I am often impressed with the knowledge that a lot of Wolfpack fans have concerning the personnel on the football team. Unfortunately, I don’t have nearly as good of an understanding of the football program as some of our other writers, so it only made sense to break the manning down a little bit. Here are some highlights to your 2011 Wolfpack football team.
(You may want to check out our previous articles, by StateFans, on the release of the 2011 Organizational Chart and the team captains.)
–CAPTAINS–
All home-grown captains this year.
George Bryan (TE) – RS Senior – 6’5″ 265lb
From Castle Hayne, NC, Bryan was elected second-team All-American by Lundy’s and first-team All-conference for the 2011 season. He finished last season with 3 touchdowns, 35 receptions, and an impressive 369 yards. Over his career at NC State, he has had a total of 93 receptions, tacted on 992 yards, and scored 13 touchdowns. Bryan has been a game-changer since suiting up, scoring 4 touchdowns in his 2008 season. Regardless of who is feeding you your passes, you don’t post those kinds of numbers without having ‘horses under the hood’.
JR Sweezy (DT) - RS Senior – 6’5″ 293lb
Sweezy is listed as a Lundy’s pre-season All-Choice player and hails from Moorseville, NC. He has earned 63 tackles at NC State, 18 for a loss of 77 yards. Sweezy quickly became a personal favorite of mine last season after he surprised everyone by posting huge tackles for loss against Clemson (4 for 21), UNC (2 for 12), and Maryland (4 for 11). He began suiting up in 2008 and played for one snap against South Carolina (I don’t want to talk about it) and briefly against William & Mary.
–STARTERS–
Some players from last season really stood out to earn their starting positions (JR Sweezy comes to mind). Below is a list of our starters. Return players from last year’s Org Chart are in bold.
| DEFENSE | OFFENSE | SPECIAL TEAMS |
| – David Amerson (CB) | – Camden Wentz (C) | – Wil Baumann (P) |
| – Jarvis Byrd (CB)** | – Taylor Gentry (FB) | – Niklas Sade (PK) |
| – McKay Frandsen (DE) | – James Washington (HB) | – Scott Thompson (LS) |
| – Jeff Rieskamp (DE) | – Zach Allen (OG) | – TJ Graham (KOR & PR) |
| – Markus Kuhn (DT) | – Duran Christophe (OG) | Â |
| – JR Sweezy (DT) | – RJ Mattes (OG/OT) | Â |
| – Audie Cole (LB) | – Mikel Overgaard (OT) | Â |
| – DJ Green (LB) | – Mike Glennon (QB) | Â |
| – Terrell Manning (LB) | – Georgie Bryan (TE) | Â |
| – Brandan Bishop (S) | – TJ Graham (WR) | Â |
| – Earl Wolff (S) | – Jay Smith (WR) | Â |
| *Players Returning from Last Year’s Org Chart are in BOLD | ||
On Defense. The defense sees about a 50/50 return in the starting positions from last year’s starters and second-stringers, most notably Audie Cole (LB) and Terrell Manning (LB). What to watch for? ‘Who becomes the emotional leader on the field’, of course. With Nate Irving leaving the Pack for Denver (Congrats, big guy… never seen another player who deserved a good future so much), there is a hole there. They are big shoes to fill, but between Manning’s 11 tackles for loss totalling 50 yards and Cole’s 10 tackles for a loss totaling 31 yards, and their combined total of 200 tackles last season, Tenuta should have plenty to work with.
Of those who are starting, but not returners, CB might be of some concern. Jarvis Byrd is a bit of an unknown due to a torn ACL last season. David Amerson is regarded as a real diamond in the rough, starting in challenging games like FSU and WVU last season, but is still young. (**UPDATE: Also note that Byrd was reported as having torn his ACL, again, on July 25th, removing him from the roster for the 2011 season.)
Simply because it’s of interest, I wanted to say something about the secondary. Last season, the secondary began locking down the backfield with, IMHO, unmistakable assistance from Tenuta’s aggressive use of line backers. None-the-less, Bishop tacked on 4 interceptions. What’s even more positive than actually getting some interceptions is gaining the big return off the turnover. Bishop is pretty consistently returning interceptions for at least 15 yards. Not only is he forcing the turn-over, but he’s also moving the ball down the field. Earl Wolff has also shown promise. As a safety, he had 91 tackles, 1 interception, and 2 QB pressures. Of the non-starters, Dean Haynes, a former defensive back, started eight games last season and scored 3 touchdowns before getting injured last season. There is a “wild card” factor about him due to injuries and playing a new position, but for those who aren’t familiar with manning, WR to S isn’t that unusual of a switch. Dontae Johnson, also a second-stringer at safety, played in almost every game last season, earning 27 tackles.
On Offense. Most of our starters in 2011 will be veteran starters or second-stringers from last season.  I know that’s sort of what you would expect from year-to-year, the fact that 9 of 11 starters on offense are returning from last year’s org chart is a comforting sight to see, especially after the loss of offensive staple Russell Wilson. Even those not listed as returning from last year’s Org Chart proved their worth last season.Â
RJ Mattes actually was originally a starter last season, but due to a training-camp injury was taken out for the first game. He started the last 10 games in 2010 and is beginning the 2011 season as a Lundy’s pre-season All-ACC choice second-teamer. Jay Smith also missed the season opener with an injury, but bounced back to start against Clemson. He averaged a little over 10 yards per carry in 2010. (UPDATE: While we are talking about injuries, I’ll add that Mustafa Greene is suppose to return to the line-up October 1. We’ll see.)
–PLAYER ORIGINS–
It’s always interesting to see where our talent comes from. If nothing else, it tells us where we are tapping talent from (and it gives those fans who feast on the recruiting season something to talk about).
All-in-all, about 40% of NC State’s starters and second-stringers are coming from North Carolina (a little more than 40% on Offense and little less than 40% on Defense). Just incase anyone wondered if any influences of Amato were still swinging around Raleigh, only about 5% of the team hails from Florida. Other than NC, the only other significant trend that can be seen is a little less than 15% of the starters and second-stringers coming from Georgia and another 15% coming from the Northeast (PA, NJ, NY, and Mass).Â
Obviously with “that other school” imploding, Tom O’Brien will pretty much have free reign over the state of North Carolina for at least a few years, barring some sort of rise in the East Carolina program or some more NCState_Shit happening, resulting in the rise of one of our other in-state rivals. Should he branch out of state boards? If he is able to take a mostly home-grown team and start competing for ACC titles, then you almost have to say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
–MY TAKE ON THE BUILDING OF A TEAM–
It kind of seems like you have the makings of a solid, all-around team. What you don’t want to happen is build a team up every few years, have one good season, then spend the next several years building back up. That will get you some notariety, but not true “success” as a football program. Similar to how it is explained on this blog over and over again… it’s all about branding. I’ve been pretty rough on TOB (and I still want to see the results keep trickling in), but it appears that what we have is some consistency from year-to-year. Last season it seemed damning to lose a player as talented as Russell Wilson or an emotional leader as pivotal as Nate Irving. However, with a strong across-the-board, veteran squad, the effects of those losses can be minimized on the field.
This season, we will have underclassmen in almost 40% of our starting and second-stringers. Moving from the point that we already have a somewhat experienced team moving in from last season, and we still have a lot of time with 40% of the team, what this tells us is that there is longevity to Tom O’Brien’s plans for NC State. That’s something that I’m not sure could be said for NC State in the past two decades, or at least since Sheridan was here.
Keep an eye on our comments section, below. Our readers usually have some outstanding input and insite into what’s going on in and outside of practice.
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