Today’s 34-0 loss to Florida State was the 3rd time NC State has been shutout under Tom O’Brien. State was also shutout in back-to-back games, the opening game of the 2008 season 34-0 to South Carolina and the season finale in 2007 was a 37-0 loss to Maryland. I’m sure you’ve noticed that all 3 of those games were blowouts as well. So here’s some quick and dirty numbers I threw together between plays of the 1st half of the West Virginia/Rutgers game.
Shutouts
Let’s take a look at the history of State being held scoreless. As mentioned above, under O’Brien this is the 3rd shutout in 58 total games over 5 years. Another way to look at it is that under O’Brien, State has been shutout once every 19.3 games.
In the previous 21 seasons under Dick Sheridan, Mike O’Cain and Chuck Amato, State was shutout 4 times in a total of 251 games, or once every 62.8 games. That means TOB has 1 less shutout than the previous 3 head coaches combined.
Dick Sheridan was shutout 3 times (34-0 to Pitt and 48-0 to South Carolina in 1987 and 31-0 to Virginia in 1990) in a total of 84 games, or once every 28.0 games.
Mike O’Cain was shutout 1 time (14-0 to Baylor in 1995) in 86 games.
Chuck Amato was never shutout in 81 games.
From the 1995 Baylor game to the 2007 Maryland game, NC State went 145 straight games without being shutout.
Blowouts
Let’s also take a look at blowout losses. There is no set definition of a blowout so I will call anything over 2 scores (16 points) a blowout.
Tom O’Brien has 15 blowout losses in 58 games, 1 every 3.9 games.
In the previous 21 seasons, there were 39 blowout losses in 251 games, 1 every 6.4 games.
Chuck Amato had 4 blowout losses in 81 games, 1 every 20.3 games.
Mike O’Cain had 21 blowout losses in 86 games, 1 every 4.1 games.
Dick Sheridan had 14 blowout losses in 84 games, 1 every 6.0 games.
If it felt to you like State has been shutout and blown out more under TOB than the previous 3 head coaches, it would appear that your instincts would be correct.
