Gameday Notes

'11 Football ACC Teams College Football99

October 8, 2011

NC STATE FOOTBALL

Caulton Tudor (N&O)
O’Brien’s audacity of hope

Beat Central Michigan today, then wait for the cavalry – that’s been a big part of Tom O’Brien’s message all week.

The fifth-year N.C. State football coach staked out that path on Monday and talked it up again Tuesday and Wednesday.

But at 2-3 overall and with his defensive unit plagued by what resembles an injury curse, O’Brien has to try to sell hope at this point. There’s no other option.

PackPride.com
CFN’s Take: NC State vs. CMU

What Will Happen: After getting whipped in consecutive weeks by Cincinnati and Georgia Tech, NC State will not squander an opportunity to be the bully for a chance. The Pack will take advantage of the deficiencies on the Central Michigan by establishing the running attack before turning Glennon loose on play-action. Radcliff will pile up the yards through the air, but a return to his turnover-prone ways will stifle the Chippewas’ ability to rally in the second half.

PackPride.com
Week 6: Central Michigan

PackPride.com
NOTEBOOK: Bounce Back For Pack?

Akula Wolf (BackingthePack.com)
CMU In Brief

Kirk Bohls (statesman.com)
Horns’ latest defensive guru Diaz coaches beyond his years
HT: BackingthePack.com

Diaz may well be Texas’ X-factor because he does not mind taking chances, has instilled in his unit a ton of confidence and swagger, and will have his players believing they can contain the nation’s fourth-best offense and 11th most-prolific scoring machine.

With a very small sample, Diaz has shown he might be as dynamic a coordinator as Muschamp, whom he replaced last January. He’s much more likely to gamble than Muschamp, who was as good at adjusting after an opening drive as any coach I’ve seen, and Diaz has never seen a blitz he didn’t love.

The biggest difference between Muschamp and Diaz?

“We’re attacking more than in years past,” linebacker Emmanuel Acho said. “It’s evident in the turnovers (tied for seventh nationally). We’re able to pressure the ball more.”

Mack first heard about Diaz from his brother Watson Brown, whose offensive line coach had worked with Diaz at North Carolina State. Brown said he called Mickey Andrews and picked the brain of the Florida State defensive icon and former Diaz mentor.

“I talked to three unnamed head coaches in the SEC that said they would hire him in a minute,” Mack said.

Andrew Skwara (accsports.com)
ACC Weekend Preview, Oct. 7

Central Michigan (2-3) at N.C. State (2-3)

Time: 3:30 p.m.
Broadcast: ESPN3 (Sirius 117/XM 191)

Key For The Chippewas

Their defense has been abysmal, giving up 41 or more points in each of their last three games. Creating turnovers is their only chance at slowing down the Wolfpack offense.

Key For The Wolfpack

Moving the chains. Central Michigan scored 48 points last week, albiet against Northern Illinois. The Wolfpack must move the ball consistently and put up points of their own to avoid being an upset victim.

Numbers Game

ACC teams are 5-0 against Central Michigan … N.C. State has the lowest penalty yards in the ACC (34.8 per game) but has given up an ACC-high 16 sacks … Central Michigan is 0-3 on the road.

Line

N.C. State favored by 10.5

Prediction

Wolfpack 42, Chippewas 16 – The Wolfpack won’t have any problem getting win No. 3 thanks to facing another weak non-conference foe.

Associated Press
Struggling N.C. State Plays Host To Central Michigan

Jim Young (accsports.com)
Bag O’ Tweets, Oct. 7

Tony Haynes (GoPack.com)
Wolfpack Looks to Limit Big Plays against Central Michigan

About 1.21 Jigawatts

Class of '98, Mechanical Engineer, State fan since arriving on campus and it's been a painful ride ever since. I live by the Law of NC State Fandom, "For every Elation there is an equal and opposite Frustration."

'11 Football ACC Teams College Football

99 Responses to Gameday Notes

  1. Tuffy2 10/08/2011 at 6:04 PM #

    Nothing like flexing your muscles on CMU.

  2. bTHEredterror 10/08/2011 at 6:10 PM #

    You guys are funny, but not like you think.

    Still not a good team, but improving. We’ll see what they put together out of the bye, but still doesn’t look like a bowl team to me. UVa, BC and UMd are winnable, Clemson is a loss, UNC is prolly a loss, and FSU is loss because its on the road. At best 6-6 unless they figure something out.

    BTW, all you Wake haters, maybe your starting to figure something out yourselves?

  3. BJD95 10/08/2011 at 6:12 PM #

    I just want us to beat Carolina. That’s all I ask.

  4. bTHEredterror 10/08/2011 at 6:16 PM #

    Would be nice, and I think they should have beat us the last two years. But there is something/someone missing from the scenario.

    Of course I mean Butch.

  5. wolfpackdawg 10/08/2011 at 6:16 PM #

    Brandon Barnes for Heisman.

  6. BJD95 10/08/2011 at 6:18 PM #

    VPI screwing the pooch against Da U. Cool use of Sleigh Bells as “cut away to commercial” though. Well played, ABC.

  7. JEOH2 10/08/2011 at 6:20 PM #

    Did anyone watch UNC today? If we play that team we have a shot…if we play the Chapel Hill team that played ECU….naaaw…

  8. BJD95 10/08/2011 at 6:22 PM #

    Carolina has beaten nobody good, or even decent. We just have to not suck.

  9. BJD95 10/08/2011 at 6:26 PM #

    Wow, QB draw on 4th and 1 gets 20 and a TD. Castrated turkeys back up 3, 56 seconds to go.

  10. Wolfy__79 10/08/2011 at 6:28 PM #

    unc is a bit of a head scratcher to me.. close one week, blow out the next?

    i’m not a fan of the results i’ve seen this year or most of the past five under tob.. but to overlook amerson and say we have noone good back there in the secondary is crazy to me. i think amerson is becoming very good and i also like the play of green.. glad to see manning back. i like audie, but i don’t think he’s right at mike? pretty solid performance in the second half by the team but the defense fell asleep and gave one up late.. that reenergized cmu.. before that, our line was pushing and the running game was taking over. missing the chipshot hurt in the third.

    with wake winning today, it seems that they have all but won our division and i don’t see us doing any better than 2nd. a loss for them today would have kept us alive.. or a win against them too of course. but, anyone still downgrading us b/c of a loss to them?? i am, but to see them winning two other acc games certainly has my attention.

  11. Wolfy__79 10/08/2011 at 6:29 PM #

    va tech isn’t good this year!

  12. JSRy2k 10/08/2011 at 6:34 PM #

    Our D-line was getting blown off the LOS for the roughly 5 minutes I watched. 7.3 ypc for CMU would support that observation.

  13. Dogbreath 10/08/2011 at 6:45 PM #

    Clemson will win the Atlantic folks.

  14. Tuffy2 10/08/2011 at 6:46 PM #

    I think my favorite quote from tonights game was the announcers stating how well CMU handled the crowd. Boy the noise was deafening as Im sure it was hard for them. LOL!

  15. bTHEredterror 10/08/2011 at 6:51 PM #

    JSRy2k, that was padded by a 77 yarder, otherwise it was a paltry [sic] 4.4 per carry.

  16. nuclearwolf07 10/08/2011 at 7:44 PM #

    Not sure who made the defensive calls in the second half, but they need to give whatever special speech they have for halftime at the beginning of the game…

  17. Wolfy__79 10/08/2011 at 7:55 PM #

    ^.. i didn’t catch the first half but made it in time to watch the second half.. i gotta tell ya, i thought they played well on defense the second half.. given what i’ve seen so far this year! it seemed like the team had some more rhythm on offense but still not where they should be.. pts on all those turnovers would have put us in the +45-50 pt total. still, i like the improvement i saw.. still i don’t know how the rest of the season will play out. wfu looks really strong for the division.. clemson was my favorite until boyd’s injury today. who knows, their defense may carry them?

    graham looked really strong from what i saw.. he’s a natural on special teams. i saw one running play we had where a blocker rolled up on the back of his leg..scary. palmer looks like a second coming of graham.. he’s very fast!

  18. Ashman87 10/08/2011 at 8:00 PM #

    WHO ON EARTH CAME UP WITH THOSE UNIFORMS? THEY’RE WORSE THAN THE ONE’s WE WORE FOR THE 1999 SEASON,WHERE THE HELMETS LOOKED LIKE THE ONES WE USED TODAY EXCEPT WE HAD THE DIAMOND LOGO INSTEAD OF THE S WITH THE INTERLOCKING N AND C !!!!!!!!!

  19. Wolfy__79 10/08/2011 at 8:04 PM #

    FWIW i liked the uniforms and especially the RED helmets! i would like to keep both especially for breast cancer! i also like the black unis with red&white lettering!

  20. Dogbreath 10/08/2011 at 8:13 PM #

    what’s this I hear about George Bryan and Mario Carter connecting punches on one another during the game? WTF!?

  21. TheCOWDOG 10/08/2011 at 8:45 PM #

    Kinda glad I dropped in on you guys late. You’ve managed to help me recall most of this game. I remember bits and pieces.

    I remember yucking it up with Fritts and George Bell, pregame. remember the semi-cool black unis…

    But, and you guys know this, I view the game channeled thru the eyes of the wideouts. Right now, I’m…this is Tuesday isn’t it? Right now I’m…I’m…

    Hey did you see where Buckner just let that one go thru his legs? Wow.

  22. 61Packer 10/08/2011 at 9:00 PM #

    Could’ve been 45-17, should’ve been 38-31, ended up 38-24. Glad it was Central instead of Western.

    Uniforms were snazzy but they’re simply the wrong color. We’re supposed to be the red and white, not the red and black. Green would look sharp, but like black, it’s not our color. Do the folks who make these decisions REALLY like what they’re seeing in College Park?

    Weather was great, tailgate was great, enjoyed seeing Scotty. All in all it was a typically uninspiring performance, especially by the D, which did have one good stand to begin the 2nd half, but otherwise looked like a sieve except for the 3 second half picks.

    WFT with not being ready for the onside kick?

    So, this staff is halfway through season five, 3-3 without a D-1A win, and struggling somewhat at home again, this time against a lower-tier MAC team. We might win the MAC this season (we’re much better suited for that league than we are for the SEC), but we wouldn’t dominate it by any means.

    The two weakest teams we’ve yet to play (UVA and BC) are both road games at places where we seldom if ever win, and logic says we’ll probably won’t win both.

  23. wolfonthehill 10/08/2011 at 10:19 PM #

    “Radcliff will pile up the yards through the air, but a return to his turnover-prone ways will stifle the Chippewas’ ability to rally in the second half.”

    Someone nailed that one…

  24. wolfpack2002 10/08/2011 at 10:29 PM #

    I don’t think anyone has actually pointed this out, so sorry if they did and I missed it. If you look at pictures from the game on “gopack” it reveals something that was wholely unclear(at least for me) on the internet stream of the game. The uniforms were black and the numbers were PINK! The pink on the jerseys was obviously for Breast Cancer Awareness but I guess you could also just call the pink a deep throwback. As in pre 1895 when the school colors were pink and blue, haha! I loved the helmets. I’ve wanted to see a modern take of the red helmet with white block “S” for a long time and the three white stripes on running down the middle with the white facemasks looked great!

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