Wednesday Traveling – TOB’s Return

I’m traveling today. We’ve been very active posting entries on the site over the last week, so please take some time today to scan through all of the entries & conversations that you may have not have had time for. I think the conversations being had here recently have been very insightful.

Real quick — This link will take you to Pack Pride’s webrun that will guide you to some interesting articles in today’s media that focus on Coach O’Brien’s return to Chestnut Hill to face his old team led by a new offensive coordinator.

If you REALLY want to get a relatively fair picture of an educated BC fan’s perspective on TOB then you should click here and do your research Man, it sounds a lot like Herb Sendek’s time in Raleigh. As a Wolfpacker, you HAVE to take advantage of a BC fan who is level-headed and realistic enough to carry on a decent sports conversation; as most of you have experienced on internet message boards there doesn’t seem to be very many of those out there.

At BC, (O’Brien) brought the football program a sense of stability and a degree of success that was not there in the Dan Henning era, which was tainted by a gambling scandal that could have mushroomed into something much bigger if not for a major housecleaning not only in the football offices but the entire athletic department.

In other football news, UNC travels to ECU this weekend in what I term “The Nuclear Bowl”.

Feel free to discuss whatever interests you in our comments section.

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'07 Football General

56 Responses to Wednesday Traveling – TOB’s Return

  1. packgrad93 09/05/2007 at 11:32 AM #

    I think TOB took BC about as far as anyone could. I doubt BC will ever contend for nat’l championships. Fans might realize it in a few years if/when BC takes a step back. NCSU has a higher ceiling IMO with the less strict academic standards than BC & the better atmosphere/facilities. I don’t see a lot of similarities to Herb’s situation except for the non-flash personality & good discipline.

  2. Clarksa 09/05/2007 at 11:37 AM #

    Ahh, what memories I have of that BC game last year. Because of a wedding, it was the first home game that I have missed since 1992. I told people it would be a great one, and it was. I had good friends sending me text messages of the score…similar to the ESPN MVP commercials now…and I got to listen to the last 5 minutes in the car because my mother-in-law only has basic cable. Yes, what memories…

  3. Mr O 09/05/2007 at 11:45 AM #

    BC, or any school for that matter, can make BCS bowls. TOB had them on the cusp of doing so for his last four years and when they came up short, the fans wanted more. Just like we would want more if TOB accomplishes the same things here at NC State.

    However, I will say that the BC fans on the Scout message board have taken coach-hating to a new level. Mutiple how a lot of State fans felt about Herb Sendek by five and that is about the level of hatred I see on the Scout board. Honestly, I have never seen anything like it.

    TOB has made some comments since he left that he probably shouldn’t have IMO. Herb handled his departure to Arizona St about as well as could be expected…basically he didn’t say anything.

  4. RickJ 09/05/2007 at 12:11 PM #

    ^Agreed – there are many situations where saying nothing is the best thing you can do.

    O’Brien’s “the best you can do at Boston College is 8 or 9 wins” is the one that really irritated their fans. I don’t know of any fans that like being given a ceiling on performance. NC State may well have a higher ceiling than BC but their overall winning percentage in college football is .58 while ours is .50.

  5. wayofthemaster 09/05/2007 at 12:19 PM #

    Have season win projections changed for anyone after Saturday’s game?

  6. brickman 09/05/2007 at 12:34 PM #

    Do not know yet . I will have to see more than one half of football!

  7. packbackr04 09/05/2007 at 12:49 PM #

    sorry for the threadjack—

    Dicky V has NC STATE on his list of 10 teams that will improve this yr.
    http://sidneylowe.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=8

    and it looks like McCauley made all academic ACC bball team for the 2nd straight yr.

    “McCauley, who is a junior this fall, was the only Wolfpack player who made this prestigious 10-player list. Others receiving the distinction were Virginia Tech’s Coleman Collins and Lewis Witcher, Clemson’s Cliff Hammonds, Matt Morris and Andrew Tyler, Miami’s Jimmy Graham and Jack McClinton, Duke’s Martynas Pocius and Wake Forest’s Kyle Visser”

    WOW that is surprising that no UNC player could make the list, i mean, with all those cupcake majors over there and at Duke Im surprised the entire list doesnt consist of players from those two teams.

  8. packbackr04 09/05/2007 at 12:51 PM #

    i hear sociology is a very dificult major at those two schools

  9. noah 09/05/2007 at 2:17 PM #

    “Have season win projections changed for anyone after Saturday’s game?”

    I might have been overly optimistic in my projection…

  10. Trout 09/05/2007 at 2:28 PM #

    ^ yes, I went from 5-7 to 4-8.

    I think we will play much better against BC, but BC is head and shoulders above UCF, with, by far, the best QB in the ACC.

    I was hoping to get out of September with 2 wins, but it will very tough to do.

  11. packgrad93 09/05/2007 at 2:33 PM #

    4-8 as well. was thinking 6-6.

  12. BoKnowsNCS71 09/05/2007 at 2:37 PM #

    EZU is gonna “Butch slap” EweNC

  13. joe 09/05/2007 at 3:01 PM #

    Trivia- Valvano had to play Iona in a NYC tourney during his first year at NCSU.

  14. WTNY 09/05/2007 at 3:08 PM #

    Have season win projections changed for anyone after Saturday’s game?

    While the Pack may not win Saturday, I’d like to see game two before making a prediction. The second half of UCF was certainly better than the first; perhaps we will see similar improvement game-to-game that will lead to a suprise win in the second half of the season to make up for the UCF loss.

  15. Mr O 09/05/2007 at 3:23 PM #

    4-8 to 3-9. Feel better about the 3-9 after UNC and ECU both played well.

  16. GAWolf 09/05/2007 at 3:26 PM #

    I hated Logan while he was at ECU, but listening to him on the radio changed my perspective of the guy. Reading that article certainly furthers my ability to almost like him and respect him. It will be quite interesting to watch this game on Saturday. I really found myself giving little concern to the UCF game one way or another… this BC game truly intrigues me for so many reasons: the TOB story, the Beck story, the Logan Story, the “Is there any hope for us this year?” story, the Eugene getting more snaps story… it’s a great game really.

  17. Cosmo96 09/05/2007 at 3:40 PM #

    A little off-topic, but loosely related…..

    I like the reaction I’m seeing (for the most part) on the various websites from a large portion of our fanbase. The team is ultimately accountable to those who show up and pay the bills, and they’re being called out by those folks on their subpar performance…..not so much in a “You’re worthless and you suck” sort of way (again, at least for the most part), but in a “You need a major attitude adjustment, which for some reason hasn’t happened yet, but better happen soon because we all grew sick of this nonsense long ago” sort of way.

    I think most people have realistic expectations about this season, but want to see our team at least put forth a solid effort. Losing always sucks, but if the stupid mental mistakes and turnovers are limited, and the team maintains focus for an entire game and still comes up short, at least we’ll be able to see that progress is being made, which will give us hope for the future. However, the first half of this last game was absolutely disgusting. For some reason, a 3-9 season with over nine months to mull it over didn’t do any good. Hopefully, that pathetic half of football did.

    Right now, the team and coaches are saying the right things, too. Unfortunately, we’ve all heard this tune before, and until they take the right actions to back up those words, they’ll be just words.

    By the way, Section Six has a great entry today along these same lines.

  18. Girlfriend in a Coma 09/05/2007 at 4:33 PM #

    Just imagine what Chuck’s record would have been without #17. Whatever it would have been, I seriously doubt it would have included more than 4 seasons-worth of games.

    His only real “strength” was signing “multi-star” high school players, most of whom turned out to be overrated prima donnas seemingly more interested in practice-field loafing and on-field preening than hard work and team accomplishment.

    Chuck’s legacy (the part of it that is positive) will always be the amazing facility growth we had under him. How much credit he should get v. #17, the Wolfpack Club, and guys like Murphy, Dail, and Day, I’m not sure. But he will at least get a lot of the credit there.

  19. tvp 09/05/2007 at 4:41 PM #

    The “relatively fair” “educated BC fan’s perspective” linked above should have a huge emphasis on the “relatively” part. Compared to the rest of that zoo, yes. But I think he just dresses up the same faulty reasoning and general lack of understanding of reality in more refined language. That guy wrote a column on AOL after the hiring that was absolutely absurd. (Example: there was some sentence like “We’ll see how much TOB likes it when State fans don’t go to a bowl game because there’s a non-conference basketball game the same day.”)

    The next BC fan I see who is rational and objective about this situation will be the first.

  20. Astral Rain2 09/05/2007 at 6:12 PM #

    One thing is for certain, without #17, TOB wouldn’t be NCSU head coach, cause he would have still been entrenched at BC when Chuck was fired in 2004 or so.

  21. RabidWolf 09/05/2007 at 6:16 PM #

    The ONLY thing I am truly concerned about is how we will defend the offensive schemes of that (gulp) offensive guru named Steve Logan. As painful as it is for me to say, the man knows offenses and how to carve up a defense on the fly. How State’s D reacts and handles the schemes that Logan will dream up wil say a LOT (win or lose) about the character and confidence of our defense as a whole.

    I have a lot of confidence in Beck at QB, and this will be a HUGE test for him and the O line, and will say a lot about how the Pack will fare in the league and against the bigger non-con foe coming up (Lousville).

    I ACTUALLY HOPE BC TESTS THE SECONDARY EARLY!!! These kids have the ability to practically shut down anybody’s pass offense.

    GO WOLFPACK………BEAT THE EAGLES!!!

  22. wayofthemaster 09/05/2007 at 9:05 PM #

    I thought 4-8, before the season started, but one of those wins was against CF.

    I’ll stick with 4-8.

    I realize TOB has to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

  23. VaWolf82 09/05/2007 at 10:45 PM #

    Have season win projections changed for anyone after Saturday’s game?

    LOL, what a great question!

    Many Koolaid drinkers had a theory that TOB would magically eliminate mistakes and State would then win 7 or 8 games. There were even more delusional theories, but this one was the most prominent.

    After the UCF games, there were a number of comments suggesting that the new theory was that TOB would have to replace all of Amato’s recruits to eliminate mistakes.

    I’ll stick with my theory that TOB needs to find a productive QB to be succesful.

  24. choppack1 09/05/2007 at 10:58 PM #

    Looking at BC’s history – they had losing seasons 7 of the 10 years from 1987-1996. TOB arrived in 1997. TOB had more consecutive winning seasons for BC than any coach in the modern (or better described as the “integrated”) era (1970).

    On the other hand, it was more than a bit strange that he was saying the most you could win at BC was 8-9 games when Wake was winning 11 games and an ACC championship. And we know how frustrating it would be if Herb said that 5 straight NCAAs was the best he could do. We know how frustrating it was when Fowler told us that was what we should expect.

    The big difference is that in our case, we had won championships in the “modern” era in basketball – and Sendek didn’t best our accomplishments since the advent of the 3 pointer, 45 second shot clock and NCAA expansion to 64 teams – an ACC tournament championship, a tie for first place in the regular season, and a final 8 appearance.

    In one sense – the accomplishments – the comparison is not accurate. In another – putting an exciting product in front of the consumers, winning the biggest games, and a perceived lack of passion for his employer – the glove may fit. Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to be frustrated after 8 straight winning seasons – and no more than 5 losses for 8 consecutive seasons.

  25. beowolf 09/05/2007 at 11:22 PM #

    VA, as one who thought months ago that a winning record wasn’t impossible, I think it’s rather unfair to call folks like that “Koolaid drinkers.” Especially given the subsequent personnel hits to the already weak offense regardless of QB.

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