Don’t Look Ethel

'08 Football General65

When I say that the title was the concluding sentence of a State football preview, I’m sure that some of our younger readers will be left scratching their heads. But before we get to that, here’s how I got to that line:

My first exposure to techsideline.com came in 2004 after State beat VT in B’burg. A co-worker printed out their review of State’s 10-sack performance and gave it to me. I was impressed with the level of detail that was put into analyzing what had to be a frustrating defeat for Hokie fans. Each sack was broken down by number of blitzers and time to sack. The “blame” for the sack was then given to Randall or the OL based on how much time each sack took. (The other thing that I find interesting about TSL is that they are a pay-site that is not connected with the University, Rivals, or Scout.)

So with such a positive first impression, I took the time to read their short preview of NC State. Here are a few of the more choice lines:

Tom O’Brien is entering his second year at NC State. He did a very good job in his first year, coming within one game of getting the Wolfpack to a bowl game. He did that despite having quarterbacks that threw the ball to the other team a lot more than they did to their own receivers….

Despite having three good runners, yards will probably be hard to come by. NC State has major weaknesses at pretty much every other position on offense. Their quarterbacks aren’t good, the offensive line isn’t particularly talented, and they lost both of their starting wide receivers from last year’s team…

…2008 will most likely be a don’t-look-Ethel kind of season.

It was interesting that I read that preview a minutes after reading an article from yahoo titled “Six Packs: 6 Teams Destined to Disappoint”

Look who we see at #3:

3) VIRGINIA TECH—Coach Frank Beamer’s Hokies have earned the respect they get in the preseason, but if you put a different name on this team’s resume, it probably wouldn’t be favored to reach the ACC title game. Tech returns only 10 starters and said goodbye to its leading rusher and four top pass catchers from last year. There are no obvious replacements. The top three tacklers on defense? Also gone. In fact most of last year’s typical tough D will be playing on Sundays this season. Rebuilding year, anyone?

The difference in these two reviews highlight my biggest complaint about most pre-season previews…losing a starter doesn’t necessarily mean that a team is going to stink at that position. It does mean that it is a major question mark for the next season. Every year, kids step up and perform beyond what was expected. Every year, some returning star gets hurt and misses the season or has some nagging injury that limits his performance. College football is as much about having quality depth as it is about having stars.

Bottom line: It takes alot of work to do a meaningful preseason review of a single team and even more to do an assessment of the whole conference. Anytime I see a preview without that type of work put into it, I rarely take the time to finish reading it. Even if you disagree with TSLs projection for State, at least they took the time to gather up some real facts about the team before drawing a conclusion….and VT doesn’t even play State this year. Don’t you wish national media outlets put as much effort into their articles?

VT fans should obviously be worried about the rotating QB situation and how that will affect those two young men. They should be worried about running back, since a crippled Brandon Ore was their best option last year. But until proven otherwise, I wouldn’t worry about Bud Foster’s defense until some weakness has been shown on the field. Given the pitiful state of offenses in the ACC, VT could easily be “down” on defense and still have enough to compete for the ACC title game. Even if they don’t make the title game, I find it doubtful that their season will be so bad as to qualify as disappointing.

Unfortunately for State fans, most of the negative comments about the upcoming season are based on the play of the returning starters. The question marks on new players simply compounds what is already a pretty bleak outlook. If you still want more, then I always like reading the team reviews from College Football News. I don’t remember CFN being associated with Scout last year, but it still has more facts (usually with a few errors) and less opinion than many of the other pre-season articles that you will find.

Putting as much positive spin as possible, CFN defines a successful season for State by:

The season will be a success if … the Pack reaches .500. There are no delusions of grandeur here, as NC State attempts to create momentum under O’Brien and his staff. A bowl game would be fantastic, but not the only measure of success for the program. If the Pack can improve on last year while being more competitive against the ACC’s better schools, it’ll qualify as something to build on for 2009.

EDIT

I almost forgot…..for anyone that missed the significance of the title….Google “The Streak”.

About VaWolf82

Engineer living in Central Va. and senior curmudgeon amongst SFN authors One wife, two kids, one dog, four vehicles on insurance, and four phones on cell plan...looking forward to empty nest status. Graduated 1982

'08 Football General

65 Responses to Don’t Look Ethel

  1. Dr. BadgerPack 08/12/2008 at 5:09 PM #

    Ismael- I’ll correct that for you.

    Derek Jeter WAS awesome.

    Saying he is overrated is not the same as saying he is a bad player either. He was a great hitter, and above average shortstop for the Yankees for a decade. For several seasons he wasn’t even the best shortstop on his own team though (see Rodriguez, Alex). But, not being as good as A-Rod is still not much of a knock.

    It has been argued Jeter is the greatest Yankee of all time. That his catch falling into the stands (well after he’d caught the darn ball) was one of the greatest catches ever. Overrated. Doesn’t mean he was bad though (although this year, the numbers are not too pretty, other than All-Star starting SS).

  2. BJD95 08/12/2008 at 6:23 PM #

    All of the defensive range metrics rate Jeter as a well below-average SS, for the last several years. If not for the collective hissy fit it would have set off, the Yankees would have moved Jeter to 2B when ARod signed, and played Cano at 3B (which I believe was his natural position).

    But I’m glad they didn’t, since like most good Southern folk, I absolutely despise the Yankees.

  3. Dr. BadgerPack 08/12/2008 at 7:07 PM #

    ^Ditto not liking the Yankees.

    And as an NL fan, their fans can keep right on voting Jeter into the AS game too for all I care.

  4. choppack1 08/12/2008 at 9:48 PM #

    packfanistan – good point about that snap.

  5. VaWolf82 08/13/2008 at 6:13 AM #

    The difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that an optimist is never pleasantly surprised.

    So true. This is a corollary to George Will’s line:

    The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.

  6. Noah 08/13/2008 at 8:25 AM #

    It has been argued Jeter is the greatest Yankee of all time.

    By who?? I’m a Braves and Red Sox fan, so I hate the Yankees as much as I hate UNX…but what idiot glue-sniffing moron actually postulated that Jeter was better than:

    Gehrig, Ruth, Dimaggio, or Mantle? And that’s just the OBVIOUS choices for “best Yankee” (which is like asking, “What is the best kidney stone?”).

    Jeter could probably hold down a spot on the all-time Yankees team at shortstop. He’s ahead of Scooter and that’s the one spot where the Yankees have lacked stars. They’ve always had grinders like Tony Kubek and Gil Macdougal.

    I’d probably rank Jeter alongside guys like Dave Winfield and Reggie Jackson and maybe Ricky Henderson. HOFers, no doubt, but in that second group of all-time greats. They weren’t position-defining players.

  7. ChiefJoJo 08/13/2008 at 9:05 AM #

    Back to FB…
    *QB race down to three: Evans, Wilson, Glennon
    *Toney Baker (knee) and Clem Johnson (JuCo S-broken jaw) are out indefinitely.

    TOB said Johnson was a potential starter, and we are very thin at S… but at least he can redshirt. I hope that maybe Baker can still play later in the year, plus he still has next year. JE and AB will have to hold down the RB position.

  8. Dr. BadgerPack 08/13/2008 at 10:08 AM #

    Noah- Aside from delusional message board posters, the question has been raised by the Einstein that is Joe Morgan, and I believe the equally brilliant Buck…

    What, you ask, do they base this on? Base-friggin-hits. And intangibles. (Like Jeter getting lucky against Oakland, for example, and lucking into an assist at the plate being COMPLETELY OUT OF POSITION.

  9. Noah 08/13/2008 at 12:52 PM #

    Not the senior Buck?

    Jeter is a fine player, probably a first-ballot HOFer. But best yankee ever?

    That would be like suggesting that Wade Boggs was the best Bosox hitter ever. Or that Clemens was the best pitcher in their history.

  10. BJD95 08/13/2008 at 4:25 PM #

    Know what would be a fun exercise? Trying to explain the BABIP concept to Joe Morgan and/or Tim McCarver.

    I seriously have to mute the damned TV on the rare occasions that I watch baseball. I still FOLLOW it pretty obsessively, but the morons calling games and the idiotic way the sport is televised make it almost unwatchable.

    All you have to know is that Raleigh is considered in the home broadcast territory of the O’s and Nats. Have you EVER met an O’s or Nats fan locally?

  11. Noah 08/13/2008 at 6:01 PM #

    Sure would be nice if we could GET those O’s and Nats games, considering that we’re blocked out from getting them online.

    Thanks TWC. I’ve said repeatedly that if anyone ever came into the Triangle and offered TRUE high speed internet service, TWC would evaporate in about a week. You’d use your cell phone, you’d get a satellite dish and you’d use the alternate high speed internet choice. No one would ever buy one of their (excrement) products.

  12. BJD95 08/13/2008 at 6:20 PM #

    Of course, if TWC was allowed to offer the baseball package people actually WANT (Braves), they would be able to work out a deal and probably would make as a standard offering. You know, cause people wouldn’t mind paying for it.

  13. Noah 08/14/2008 at 7:54 AM #

    I’m not sure if TWC has a choice on such a package. The MLB divisions of the country and many of its rules are based on regulations that were put together in the 1950s.

  14. BJD95 08/14/2008 at 8:34 AM #

    ^ Right, I know that they don’t have any choice. I’m just saying that those rules are stupid, and good evidence of how baseball is run by idiots who don’t know how to properly promote their sport.

  15. Noah 08/14/2008 at 9:42 AM #

    Those rules are stupid, but undoing them would be more harmful for television. The networks got a sweetheart deal when they divided up the country into teams and regions and re-ordering things would result in a much worse deal.

    That’s what I was told by the TV people, anyway.

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