Football Stat of the Day

'10 Football Fans Stat of the Day Tom O'Brien18

The CAPITAL SPORTS REPORT blog is becoming a nice source of information and commentary that I enjoy. You can click here for their Twitter page.

In this link, the blog takes a quick look at the statistically historical nature of the 2010 NC State football season. I also was appreciative of the respect the author has for NC State fans and our support and love for the Wolfpack.

N.C. State enters benchmark year under O’Brien

N.C. State hasn’t had five straight losing seasons since 1956, when coach Earle Edwards’ team finished 3-7 overall. That year marked State’s sixth straight losing season before Edwards turned the program around and embarked on a long, and overall successful, career.

That history is a reason why the Wolfpack is entering an important season this fall. State fans have poured time and money into this program, and to see all that net four straight losing seasons is hard to fathom. It’s true that coach Tom O’Brien has had tremendous bad luck with injuries; it’s also true that he is entering his fourth season, and injuries are part of the game.

“You have to win. That shows progress,” O’Brien said in an Associated Press story. “That’s what we haven’t been able to do. … We’ve got to go on and have a winning season and go to a bowl game.”

Say what you want about State fans, but they are amazingly loyal to their program. In this region, only South Carolina football fans have given more – and often received less – than Wolfpack fans. State averaged 56,422 fans for eight home games last year, which is an amazing number for a 5-7 team.

But at some point, as O’Brien understands, you have to win. O’Brien is a smart, tough coach who wants to win and do it the right way. The chaotic ways of the Chuck Amato era have disappeared, but the winning seasons haven’t returned.

The Wolfpack is four seasons into O’Brien’s tenure and still doesn’t project as an upper-half ACC team. This schedule, with Central Florida, Cincinnati and East Carolina among non-conference games, is not easy. Another losing season would be difficult to accept, and certainly make the new chancellor and new athletics director take a long look at how to fix it.

State fans deserve a winner. This season is an important barometer of whether Tom O’Brien can deliver one in West Raleigh.

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'10 Football Fans Stat of the Day Tom O'Brien

18 Responses to Football Stat of the Day

  1. Bowlpack 08/16/2010 at 10:21 AM #

    I concur, we do deserve a better on-field product. That said, I’m cautiously optimistic about the upcoming season. I think we’ll be better in the secondary as they will be more seasoned. Although, the loss of Smith and Byrd is tough. In addition, our linebackers have another year under their belts and the addition of Tenuta as well as the return of #56 will only bolster their capabilities.

    I think the bigger questions surround the D-Line and the O-Line. We know that games are won and lost in the trenches. The O-Line is young, but hopefully they can gel as a unit this preseason. My major concern is that O’Brien has stated that Mattes is the key to their success. If he isn’t able to return until the 4th game then is O’Brien pre-excusing any shortcomings in that area?

    In regard to the D-line, I’m just not sure what to expect. Hopefully, Lemon will be a nice fill and Sweezy will continue to improve while not succumbing to any more off-the-field issues.

  2. triadwolf 08/16/2010 at 11:13 AM #

    I have little doubt we’ll be better this year – Hell, we can’t go anywhere but up on defense. Unfortunately I don’t think it will translate into more wins; we have one of the worst schedules possible for a below average to average team to make a move.

    Come Nov./Dec. our new administration will have to make their first tough coaching decision.

  3. StateFans 08/16/2010 at 11:37 AM #

    I think back to where I *thought* we were after the big win over Pitt last year (3-1 record, I believe) and struggle with figuring out how we got here!

  4. Bowlpack 08/16/2010 at 11:41 AM #

    I think by game 5 of last year, everyone had enough game film to realize that all you had to do was throw it deep and trade punches with our offense.

  5. choppack1 08/16/2010 at 12:45 PM #

    Yea – it is very easy to forget that we started w/ a 3-1 record – and were leading Wake Forest 7-0. We had a chance to go up 14 and 3 and couldn’t convert. We had a chance to win that game late as we drove deep into Deacon territory and didn’t do it.

    We had a chance to stop Wake w/ enough time for another drive – another FAIL.

    I blame the Wake game on the players. (I blamed the USC loss on the staff…I blame the Duke game mainly on the coaches)…The BC game was the absolute lowpoint of the season – in terms of everything.

    One thing I’d really like to see is an to the October swoon’s we’ve had since TOB has arrived. He’s actually been below average in September – and pretty damn good in November…but by and large our Octobers have been horrendous. You’d think that since this is totally “his” team – he’d have the collective syche of the team mentally prepared to put in solid effort so that we can have a decent season.

  6. Prowling Woofie 08/16/2010 at 12:51 PM #

    State needs the WR’s to work hard on blocking this year… prima-donna receivers who won’t throw a block and seal the corners for the RB’s aren’t worth their scholarships.

    If a DB/LB is worried about getting tattooed by a WR coming at him, he’s less likely to do an effective job of staying with him when he jukes and breaks upfield.

    The key to sustained drives is downfield blocking, and that has to start with the receivers !

  7. bradleyb123 08/16/2010 at 1:00 PM #

    I’m not sure we’ll “get back” to where we were last year in terms of defense. Our defense will be different (IMO), for better or for worse. I don’t think it will compare with last year. With Tenuta, we’re probably going to blitz like crazy. Not sure if that will help or hinder our defensive progress. Hopefully, it will help take some pressure off the secondary, and hopefully the secondary will be a little better anyway, since they’re a year older and have had time to analyze what happened last year, and learn from it.

  8. StateFans 08/16/2010 at 1:01 PM #

    Agree with choppack — The Wake game was crushing. The questionable ‘taunting’ penalty on Sweezy was awful (IMHO). Really should have won that one.

  9. packbackr04 08/16/2010 at 1:22 PM #

    werent we 3-1 with 2 wins coming over 1-AA teams? so effectively, we were 2-1 (in my mind anyway)

  10. choppack1 08/16/2010 at 1:49 PM #

    SFN – It’s funny you mentioned that – when I was thinking of that Wake I thought of that penalty after the QB pressure/sack – I can’t exactly remember which…still – in spite of that penalty, the mistakes in the 4th quarter – the INT, the missed tackles – were our own.

    On a side note, I think we’re all glad that the conference apparently decided to de-emphasize the emphasis on the taunting call as was evident when Little and Yates did their taunting in their game vs. us.

    Packbackr04 – just going 1-1 against USC and Pitt is pretty solid – and shows that you have either sufficient coaching and/or talent to do pretty well in a BCS conference not called the SEC.

    Regardless, we had positioned ourselves very well after that Pitt game (and in the 1st quarter of the Wake game) to have the kind of season all Wolfpack fans expected. But football’s a huge momentum sport for 75% of the schools out there…and the difference between 3-9 and 9-3 can be a few good breaks early in the year.

    If there’s a silver lining to these first 3 years, it’s that the team hasn’t quit after they’ve blown a shot at those special seasons.

  11. PackisRolling 08/16/2010 at 1:57 PM #

    the Duke game was the clear lowpoint IMO. With all due respect to a much better Duke program…if you’re TOB you just don’t let that happen.

  12. choppack1 08/16/2010 at 2:21 PM #

    Sorry PackisRolling…as bad as Duke was – and it was bad, the BC game took the game.

    Duke always plays us tough – and that game was more of a result of Archer staying in a traditional 4-3 for almost the entire half (I have no idea why!) AND a botched punt late in the game.

    If you’ve watched a lot of football for a lot of time, games like the Duke game happen when a game is close – a couple mental mistakes make the difference. The BC game was an example of what happens when a team totally quits.

    I can deal w/ a loss to a team after a couple of bad breaks. It’s going to happen…no excuse whatsoever for what happened at BC – games like that are inexcusable.

  13. rtpack24 08/16/2010 at 3:01 PM #

    Last year several things that never were corrected by the coaching staff, poor defense, bad special teams, and clock management on more than one occassion in multible games. Maybe this year we turn it around. One would have to think O’Brien is in a must produce situation.

  14. PackisRolling 08/16/2010 at 3:42 PM #

    chop…to refresh my memory i went and read recaps of Duke and BC games and I stand behind my opinion 🙂

    Taken independently perhaps BC was worse, but after you get s***-canned by Duke (FREAKIN DUKE?!?!) on your home field 49-28, you assume your team sucks and is capable of losing to everyone else. Losing to BC was just another data point to prove an already-uncovered trend.

    damn i hate us

  15. choppack1 08/16/2010 at 3:55 PM #

    PackisRolling – I understand why you feel that way.

    But to me, in the Duke – the effort was there. As I stated before, for whatever reason, we remained with 3 LBs instead of bringing in our nickel back for all but the first half. Then we may have even started the second half w/ the 3 LBs again.

    In that game, we did pretty good vs. the run. This is a sign, that yes, your guys are at least trying even if they are screwing up. We were down by 7 w/ like 6 or 7 minutes left in the game and they were punting to us. We fumbled the punt (and had another TO) to provide the final margin.

    BC put up like 200 plus yards on us on the ground. We were never in that game – and IMHO, the effort was an horrid. Vs. Duke, the result was horrid, but I think the effort was there for the most part (until the last few minutes.)

  16. john of sparta 08/16/2010 at 8:58 PM #

    after
    Duke we
    were done.
    beat UNC?
    wheeeeee.

  17. bTHEredterror 08/16/2010 at 9:38 PM #

    As frustrating as the Duke game was, it was a bonehead loss. The BC loss was a quitter’s loss, the unacceptable kind.

  18. 61Packer 08/16/2010 at 11:35 PM #

    How can it possibly get any lower than a 49-28 home loss to DUKE?

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