October 28, 2011
UNC FALLOUT
KEN TYSIAC (N&O)
NCAA to hear UNC’s defense today
Baddour will be one of six representatives of UNC at the hearing, where the committee members are judge and jury.
“Mostly everyone asks good, probing questions,” said Michael Buckner, a lawyer who represents schools under NCAA investigation. (He is not associated with the UNC case.) “There are times in which, if they don’t agree with your position, you will definitely know through their tone and through their questions.”
“We’ve been thorough,” Baddour said. “We’ve been complete. We’ve gone where the information took us, and we’ve been extremely cooperative. In our assessment … of our self-imposed sanctions and our commitment to be better, we’ve been very thoughtful and deliberate.”
One of Baddour’s last responsibilities in his 45-year career at UNC will be to present the school in the most favorable light possible in a place he hoped he never would have to visit.
“Since the discovery of this,” Baddour said, “I feel like we have been putting our best foot forward.”
LUKE DECOCK (N&O)
Nothing to see here
All of today’s drama is behind closed doors, like the old political conventions where the arena action was for show and all the real decisions were made in the fabled smoke-filled rooms.
The only smoke today will be that being blown by former Tar Heels associate head coach John Blake as he pleads his case to the NCAA that he was guilty only of poor financial planning.
Blake is right that he may be North Carolina’s sacrificial ram as it attempts to mitigate whatever penalties the NCAA might be inclined to apply, but at the very minimum he is accused of taking money from an agent while working as a college football coach and failing to cooperate with the NCAA investigation. No amount of smoke and mirrors can distract from those charges.
North Carolina may have a similar problem, given the scope and breadth of the nine major violations, if the NCAA’s attack-dog approach to former player Michael McAdoo’s lawsuit is any indication. A lawyer for the NCAA repeatedly called McAdoo a “cheater” in an open court hearing even though his plagiarism wasn’t the issue at hand, which makes you wonder what’s going to be said in private today.
Erin Hartness (WRALSportsfan.com)
UNC, Blake set for closed door hearing with NCAA
Robert Orr, former state Supreme Court Justice and current head of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law said that this, and all NCAA hearings, should be made open.
“I think that the public has an absolute right to know and a need to know exactly everything that’s going on in this particular hearing and in the process,” Orr said. “There is a real need for monitoring how the system works, but the NCAA wants to keep it a secret, and I think to a certain extent, the universities are willing to go along with it, that way they are literally not accountable to the public for the process.”
In addition to Thorp and Baddour attending Friday, Amy Herman, of the school’s compliance department; Lissa Broome, who is the faculty athletics representative; and Vice Chancellor and General Counsel Leslie Strohm will represent UNC.
Noticeably absent are the student-athletes involved.
Orr said he has spoken with four players who are afraid they aren’t being heard. He said that the lack of the student-athlete representation, and the fact that the meeting is behind closed doors, gives many players the impression that the school is not standing up for them.
“A number of them feel that the initial determination that there was a violation was wrong, was unfair to them,†Orr said. “They’ve never had an opportunity to make their case, and they certainly will not have an opportunity now by being closed out of this hearing.”
The NCAA argues that interviews conducted on UNC’s Chapel Hill campus during the investigation in the summer of 2010 were the time for the players to make their case and they have already been heard.
“Any involved student-athlete has already had their case resolved before the committee on infractions hears the infractions case involving the institution,†Hosty said.
NC STATE FOOTBALL
Brett Friedlander (starnewsonline.com)
Wolfpack’s O’Brien has his sights set high for defensive star Amerson
N.C. State cornerback David Amerson leads the nation with eight interceptions, three more than any other player in the FBS. He’s already tied a school record that has been on the books for 73 years and, earlier this week, he was added to the watch list for the Chuck Bednarik Award symbolic of the nation’s top defensive player.
But as much as Amerson has already accomplished this season, his coach thinks he’s capable of a lot more.
Including a run at the ACC mark for picks in a season, held by North Carolina’s Dre Bly.
“When you look at eight interceptions in seven games, it’s a pretty big accomplishment, especially for this school since nobody has done it here since1938,†Tom O’Brien said Wednesday on the ACC’s weekly coaches conference call. “That’s a pretty good record to have right now. Hopefully he can get three more and get up to where Dre Bly was in ’96 with11.â€
Associated Press
Seminoles Need To Contain ‘Pack’s Glennon & Graham
North Carolina State’s G-men could be a problem for Florida State this weekend when the two schools renew what has been a fairly wild rivalry in recent years.
Quarterback Mike Glennon and receiver T.J. Graham will be testing a Florida State secondary Saturday that has had its share of problems stopping big plays this season.
The Seminoles (4-3, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) and Wolfpack (4-3, 1-2 ACC) have split their last 10 games and have combined to average nearly 65 points in the last seven contests in Tallahassee.
“The ball jumps out of his hand,†Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said of Glennon. “Big, physical, can take punishment. Good instincts for the game.
Fisher likes big quarterbacks; he’s got one in 6-5, 240-pound EJ Manuel. It’s part of the reason he also tried to recruit the 6-6, 225-pound Glennon.
Akula Wolf (BackingthePack.com)
Talking Florida State With Tomahawk Nation
1.) How’s the mood among Florida State fans right now? Is there a sense that this team has failed to live up to expectations, or perhaps more realistically, a sense that the Noles just ran into a couple of very good teams and then got Grobed? (Which happens to the best of us eventually. Or every other year. Ahem.)
I think more and more ‘Noles fans are starting to see that this 2011 team is a very good one that has faced an insane number of injuries and was the victim of idiotic scheduling, some of which was its own doing. Oklahoma is an excellent team and FSU played a fantastic game against the Sooners, especially on defense. EJ Manuel was out for the second half after injuring his shoulder and went on to miss the Clemson game, as well as the first half of the Wake Forest debacle. Injuries to the offensive line, wide receivers, backfield, defensive backfield, and to a starting defensive tackle haven’t helped matters. The Clemson result was a disappointment because of the defensive effort, which could not keep pace with its offense, a unit that was performing way above its head with a freshman QB at the helm in his first ever college start. The Seminoles did get Grobe’d the following week, to an extent, but most fans were angry with the apparent lack of quality preparation before the match-up in Winston-Salem. The fanbase went into a predictable and justifiable meltdown the following week, and Jimbo Fisher had to answer some tough questions.
It should be pointed out that the scheduling of Oklahoma and Clemson in back-to-back weeks was both unlucky and foolish. Florida State does not need to schedule Oklahoma in the first place, as it already plays Florida each year. The ACC should not schedule its primary Atlantic Division showcase on a week that followed FSU playing Oklahoma and Clemson playing Auburn. It doesn’t help your teams represent the conference to the best of their ability in these out of conference match-ups and it doesn’t showcase your product to the best of its ability. But, we fans are trying to move past this bitterness, however slowly the process may go.Florida State has since righted the ship to a degree, though against inferior competition. The defense is the strength of the team and has appeared to be in the last few games, but needs to continue their dominance on Saturday. EJ Manuel has been able to settle into the role that Fisher envisioned for him at the outset of the season. This previously was not the case because it involves significant use of his legs in the option game, and Jimbo was loath to allow him to be hit during the first two games of the season against the token cupcakes. Then, Manuel was injured against Oklahoma. His return against Wake saw him limited in the run game, but his legs have become a factor again over the past two weeks.
DKfromVA (Tomahawknation.com)
Opponent Blogger Q&A: Backing The Pack
TN: The two most visible areas of struggle that have plagued the Wolfpack this season, from an outsider’s perspective, have been the running game and the defense. Were these struggles expected? To what extent are they due to underachievement, coaching, or injury luck? What are their prospects for improvement moving forward?
BTP: Tom O’Brien and his staff had a reputation at Boston College for building good offensive lines, and I think a lot of us thought that group might really distinguish itself this year. It took a long time to reconstruct the line and build depth after the, uh, gaps left there by Chuck Amato, and this season’s group looked on paper like the first that could become a strength rather than merely a thing that’s there and kinda does stuff.
For whatever reason, it hasn’t worked out that way. The low point was without question the Cincinnati game, where NC State was held to negative rushing yardage. Since then there has been progress, and the pass protection has been decent enough, but the ground game still isn’t something the team is gonna hang its hat on.
A lot of the defensive issues are related to injuries, there’s no question about that. Nobody can handle the sort of attrition we’ve had at defensive line without feeling it to some extent. And when you’re talking about a program like NC State getting down the the fifth, sixth, seventh option at defensive tackle, that’s an enormous issue. As I mentioned, we had our fullback taking reps at DT. That’s the sort of extreme we’ve had to go to in order to put the requisite number of defensive linemen on the field.
With Sweezy hindered by soreness, and without Rieskamp, I’m not sure how much better this group can be. I will say, though, that the latest combination up front–we went big across the board against UVA–worked out very well. It was the first time this defense looked anything like last year’s. Maybe that’s something they can build on. The back seven has stayed relatively unharmed, though linebacker Terrell Manning missed a couple weeks with a knee injury.
The Sports Xchange (PackPride.com)
Quick Take: Florida State
LOOKING GOOD: Overall, the Seminoles defense played a solid game. They had six sacks, limited Maryland to 59 yards net rushing and kept the game out of reach in the second and third quarters when FSU’s offense hit a lull. Since the back-to-back debacles at Clemson and Wake Forest, this defense has played well in the past two weeks. Granted, Maryland isn’t Clemson or Oklahoma, but the Terps did throw up 45 points against Clemson the previous week. Had the defense stumbled earlier in the game, the score would have been a lot closer and the game would have been a lot more uncertain for the Seminoles.
STILL NEEDS WORK: This team still lacks big plays from its secondary. It was another game without an interception for the Seminoles and Maryland generated 272 yards passing on a whopping 38 attempts. CB Greg Reid continues his struggles in solo coverage. The Seminoles lack that shut-down cornerback that they used to develop each year in their heyday.
Hard to believe that seven games into the season, FSU has just four interceptions and no return yardage off the picks.
ACC Athletics (PackPride.com)
Quotables: Jimbo Fisher
PackPride.com
O’Brien Talks FSU
The Sports Xchange (PackPride.com)
Road Warriors
NOTES, QUOTES
— N.C. State tends to have difficulty against teams within its division. This is coach Tom O’Brien’s fifth season and his N.C. State teams are a combined 5-16 against other Atlantic Division teams. The Wolfpack has one of those intra-division games this week at Florida State.
— C Rashard Smith returned to action against Virginia for his first start in more than two years. The redshirt sophomore will be in his first game against Florida State this week because his season-ending knee injury in 2009 occurred in the game before N.C. State faced off with the Seminoles and then he missed all of 2010. In fact, he played in only one road game among his five outings in 2009.
GoPack.com
Thursday Football Notebook
Matt Carter (TheWolfpacker.com)
Mike Glennon excited to play at FSU
There’s also a personal connection to FSU however. Glennon was not the only hotshot quarterback recruit to hail from the state of Virginia in the 2008 recruiting class. FSU starting signal caller EJ Manuel is also from the commonwealth.
The two roomed together at an Elite 11 camp out in California and tracked each other over the summer of 2007, striking up a friendship that has lasted to this day.
“We just kind of kept in touch from there and kind of followed each other throughout our careers,” Glennon explained. “We talk a lot. We talked earlier this week. We’ve stayed in touch. We talk a couple of times a month. He’s a great guy. He’s a great player. It’s going to be fun playing against him.”
Glennon said that their conversation this week was all friendly and no trash talking. Glennon can be counted among Manuel’s admirers.
Jacey Zembal (TheWolfpacker.com)
NC State gearing up to slow down FSU’s strengths
NC STATE BASKETBALL
JACK DALY – CORRESPONDENT
Pack and Harper gaining traction
Realizing that optimism remains something of a reflex every preseason, N.C. State women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper nonetheless believes the program is gaining traction as it prepares for her third year in charge.
“When we first got here, we felt like we could do something the first year somehow,” Harper said Thursday at the Wolfpack’s media day. “… The second year, we knew it was going to be tough. We didn’t realize how tough it was going to be, due to the injuries.
“Then I felt like with some of the pieces we’ve got coming back, I feel pretty good with where we are in terms of it being year three. I feel like we’ve made some ground, and we’re moving. Now, we have to go out and produce. I can tell you that we’ve made ground, but we’ve got to go out and show it.”
If injuries and a bevy of close losses sabotaged N.C. State’s 2010-11 season – the Wolfpack finished 14-17, 4-10 in the ACC – Harper thinks the team’s increased depth should help alleviate those issues.
