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.
