENT THAT GREAT. statiscally speaking, we could do better i think. but numbers arent everything. Again, it makes me wonder if TOB would even be talking to this guy if they hadnt already coached together at UVA. And i also heard “huge money was being thrown at him” please tell me this is not the case. if he wants to come, fine, but lets not give the guy half a mill to be DC.

  11. Hogwild 01/05/2007 at 10:53 AM #

    Hi SFN,

    I’m gradually getting pulled from the dark ages and using an RSS reader. The feed links at the bottom of your main page aren’t working for me. Little help, please??

    My apologies for posting this as a comment, but I didn’t see a “contact us” option.

    Thanks in advance.

    SFN: Email is at [email protected]

  12. wufpaxno1 01/05/2007 at 10:55 AM #

    The last I heard we hired TOB as the football coach and not a group of concerned and enthusiastic fans. If Tom O’Brien has choosen Archer as his DC then we have to trust him to have made the right choice(s) as far as his staff is concerned and based on what his plans are for the success of the football team. I am pretty sure that his intentions are to succeed here at NC State or he would not have taken the job. Let him do his job and wait for the results before placing judgement on TOB or his staff. He knows what he is doing and we need to let him do it. He sees his vision, we don’t. Enough said.

    SFN: Go away. This isn’t the type of place for folks that can’t comprehend what they read and just want to argue. Try somewhere like Pack Pride or the Wolf Web if this is what you are looking for.

  13. crackdog 01/05/2007 at 11:08 AM #

    I think if you read the comments again you will see that no one has passed any kind of judgement yet, but are simply asking the kinds of questions that get asked when you hire someone with a body of work out there for all the world to see. As long as O’Brien proves himself worthy of trust, the fans will trust him to make the right decisions.

    As far as “he sees the vision, we don’t”, what’s wrong with trying to see the vision ourselves, and then asking questiona about the parts we don’t understand. Asking questions is neither disrespect nor disloyalty.

  14. Sw0rdf1sh 01/05/2007 at 11:11 AM #

    I better see Cignetti and Portee on that floor with him Saturday if he does make face time.

    …and no, I don’t think it would be tacky. He left BC on good terms in a good state, not like he left them in a lurch.

  15. choppack1 01/05/2007 at 11:35 AM #

    wufpax01 – TOB has a great record, and I’m happy to have him as our coach, but that doesn’t mean I’ll blindly support anything he’s doing when discussing our program on this message board.

    I think it’s legit to be concerned w/ a guy who has presided over what statisitically have been some of the worst defenses in college football over the last 3 years.

    If you know anything of my background – I don’t criticize assistants as much as I criticize HCs – because who knows what the HC is asking them to do. However, if these stats were turned upside down – I’d be ecstatic.

  16. RedTerror29 01/05/2007 at 12:09 PM #

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/ncaa/specials/bowls/2006/01/05/gophers.search.ap/index.html

    Apparantly the U of Minnesota has contacted Trestman about their head coaching vacancy?!? The AD up there makes Fowler look competent!

  17. JimValvano 01/05/2007 at 12:14 PM #

    Has anyone heard any new news on Jai Lucas? That’s what I want to know about.

  18. Woof Wolf 01/05/2007 at 12:19 PM #

    I would rather the assistants and TOB for that matter to spend Saturday doing all the things they need to do so they can start doing their jobs fulltime. Like moving to Raleigh, getting up to speed on the recruiting situation, getting to know the players who are here, etc.

    Some of the assistants probably won’t even be in town this weekend. When they have settled in, then I think an introduction at a basketball game would good.

  19. Mike 01/05/2007 at 12:31 PM #

    Bruce Davis is still looking for an OC. Maybe Trestman can apply there.

  20. TNCSU 01/05/2007 at 12:53 PM #

    Truthfully, I thought that PJ Prince who just announced his transfer to Vandy from Arizona may have been a good fit here — big, tall PG. I’m sure Coach Lowe must have seen something he didn’t like, though. Jai Lucas — although he looks good, isn’t very tall, but neither are Lowe and Towe — or SPUD!

  21. VaWolf82 01/05/2007 at 1:12 PM #

    Based on stuff from PP premium, it doesn’t look like Prince, Lucas, or Green will be the last recruit. If true, the mysterious last recruit should be announced to the world soon.

  22. ncsu96 01/05/2007 at 1:23 PM #

    rumors are flying on the free PP about Marques Johnson, transfer from Tennessee. He’s listed as SG but supposed has point skills per his bio…
    http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=7&p=8&c=1&nid=836324

    I hope this is true, sounds like a great pickup.

  23. PackGirl 01/05/2007 at 1:36 PM #

    There’s a nice little article about Dennis Horner in the N&O today.

    http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/528942.html

  24. TNCSU 01/05/2007 at 1:37 PM #

    NCSU96 — good info…If true, I’d love it. Sounds like a great fit!! Another MJ – this time at NCSU! 🙂

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