N&O’s 2007 ACC Cartoon

'07 Football General Media26

The N&O’s Grey Blackwell has created another cartoon for the start of ACC Football this weekend. You can view it by clicking here.

The Pack Pride message boards are ripping the cartoon, but I don’t see what there is to complain about. In fact, I think that it is one of his better works as it visually depicts the current situation of all of ACC programs accurately.

It is certainly a LONG WAY from the N&O’s coverage on the Friday before college football LAST YEAR. On the same day that NC State was getting attractive national attention from Yahoo, the N&O was really fumbling their coverage in a very embarassing manner. I think that you will enjoy those flashbacks.

Cartoon

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

'07 Football General Media

26 Responses to N&O’s 2007 ACC Cartoon

  1. noah 08/31/2007 at 9:44 AM #

    I think it’s hilarious. And I think it’s pretty accurate too. I’ve read several posts on several boards bitching about the fact that O’Brien and Butch Davis have been cordial to one another.

    Sometimes I think that sports fans only believe there are two kinds of media coverage: Fawning adoration (they often refer to this as “balanced” and “fair”) and balanced and fair (they often refer to this as a “cheap shot,” “biased,” and “yellow journalism”).

  2. PamlicoPack 08/31/2007 at 9:49 AM #

    FWIW, I thought the cartoons lampooning Amato last year were the funniest things Blackwell has done. I think as the years go by, Amato will be seen as an even bigger clown than Kiffin was…It’s only fine to be an over the top personality if you have the program success to match. Otherwise, you just look ridiculous, and those cartoons perfectly depicted the gap between the talk Amato was talking and walk his program was walking…

  3. StateFans 08/31/2007 at 10:11 AM #

    ^ I thought the CTC were funny. But, I thought that they dealt with some personal topics that were out of bounds.

  4. primacyone 08/31/2007 at 10:18 AM #

    I think the N&O should just stick to REPORTING, but that’s just me. I’m that way about all newspapers.

    They did have a nice article on TOB today.

    http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/ncsu/story/688036.html

  5. BJD95 08/31/2007 at 10:20 AM #

    I have a picture of my little brother and I with the red “Lone Ranger” masks from the Kiffin era. We thought it was pretty cool…of course, we were small children. Adults must have been mortified.

  6. PacknSack 08/31/2007 at 10:42 AM #

    What’s to rip? The thing is what? 30 seconds long? PackPride should have a standing “Pissed at the N&0” thread anyway. Frankly I don’t care if TOB gives Butch a kidney as long has he beats him.

  7. BJD95 08/31/2007 at 10:49 AM #

    I will admit to being sick of the “VT as America’s team” storyline, too. I had (and still have) a great deal of sympathy for the university community, but it doesn’t extend to the playing field. And frankly, they don’t need to be built up even more for recruiting purposes.

    I kind of hope LSU beats them senseless.

  8. tractor57 08/31/2007 at 10:57 AM #

    I don’t see anything to be upset about with the cartoon. Of course I didn’t see a big problem with the Amato cartoons either.

    Tractor57

  9. GoldenChain 08/31/2007 at 11:27 AM #

    Speaking of Kiffin and CTC; it is rather funny that the coaches of the greatest substance are general the most low key: Carroll, Paterno, Bowden, etc (and hopefully TOB)
    The coaches with the most vibrato (Kiffin on a white horse, CTC with the big talk, etc) are generally the ones with the least to show for it. It’s like they use their persona to compensate for their lack of substance.

  10. MadWolf92 08/31/2007 at 11:32 AM #

    The videos are generally *funny*, sure. It was the timing with some of the CTC videos. No one wants the *local paper* to take the day where everyone is juiced up the most and pour cold water and derision on it.

  11. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 08/31/2007 at 11:34 AM #

    “I have a picture of my little brother and I with the red “Lone Ranger” masks from the Kiffin era. We thought it was pretty cool…of course, we were small children. Adults must have been mortified.”

    I loved Kiffin too but was also a kid. I remember the pep rally when he ‘parachuted’ onto the baseball field. To this day I think the Kiffin era was kind of cut short especially since he was replaced by the greatest coaching failure in NC State history, Tom Reed for Pete’s sake. We all know now that kiffin is considered one of the great defensive minds in NFL history. That damn on-side kick against UNC. But I guess ultimately that on-side kick brought us Dick and one of the best coaches in State’s history.

  12. haze 08/31/2007 at 11:36 AM #

    ^ Holtz wasn’t low key, nor was Jim Valvano.

    After what I saw from LSU last night, I think VT may take them. Fly in the ointment is the “@ LSU” part… that place is one heck of a homefield advantage.

  13. adchappe 08/31/2007 at 12:07 PM #

    Everybody’s piling on Butch for having a dirty program since he’s suspending folks. I think it speaks to the integrity of Butch Davis that he would suspend Cooter indefinitely.

  14. Mr O 08/31/2007 at 12:53 PM #

    I also didn’t understand the criticism of today’s cartoon. I thought it was one of the better ones. I thought a couple of the earlier ones about Amato and Bunting crossed the line in terms of what I expect from a newspaper. They were still funny, but borderline unprofessional IMO.

  15. noah 08/31/2007 at 1:36 PM #

    That’s a good way of putting it.

  16. primacyone 08/31/2007 at 2:08 PM #

    “……but borderline unprofessional IMO.”

    IMO they were well beyond borderline unprofessional.

    I agree they were really creative and really funny but well beyond unprofessional for a newspaper the type of the N&O.

    I really have a sincere lack of trust in the N&O. Even if something is reported as basic fact, I still don’t place any faith in their story. It could be easily op/ed as it is reported fact. I don’t feel that way intentially, that is just how my brain reacts now.

  17. beowolf 08/31/2007 at 2:43 PM #

    I have no problems with this cartoon, and indeed am surprised someone does.

    I thought Blackwell’s previous ones concerning Amato and Bunting were juvenile and unprofessional. His obvious predilection for UNC (a Bunting spoof asked if he could beat Miami twice, and even then the strongest criticism was aimed at Amato and NC State) is more grating to me in that he and I were fellow cartoonists for Technician.

    His State House Rock is very, very good, however.

  18. packpower 08/31/2007 at 2:59 PM #

    He didn’t have much material on this one and his editors were pressing for a cartoon. I liked Amato but I thought last year’s “It’s hard out here for a coach” was the best of the bunch. “Law and Order” was very good also. I didn’t understand the “Chuck Dynamite” until I wasted an hour watching “Napolean Dynamite” on HBO one day.

  19. ncsslim 08/31/2007 at 3:02 PM #

    What do you think K thought about “Coach Kommercial”? I doubt it was received very well from the thinnest of the thin skinned.

    Chuck kind of made his bed with the press. If you can’t curb your Napoleonic impulses any better than Chuck, you damn well better be successful. The world would not be a very kind place for Lou Holtz either if not for a degree of success. Lou didn’t have the self promotional flash of Chcuk, but could be an insufferable jerk at times. Probably still can be.

    I used to debate a friend of mind about canning Kiffin (we were not kids at the time); his point being that if a defensive genious like Kiffin could not win here, no one could. My point was (and continues to be), how many other high profile programs have come running for Monte to run the show? Some people are destined to be assistants, albeit damned good ones(see Kiffin, Chow, etc). A total difference in skill sets.

  20. packpower 08/31/2007 at 3:03 PM #

    Just watched it again. Did anyone notice that Amato is handing the Florida State hat to Bowden and Logan is changing hats from Eastern Carolina to Boston College.

  21. BJD95 08/31/2007 at 3:09 PM #

    I actually was thankful for the media pressure in the Amato situation. Helped make something happen, maybe.

  22. packpower 08/31/2007 at 3:12 PM #

    Kiffin is the one coach of the last 35 years that I can say “what if”? People forget he brought in a new offense (the I) and then his assistant coaches on offense all quit or were fired after year 2. Being on the hot seat, it wasn’t easy for him to find high profile offensive assistant coaches in year 3.

    He still managed a 16-17 record over three seasons and would have gone to two bowls in today’s world.

    Some say he was fired because Casey didn’t hire him initially, some say because of the onside kick against UNC and some say that Poulton was concerned about graduation rates.

    Given what we saw the next three years, I think we all would have liked Kiffin to have stayed for three more years.

  23. McPete 08/31/2007 at 3:16 PM #

    adchappe,
    don’t give butch davis too much credit for coming down hard on the back-up. suspend a starter or superstar, then it’ll mean a little more (and Barrington Edwards doesn’t count).

    It seems like TOB is doing something similar with McCuller, insofar as he’s not publicly given a suspension length. he’s talked about a conditional reinstatement w/out giving the specifics. McCuller was supposed to start, IIRC.

    I too was confused this morning when i read the packpride criticism of the cartoon. i only thought it was too short. maybe he’s heard so much criticism about his prior cartoons that he’s gonna try to be more positive (although the VT situation is more likely the cause of that).

    a little more than 24 hours away, and i couldn’t be more stoked. this will be my first opening day experience at CF and i’m damn excited.

  24. noah 08/31/2007 at 3:40 PM #

    The N&O’s reporting of Kiffins firing made it sound like the Wolfpack Club fired him, not the administration.

  25. packpower 08/31/2007 at 5:57 PM #

    Noah – It’s been almost 25 years since Kiffin was fired and my memory is bad but I don’t remember the WPC being overly upset with him.

    Reed, definitely yes (although that was Poulton also), and O’Cain and Amato, probably yes (although key donors allegedly liked O’Cain), but not Kiffin.

    The winningest coach in UNC history, Dick Crum, was definitely pushed out by the Ram’s Club. Did the N&O report that – probably not?

1 2

Leave a Reply