FBall Implosion Getting Worse

'07 Football General190

On the same day that NC State released an updated injury report that serves to rub salt in our wounds by now including our starting quarterback in addition to the previous injuries to our starting running back, tight end and offensive lineman…we have learned that three scholarship players are no longer with the team – Levin Neal, Nate Franklin and LaMarcus Bond.

After watching Levin Neal lose his job and Nate Franklin punt this year…I guess we shouldn’t be too concerned as TOB now has additional scholarhships to distribute in what has been a stellar recruiting effort, thusfar.

How many football players does NC State currently have on scholarhip? and what is the distribution by class of these players?

Earth to high school stars and JUCO linemen we have plenty of playing time available!!! Come on down!!!

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'07 Football General

190 Responses to FBall Implosion Getting Worse

  1. Wulfpack 10/01/2007 at 6:09 PM #

    Amato, the clever salesman, probably intentionally put up a front to act is if he cared about being fired, when in reality, he came home that day, kissed his wife, and said “Thank the lord. Get me the hell out of here.”

    Ok. Maybe not.

    As for TOB’s quotes at the beginning of the year, I think you do what you have to do to motivate a crappy team. Give them hope, give them something. And we may have some athletes on this team but I don’t see many that know anything about how to play football.

  2. Mr O 10/01/2007 at 6:20 PM #

    Pamlico: Lee has very little history of making personnel changes at NC State. Generally speaking, he has shown an unwillingness to change head coaches no matter how terrible the results. Lee didn’t fire MOC or hire Amato. Ultimately it was someone else’s call to fire Amato. When Lee came on board, it was ultimately his decision to keep Herb Sendek after the disastrous year 5 and was fine with Herb Sendek staying here forever until Herb left us for ASU. The only mark he has made on either of these programs were ones he didn’t want to make in the first place yet the results of the programs were still mediocre at best.

    Generally speaking, he is a “stay the course” kind of guy when it comes to personnel decisions. We still have the same men’s soccer coach, it took years of ineptitude for their to be a change in volleyball, and the tennis programs were essentially abandoned in recent years and forced into changes.

    In the past he always used the facility excuse, which was fine then, but that excuse has run its course in football and basketball. Lee said we couldn’t expect results until the facilities were built and those coaches had time to recruit. Well, what do we have to show for it?

    His paying customers have put somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million into basketball and football yet we still don’t have any significant result to hang our hat on.

    I don’t even care to argue how well or how poorly Lee Fowler has done his job. I just can’t figure out why people defend the guy like somehow if he left NC State that are athletic department would go down the tubes when our two main sports were or still are on the brink of disaster.

    At some point, it would be interesting to give someone else a shot. IMO, Lee is just riding this thing out to retirement anyways.

  3. Sam92 10/01/2007 at 6:22 PM #

    what amazed me about LF with both sendek and amato was Lee’s consistent message of support for both of them, right up until he fired them.

    i’ve sometimes wondered if that was mere incompetence – he really wanted to keep them and only gave way when he absolutely had to – or dishonesty. actually, it smells of both; those decisions don’t happen in a vacuum, or instantly. i recall (but can’t name) instances where AD’s have not done what Lee did — they have said flatly that no coaching decisions will be made during the season and afterwards there will be a review. that i would have respected much more than the way Lee did it (twice now).

  4. burnbarn 10/01/2007 at 6:23 PM #

    “I blame Lee Fowler for being STRONGLY against Amato’s dismissal during last year’s meltdown. ”

    At least PUBLICLY…….he has to….

  5. Sam92 10/01/2007 at 6:23 PM #

    (I know he didn’t technically fire herb sendek, but he may as well have.)

  6. joe 10/01/2007 at 6:25 PM #

    Fowler did not fire O’Cain or hire Amato because he was working at MTSU at the time. He came to NCSU in the fall of 2000.

  7. Mr O 10/01/2007 at 6:35 PM #

    Joe: I realize that. The point I was making is that in his tenure at NC State he has never really made much of impact on our two major sports except in situations where his hand has been forced.

  8. BJD95 10/01/2007 at 7:04 PM #

    He wasn’t just publicly against firing Amato. Trust me.

  9. redfred2 10/01/2007 at 7:05 PM #

    Well, I’ll say that you do have people that hire a person and then walk away, and then you have the Jerry Jones’ and George Steinbreiners’ of the world.

    We’ve had one coach who dreamed the big dream, but didn’t know how to accomplish it. And then another who either didn’t know how to dream, if he did he couldn’t convey it, but he did do the work, within his scope of things anyway. And then above leading the way for all of them, we have an administration that apparently can’t dream or accomplish much of anything.

  10. McPete 10/01/2007 at 7:09 PM #

    When the fuck should Amato have been fired then, all the armchair AD’s in the audience? after he finished his 1st losing season (5-6) in 5 years. or after the next season when his team went to and won a bowl game? or earlier? after River’s senior season? when? what the fuck, do you think we’re USC or something? with all the man did, now what. was his hire a mistake also? some people really just don’t get it if you’re hanging this season’s team on Fowler.

  11. McPete 10/01/2007 at 7:12 PM #

    and yes i realize fowler didn’t hire amato (but he is responsible for that woman’s volleyball coach i’ve heard so many complaints about!)

    damn, and i have an essay to type on plea bargaining and now i’m too pissed to start right now. (is this also Fowler’s fault?) i’m not an athlete but i do have a gym class this semester.

  12. Mr O 10/01/2007 at 7:34 PM #

    McPete: A change should have been made as soon as the problems were irreversible by Amato. The staff attrition began very early in Amato’s tenure(after the 1st season) and continued throughout. How many coordinators had to come through Raleigh for Lee to know that there were problems not being addressed? How many assistants had to leave before Lee figured it out?

    BJD95 and Jeff can correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure they have alluded that important supporters of the program had grown tired of Chuck’s antics even before the 3-9 season…maybe even as early as his first losing season. Some of the doubts about Chuck began with Philip’s senior season as many felt a 8-5 record with arguably the best player in America was underachieving.

    Would it have taken guts to make a move on Chuck earlier in his tenure? Absolutely it would have. But those are the kinds of decisions that Lee Fowler hasn’t once in his tenure shown that he is willing to make.

    You make a great point that we aren’t USC. We are never going to be a top program just because we are NC State. Under Fowler’s tenure, we have not reached top program status with his stay the course/don’t rock the boat/build facilities and hope wins will come strategy either.

    So if the goal is to become a top athletic program or at least occasionally challenge in basketball or football, then how do you propose we do so? I don’t see how taking as many steps backwards as we have taken forwards every time basketball and football go through a coaching transition as a successful strategy. Lee Fowler better thank his lucky stars that Sidney Lowe and his staff have positioned the basketball program to make a quick turnaround. It really could have been and probably should have been a lot worse considering how the search was handled in the first place. Of course, depending upon NBA departures and how well the 2009 class turns out(two kids rated top 150 so far), the turnaround may only be temporary.

  13. Mr O 10/01/2007 at 8:32 PM #

    Rickj: You have it right. From our last five classes we have 75 guys that signed LOIs. I think it is safe to work from that number and not include the walk ons that may or may not have earned scholarships.

    W elost three scholarship players today, so we are down to 72 on ther roster. Of those, we have at least four guys out with injury this Saturday, so we should be at 68 this weekend.

    Here is the breakdown by class again with correct numbers not counting the guys who left today.

    Players exhausting eligibility – 20 (counting Ant Hill as redshirt jr.)

    Players with 1 year left – 9 (WTF? 2 of these are JUCOs TOB recruited)

    Players with 2 years left – 14 (includes Toney Baker)

    Players with 3 years left – 29

    We are going to be a really, really young team next season.

  14. Mr O 10/01/2007 at 8:33 PM #

    Sorry, the numbers at the end include losing jr. levin neal, fr. marcus bond, and fr. nathan franklin.

  15. noah 10/01/2007 at 8:45 PM #

    Mr. O, according to another board, we have 49 recruited, healthy scholarship players left.

  16. Mr O 10/01/2007 at 8:47 PM #

    Assuming no further attrition next year we are going to have 9 seniors on the roster and total of 23 upperclassmen.

    Of our 85 scholarships, if we take a full class of 25 prospects, then we are going to have no fewer than 54 freshman and sophmores. We could end up with a few more freshman if some of our current commits enroll in the Spring semester and count towards last year’s allotment of 25 scholarships.

    I wish I could put those numbers in a better format because those are some scary numbers to think about. Not to mention that the 29 returning sophmores made up, for the most part, the two lowest rated recruiting classes of Chuck Amato’s tenure.

  17. Mr O 10/01/2007 at 8:48 PM #

    Noah: Are you serious?

  18. noah 10/01/2007 at 8:59 PM #

    Yep. Serious.

  19. Mr O 10/01/2007 at 9:05 PM #

    Not sure where they are getting those numbers from. I printed the roster and the last five recruiting classes to confirm the number Rickj posted above.

  20. noah 10/01/2007 at 9:07 PM #

    I think the operative word is “healthy”

  21. McPete 10/01/2007 at 9:54 PM #

    Mr O: what i meant by the USC comment is that nc state doesn’t fire a football coach over one losing season (following such a sucessful 4 first years). it just won’t happen, unless there are some incriminating pictures that wind up on the internet involving liquored up coeds. and after rivers last season, how many diehard wolfpackers thought that even better days were ahead with the upgrade in talent on the defensive side? the time was right when amato was let go and the right man was hired to right the ship. blame fowler all you want over the b-ball search and i won’t argue at all.

  22. packgrad2000 10/01/2007 at 9:55 PM #

    noah – When are you going to start writing entries for SFN? Or maybe you have already I just haven’t noticed.

  23. vtpackfan 10/01/2007 at 9:58 PM #

    “”We just want a guy back there that is willing to take control of the game when it is…”

    Presser from Crouch. How about controling the twelve inches in front of your face Curtis, then tell us how you think the QB or any other position should be played.

    Questions: Darrington at 2 deep FB? White 2 deep RT? At this pace we will have to reasses the situation the “Six Pack” in BBall had. That teams cupboard was stacked when comparing to this debacle.

    Getting wishy washy on the armchair coach feeling. I have inclination that the one moment all season we could benfit burning the Shortstops RS is @ Talahasee. He’s the only one CTC can give no info on, and Wilsons feet could give us some first downs to keep our defense fresh and in the game longer. I know it won’t happen and Evans will play with Burke at the ready.

    I know TOB keeps preaching gap control, but Smith and Lee will do us for 200+ yards rushing. Are only chace is to actually win a TO battle and play great special teams. Fisher may screw up and try to force it to (Carr?) and Fagg all day though.

  24. haze 10/01/2007 at 10:19 PM #

    ^ VT you’re probably right… but I’m tired of underestimating FSU’s ability to coach themselves into oblivion.

    Maybe the ‘Bama game is a turnaround but, in all honesty, the Noles are not safe, not even against our beloved Wolfpack.

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  1. GadgetGadget.info - Gadgets on the web » FBall Implosion Getting Worse - 10/01/2007

    […] RUSSELL BERMAN wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerptOn the same day that NC State released an updated injury report that serves to rub salt in our wounds by now including our starting quarterback in addition to the previous injuries to our starting running back, tight end and offensive … […]

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