O’Brien: ‘There’s going to be better days’

“It wasn’t a one-year move,” O’Brien said. “It wasn’t a one-game move. It’s a five to 10-year move on my part. We got pretty beat up today but there’s going to be better days. We’re going to be a much better football team and we’re going to be a heckuva football program.”

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'07 Football General NCS Football Tom O'Brien

74 Responses to O’Brien: ‘There’s going to be better days’

  1. noah 09/10/2007 at 9:39 AM #

    “You started feeling sorry for Weinke almost. Didn’t he go on to become a Heisman Candidate?!?!?”

    He won the Heisman. He only threw one more INT the rest of the year.

  2. Mr O 09/10/2007 at 10:05 AM #

    Beck has been throwing picks all Spring and Fall. It is what he does unfortunately and why he didn’t win the starting job in the first place. On BC’s first 24 points, they only had to go a total of 91 yards. Also, he threw two other picks inside our own 20 instead of allowing us to kick FGs.

    Beck’s performance was comical at times and brilliant at others. At this point, I don’t think Evans should be written off in favor of Beck. Probably will see both IMO.

  3. noah 09/10/2007 at 10:22 AM #

    Sonny Jurgenson was famous for saying that the easiest way for a quarterback to impress his coach was to throw the ball away.

    Beck might need to heed that advice.

  4. partialqualifier 09/10/2007 at 10:24 AM #

    My two cents:

    1- Even with the turnovers and the worst rushing attack I have ever seen (and I was HUGE Dolphins fan in 80’s and 90’s…so I know bad rushing when I see it), the offense was watchable. I felt like every time we got the ball there was a chance Beck was gonna make a big play and get us down the field. With Evans last year I would go get a snack when the offense got on the field because I knew there was very little chance of us doing anything. And even last week with him in the game I thought our best hope on offense was Blackmon returning a punt!

    2- Beck throws better on the run than Evans. In fact it aint even close. With that O-Line it seems to me you want the guy in there who can throw on the run.

    3- I am actually not nearly as down on these guys as some of you. We played a decent game on the road against a good team. We lost by 20…which is about what I expected. If…and I know this is a HUGE IF…we can find a way to get some rushing yards and Beck can start playing smarter then we will be a decent team the second half of the season.

    4- As for Beck….I would play him the next 3 games without a doubt. Give him a chance to learn the speed of the game and learn coverages. The game Saturday was the first time he had started a game since his senior year of HIGH SCHOOL! He has the arm, he moves well, throws good on the run, and he wasn’t affected by the 30 INT’s he threw Saturday. Those are 4 characteristics the other guys don’t have. The question is…does he learn from mistakes and start making gradual improvement with his decision making? If he does then we ourselves a QB foir the next 2-3 years. If not, then it’s back to the drawing board.

  5. Mr O 09/10/2007 at 10:24 AM #

    Also, I have done a lot of road trips over the last 15 years. It has been a while since I would go on road trips with the mindset that there is simply no way we are going to win the games. I had a great weekend in Boston, but honestly going into the weekend I never thought we had a prayer of winning the game. I guess a historic 9 game losing streak will do that to you. I am sure it is worse for the players and I feel really bad for the guys.

    Wofford couldn’t come at a more perfect time. Wish we had Duke the following week, but instead we two top 20 teams back to back.

  6. Mr O 09/10/2007 at 10:32 AM #

    Sorry, I meant to say that Beck threw two other picks inside BC’s 20. So BC scored their first 24 points on 91 yards of offense and he kept six points(two short field goals).

    Certainly throwing for 320 yards was a good number, but we flat out lost the game on a total of six bad plays by Harrison Beck. I knew the picks were going to happen before he even threw the ball on several of them. You could see the BC players reading him and stepping into to make the int.

    You probably have to stick with him, but you can’t keep playing a QB who makes that many mistakes. Beck’s problem is that he has no fear.

  7. RAWFS 09/10/2007 at 10:39 AM #

    It’s a shame that Russell Wilson isn’t seeing the field. Seems I heard he looked the best in practice.

  8. highonlowe 09/10/2007 at 10:44 AM #

    Does anybody have an update on the injuries to Andre Brown and John Dunlap? Both went out late in the game saturday nursing wrists.

  9. BoKnowsNCS71 09/10/2007 at 11:04 AM #

    If our bad luck and troubles tradition holds true they will both be out for the season. At which time, we will outsource the team to a village in Samoa.

    The only injury left is the Sr Manager getting struck by lightning.

  10. beowolf 09/10/2007 at 11:51 AM #

    My take on the game was that I wasn’t surprised by the TO’s, but I was pleasantly surprised at the play of the defense.

  11. wufpaxno1 09/10/2007 at 1:01 PM #

    “If our bad luck and troubles tradition holds true they will both be out for the season. At which time, we will outsource the team to a village in Samoa.”

    Or we could outsource the season to a team in Boone, they received 19 votes in the latest D-1 AP polls. Thats 19 more votes then we have received over the last three years combined.

  12. choppack1 09/10/2007 at 1:16 PM #

    Mr O – You are right. A lot of those INTs were bad…but you know what – how many critical shotgun snaps were rolled to him? How in the heck are supposed to start off a play if that’s what you’re dealing w/ – heck by that time, you probably have already burned your first option – everything is a split second off.

    I’m not saying that Beck didn’t make bad decisions – he certainly did. However, I think that he gives us a better chance to win than Evans right now. At least he moved the offense. Do you think our D could have held up under the series of 3 and outs we saw last week?

    Beck can move the offense, but he also makes tons of mistakes. I don’t know if he can stop making them – maybe he can. If he can reduce them, he can do a good job and we can be a team you don’t want to play. Let’s give him at least another game or two to see if he can improve. Because if he does, I think the reward is higher than if Evans improves.

  13. Girlfriend in a Coma 09/10/2007 at 1:19 PM #

    Who would have ever thought that Amato would leave us with less talent than he inherited.

  14. partialqualifier 09/10/2007 at 1:42 PM #

    Mr O said:
    “Certainly throwing for 320 yards was a good number, but we flat out lost the game on a total of six bad plays by Harrison Beck.”

    Now, why I always enjoy reading your insight on all things Wolfpack…I have to say that this is not a fair statement. The only reason his interceptions meant anything at all was because his arm put us in a position to score a few times. We had -2 yards rushing in the first half. Without Beck…we would have had 0 points. Maybe the score would have been 0-0, but I doubt it cause we would have had 5 or 6 3 & outs in a row and our D would have been exhausted in that heat up there.

  15. GAWolf 09/10/2007 at 1:49 PM #

    The real reason we’re terrible: Our offensive line is as bad as Brit Spears at the MTV Music Awards. And that’s pretty bad.

  16. Mr O 09/10/2007 at 2:44 PM #

    First job of the QB is to protect the football. There certainly is hope for Beck, but we can’t have a QB commiting 6 TOs in a single game.

    Wofford couldn’t come at a more perfect time.

  17. primacyone 09/10/2007 at 3:34 PM #

    From WRAL sports.

    http://www.wral.com/sports

    Beck named the starter. Pressley out for 2-3 weeks.

    Time Warner to rebroadcast ECU/UNC game tonight – Channel 24 (TWC) in the triangle. You’ve got to love that. UNC gets beat by ECU on TV twice within 3 days. It was a very entertaining game, I will admit that, and I’m glad UNC made the trip.

  18. Pack84 09/10/2007 at 3:46 PM #

    I disagree that Beck makes better decisions than Evans. I simply don’t believe that to be the case. A stronger arm? Sure – he’s got a gun.

    But when you’re directly responsible for 6 freakin TO’s you leave your team ZERO chance to win – especially against a solid team playing at home.

    Beck has better physical skills than Evans. I think that’s clear. But I believe Evans gives us the best chance to win.

  19. Mike 09/10/2007 at 3:57 PM #

    I hate to say this, we SHOULD beat Wofford easily on name only. Dont discount them – they are 2-0 and playing well.

    As for Beck, yes some of his throws kept us in the game. Some of them killed us. Down 17-10 late in the half, throwing the INT in the end zone was the back breaker. We can rehash what-ifs all day long, but in the end, we have to trust the coaches to make the right decisions. All spring, summer, and fall we heard about Beck’s INT’s. We all asked if it was the QB or the new defense scheme. I think we know since our DB’s cant seem to catch a cold.

  20. choppack1 09/10/2007 at 11:10 PM #

    UMd 145 yards passing, 2 INTS – 20 points, 2 TDs

    UVa 220 yards passing, 1 INT – 7 points, 1 TD

    GaTech 270 yards passing, 0 INT, 0 offensive TD

    Clemson 95 yards passing, 2 INT, 1 offensive TD

    UNC 261 yards passing, 3 INT, 0 offensive TD

    ECU – 2 TDs…Loss

    UCF – 0 TDs, 1 INT

    These are the offensive td’s scored while Daniel Evans was starting at QB after the concussion at Wake. 7 games – in 3 games – no offensive TDs. Our average offensive production during these 7 games – not even 1 TD per game.

    I just don’t know how we can say, “He gives us the best chance to win” when he’s been starter 8 of the 9 games in a row that we’ve lost.

    I was all for giving Evans a chance. I believe that he earned the starting job in practice. However, after what I saw against Central Florida – I just don’t have confidence in him to get more than 2 or 3 first downs a drive at this point.

    I think it’s clear that our QB will have to be someone who can throw on the run and throw it in tight spots – I think Beck can do that. It’s obvious what his problem is. If you read comments today from TOB, it sounded like he came into TOBs office and accepted responsibility for the loss. Perhaps, his first appearance only affirmed his gunslinger style. I don’t know – at least he knows his performance Saturday wasn’t acceptable.

    Like I said on another board, after watching Davis, Stone, Evans and Beck, I haven’t seen anyone move us better. Hopefully, he can take the next steps and become a smarter QB.

  21. Mr O 09/11/2007 at 11:20 AM #

    Here are some random stats I collected about our defense:

    BC passes greater than 20 yards – 0
    BC runs greater than 15 yards – 3
    Total – 3

    NC State passes greater than 20 yards – 5
    NC State runs greater than 15 yards – 1
    Total – 6

    On BC’s first three scoring drives, BC had 87 yards of offense total. BC also had int. return for a TD of 14 yards.

    BC only had two drives the whole game with more than 2 first downs.

    Yards gained on drives that didn’t result in scores(not counting end of half/end of game drives):
    -15 yards, 1 1st down(1st quarter)
    -11 yards, 1 1st down(1st quarter)
    -22 yards, 1 1st down(2nd quarter)
    -19 yards, 1 1st down(2nd)
    -11 yards, 1 1st down(2nd end of half)
    -23 yards, 2 1st downs(3rd)
    -2 yards, 0 1st downs(3rd)
    – -1 yards, 0 1st downs(3rd)
    – 7 yards, 0 1st downs(4th)

    Essentially, this game came down to us giving BC short fields. One of the areas I mentioned a week or so back was that field position has absolutely killed us for several years. While I hate three and outs, our D played well enough that we likely would have kept 10+ off the board had we just been able to punt on all drives with ints. Obviously, the muffed punt killed us too and that cannot happen either.

  22. burnbarn 09/12/2007 at 12:45 AM #

    I just finished watching the game. I saw a very improved team from week 1. Gone seems to be all the bravado. The team was good on penalties.

    The passing offense was very creative with many receivers touching the ball. I thought it was funny when BC fan held up the sign about ‘up the middle Tom’ when I had been watching a very creative, pass oriented offense. The defense and particularly the secondary were very good. The linebackers ( what I thought to be a huge weakness in the preseason) played very well and really layed out some wood. I think the BC receivers dropping balls might have to do with some of those hits.
    The DL played well and hurried the QB and knocked him down a number of times. Ryan did not have a great game…how much of that was us? Placekicking seems to be good. One got kicked 5 yards deep!!!

    Not so goods, O-Line pass blocked pretty well for the game but could get nothing for running. Franklin’s leg (and hands) cost us field position for the time that he played. (Ironically our best punting field position (inside the 15 on a great punt) began a drive down the field for a TD.. the only sustained drive our D gave up the whole game.

    Beck’s decision making took us out of the game and we can only hope he knows it and learns from it. It was after all, his first college start and it was on the road. He showed me a lot of talent with all the tools needed to be successful.

    If Beck does not turn it over, we win against Wofford hands down. I have a lot of confidence in this defense. If Beck hadn’t turned it over at BC we could have won. I like what I am seeing.. this is still going to be a long season.

  23. Texpack 09/12/2007 at 7:41 AM #

    The reason you should build a stud OL and running game is to make breaking in an inexperienced QB as easy as possible.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. StateFans Nation » Blog Archive » Markus Kuhn Gives State German Flavor - 09/19/2007

    […] Comments from Jeff – I think that Kuhn’s presence within the NC State program is very special and will be treated as such by our coaches. Coach Tom O’Brien obviously cares more about ‘life experiences’ and the development of leadership skills and maturity of men than the average coach. (Let’s don’t bother calling any names here). Student-athletes like Kuhn generate exposure, conversation and developmental opportunities for all members of the NC State program that are unique and can be life-altering. I think that TOB will use situations like Kuhn’s as a foundation for our ‘PROGRAM’ and as great development tools for the current and future members of the NC State Football. […]

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