A Call to the Community

NCS Football Site News21

Hey gang…a few items for you today.

(1) We started tracking traffic to the site again on October 20th. Today, we surpassed 500,000 page views in just over a month (that included a slow holiday period). THANK YOU to each of you for your support of SFN.

(2) There have been A LOT of entries put on the blog the last few days. Please take the time to spend time scrolling down the many entries on the first page of the blog as opposed to everyone’s customary behavior of just eyeballing the first couple of entires at the top of the blog.

(3) We’ve got an idea for a great entry but I don’t have the time to work on the research today. So, I wanted to ask you to contribute some statistics and perspective on the topic and we will construct an entry based on your work. I am asking the community to spend some time digging up information comparing Chan Gailey’s tenure at Georgia Tech with the tenure of Mike O’Cain at NC State.

The ultimate goal here is is NOT to necessarily compare Gailey to MOC to see who was a better coach. Who really cares? The ultimate goal here is to compare the standards and criteria for judgement of the way different schools make decisions by using these two coaches as examples.

At first blush, it would seem that both Gailey and O’Cain both inherited solid programs from George O’Leary and Dick Sheridan. Since Gailey seems to be getting pushed out after six years at GT, it would be interesting to compare the performance of what got Gailey pushed out in six years compared to what got MOC pushed out in seven years.

Thanks for your interest and support!

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NCS Football Site News

21 Responses to A Call to the Community

  1. LRM 11/26/2007 at 2:36 PM #

    I think you’re on to something very good here, but I’d recommend that you dig a little deeper than just Gailey and O’Cain; look at other examples at established powers like Nebraska (Solich and Callahan), Miami (Coker) and Florida (Zook); once-proud programs like Alabama (Schula) and Notre Dame (Willingham); and consistently mid-pack teams like Clemson (Bowden), Texas A&M (Franchione) and Arkansas (Nutt).

  2. StateFans 11/26/2007 at 2:44 PM #

    ^ These would all provide us obvious answers. I would liken those football programs to our historical basketball program as it relates to past success.

    The Gailey-MOC comparison is particularly interesting to me because of the similarities of the programs in the same conferences, schools and the winless record against a rival.

  3. VaWolf82 11/26/2007 at 3:01 PM #

    The source of all W/L information:

    When I did a GT preview last year, someone pointed out that Chan always wins exactly seven games. That streak was broken last year when he accidently won 9….but he returned to form this year.

    Giving Chan credit for 7 wins this year, he was 44-32 over six years. He was 2-3 in bowl games. (with no losing records)

    MOC was 41-40 and 1-2 in bowl games (two years with losing records)

    It would be interesting to compare conference records, but I don’t know of a site that separates out the conference records. However, I’m pretty sure that Chan will best MOC in nearly any category.

    SFN: Surely the ‘biograpy’ of Gailey on the GT official website has his records.

  4. Pack92 11/26/2007 at 3:08 PM #

    It always seemed to me Gailey was insistent that Reggie Ball was going to be a D1 QB. Reggie was only good at times even when he had Calvin Johnson to throw to (CUlpepper to Moss maybe?). GT should have been able to get a decent QB in after the first year of Reggie Ball. Reggie seemed to have a penchant for turnovers at the wrong time as much as our own Jamie Barnette had while playing for MOC. Barnette also had a CJ -type player in Torry Holt. Plain and simple both coaches failed to get up to or beyond what the previous coach had established and could not beat the main rival. Ineptness will invariably lead to “Bye Bye”.

  5. LRM 11/26/2007 at 3:13 PM #

    2007 (7-5)
    Losses to BC, UVa, VT, MD, Georgia (No FSU or State)

    2006 (9-5)
    Losses to Notre Dame, Clemson, Georgia, Wake, West Virginia (no FSU or BC or WF in regular season)

    2005 (7-5)
    Losses to Virginia Tech, State, Virginia, Georgia, Utah (no FSU)

    2004 (6-5)
    Losses to Carolina, Miami, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Georgia (no FSU)

    2003 (7-6)
    Losses to BYU, FSU, Clemson, Duke, Virginia, Georgia

    2002 (7-6)
    Losses to Clemson, Wake, Maryland, FSU, Georgia, Fresno St

  6. RickJ 11/26/2007 at 3:14 PM #

    VaWolf82 –

    Gailey conference record was 28 – 21. O’Cain’s was 26 – 30.

    This is a bold move by Dan Radakovich.

  7. StateFans 11/26/2007 at 3:16 PM #

    MOC in conference

    Year/Record/Finish
    93 : 4-4 : 5th
    94 : 6-2 : 2nd
    95 – 2-6 : 7th
    96 – 3-5 : 6th
    97 – 3-5 : 6th
    98 – 5-3 : 4th
    99 – 3-5 : 5th

    26-30 overall

  8. RAWFS 11/26/2007 at 3:17 PM #

    Ted Roof would have his job today at 3pm had he recruited a kicker. Just sayin.

    People naturally revolve around QB’s and other skilled positions, but more often than not in football, success is determined by the role players, those guys whose names never make the papers and who only get noticed when they get called for a penalty. Roof and Gailey failed in that regards, even when they had some pretty decent skilled players.

    For a counter-example, see Jim Grobe.

  9. TopTenPack 11/26/2007 at 3:18 PM #

    Congratulations on becoming a focal point of the Wolfpack nation!

    StateFans adds value with a summary of events and useful analysis unlike gopack.com that is gosh awful to look and hard to use.

    I still say you guys should be rewarded for your work. Put Google Ads at the bottom of your template! It will not impact that look and feel of this great site and generate some income for those who put lots of time and money into it.

  10. hoop 11/26/2007 at 3:18 PM #

    It’s a big assumption to state that both coaches inherited good programs. I can’t place a finger on it, but I’ve always had the impression that O’Cain inherited a program in which recruitment hadn’t gone very well the last couple of years. I don’t have any data to back this up but it’s the way I remember it for some reason.

    SFN: It’s the way that you remember it because it was the excuse-making spin of the day. He inherited a program whose recruiting had been good enough for the previous coach to have established us as one of the CLEAR top 3 programs in the league for the previous 5 years. He also inherited a program with enough talent in it to go 9-3 and finish the season ranked #17 in his second year. That was a fantastic base to build off. Instead, the program took a nose dive to two consecutive 3-8 seasons before ‘rebounding’ to get back to around .500

  11. RedTerror29 11/26/2007 at 3:19 PM #

    Perhaps GT thinks they can get PJ? Will they be able to afford him?

    Gailey’s problem was less his insistence that Reggie Ball was a competent D1 QB as the apparent complete lack of talent behind him (see: Taylor Bennett).

  12. LRM 11/26/2007 at 3:19 PM #

    Most of us can recite the games O’Cain lost, but this lists all the games with scores:

    http://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/NorthCarolinaState.htm#1999

  13. Pack92 11/26/2007 at 3:28 PM #

    Was it Godsey that ball replaced at GT? If I remember the name correctly that was a BIG drop in QB performance. But, Ball was “athletic” so without having a Phillip Rivers backup Gailey would have been criticized for pulling him as well.

  14. RickJ 11/26/2007 at 3:41 PM #

    RAWFS –

    Duke has a pretty funny history with field goal kickers. I’m sure you remember Heather Sue Mercer’s stint as a back up kicker for Fred Goldsmith. This one cost the coach a lot of heartache.

    You are probably too young to remember but in the 1970’s Duke’s Coach Mike McGee made the field goal kicker play wide receiver on the scout team against the first team defense. The guy got ticked and quit and he went public with his complaint against the coach. McGee had a great quote that went something like – “kickers are like trolley cars, when one leaves another one comes along”. Of course, the next year Duke’s kicker missed some important kicks that cost Duke a game or two.

  15. tooyoungtoremember 11/26/2007 at 4:33 PM #

    Neither coach could beat their major in-state rival. MOC went 0-7 against UNC, and GT went 0-6 against Georgia. However, I think disparity of success between GT and UGA is much wider than it ever was between State and UNC. GT fans are sitting at home watching every year as UGA plays in SEC championships, BCS bowls, and are a mainstay in the top 25 rankings.

  16. Texpack 11/26/2007 at 4:36 PM #

    Conference results for Chan Gailey/GT
    2007 4-4
    2006 7-1
    2005 5-3
    2004 4-4
    2003 4-4
    2002 4-4

  17. LRM 11/26/2007 at 4:53 PM #

    I’d venture to say, with the lower-tier bowl appearances and middle-of-the-pack finishes, Gailey more closely compares to Chuck than O’Cain, while being unable to beat his rival would obviously be O’Cain.

    Gailey won a division title and never posted a losing record in either the ACC or overall. Like Chuck, he played in one major bowl (O’Cain’s was the Peach), but otherwise Gailey couldn’t rise above the lower-tier bowls, which in part could be attributed to poor travel by the fanbase, perhaps: ’02 Silicon Valley (L, Fresno St), ’03 Humanitarian (W, Tulsa), ’04 Champs Sports (W, Syracuse), ’05 Emerald (L, Utah), ’06 Gator (L, WV).

  18. packbackr04 11/26/2007 at 5:18 PM #

    regarding the # of hits this site has been getting. i bet sid reads here. it seems like alot of the critism and requests after the UNO loss were heard. i know sid and staff know more about bball than me and every other joe smoe on this site and dont need our advise, but it doesn hurt for someone like sid to take a step back and see what some other people(people who are just as passionate about NCSU as him) have to say. i know in my work you can defintily get a little tunnel vision, trying so hard to make something work (ie. jj eating up ALL of Mccauleys minutes) when waht you really need to do is slow down and see whats worked and what hasnt. Sid really came back after taht game and all the critisms he was deservedly recieving following that loss. we have a LONG way to go, but we are improving. Sid just seems like he gets it, and it would not surprise me if he reads here. i mean, we are his customers. paying customers/season ticketholders… i wish my customers had a place like this where i could get a feel for what they thought of the job i am doing for them. it really seems silly that people like Fowler are so averse to these sites. its almost like cheating. if i could get a feel for the pulse of my clients like Sid, TOB, etc i would be doing everything in my power to give the people what they want. anyway, just my 2 cents

  19. Packster 11/26/2007 at 8:14 PM #

    I think it is more likely that is explained by the fact that there is a lot of basketball expertise here. Sound ideas about our problems and good solutions to them are often put forth….it is just conincedence that Lowe is thinking along the same lines. He is paid to do that. With that said….I still wouldn’t be surprised if he is reading up.

  20. WolftownVA81 11/26/2007 at 11:56 PM #

    Congrats StateFans. I really appreciate what you do. With limited time for reading up on NCSU sports, it’s great to have a single stop with accurate info (or at least intelligent speculation.) Keep up the good work.

  21. TampaPack 11/27/2007 at 6:41 AM #

    SFN – This isn’t the best place to publish this, but I did a recap of all the fall sports now that the seasons have ended for all of the teams. My interest was peaked by your previous entries on this subject. Needless to say it isn’t pretty…

    http://thestateofthepack.blogspot.com/2007/11/fall-sports-recap.html

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