Monday Musings

'11 Football ACC Teams College Football50

October 10, 2011

NC STATE FOOTBALL

JP GIGLIO (N&O)
Rested, healthy Pack expects strong finish

After N.C. State’s 38-24 win over Central Michigan on Saturday, an official from the Belk Bowl congratulated Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien at the Murphy Center after O’Brien’s post-game news conference.

“I hope you guys get on a streak here,” the Charlotte bowl official said.

O’Brien, whose team improved to 3-3 with the win, didn’t hesitate in his response.

“We will,” the coach said.

That’s what the Wolfpack needs after an injury-plagued start: a second-half surge. With a week off, the Wolfpack gets some time to heal before a trip to Virginia on Oct. 22.

N.C. State got two defensive starters back from the injured list for the win over the Chippewas, but it was still missing three defensive linemen and running back Mustafa Greene.

The Wolfpack needs to get healthy to get back to a bowl, and in the final six games – all against ACC teams – N.C. State needs four wins to return to a bowl game.

“The week off is going to be huge for us,” said defensive tackle Brian Slay, who missed last week’s loss to Georgia Tech. “When we get people back, we’re going to be a dangerous team.”

JP GIGLIO (N&O)
N.C. State must be complete to beat Cavs

WHAT NEEDS WORK

The complete effort. Only one half of good defense is not going to win many games in the second half of the season, with the Wolfpack needing to win four of its final six games to return to a bowl game.

CAULTON TUDOR (N&O)
Wolfpack is still alive – for now

Saturday’s 38-24 win over Central Michigan doesn’t mean N.C. State’s so-so football season to date suddenly has taken flight.

Definitive information on that front probably won’t be known until Nov. 5, when Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien and his players attempt to push their win streak against UNC to five.

But while the big picture hasn’t come into focus just yet, certain aspects of the Wolfpack’s season did change some Saturday – and not just by the introduction of black uniforms.

For one thing, a 34-27 loss at Wake Forest on Sept. 10 no longer looks so unsightly.

Brett Friedlander (accinsider.com)
FIFTH QUARTER: ‘Just win, baby’

3. Pack of reinforcements:
N.C. State’s injury riddled defense got two more players back Saturday, LB Terrell Manning and DT Brian Slay. Manning made the biggest impact by recording a sack, a forced fumble and an interception, one of five turnovers State forced in a badly needed 38-24 win against Central Michigan.

GoPack.com
Pack Smothers Chippewas in 2nd Half for 38-24 Win

Matt Carter (TheWolfpacker.com)
Quick hits from NCSU’s win over Central Michigan

Spotted at the game

NC State commitments Josh Sessoms, safety from Southern Nash High in Bailey, N.C., and James Summers, quarterback from Page High in Greensboro, N.C., were both at the game. So too was senior offensive lineman Casey Perry from Hillside High in Durham, N.C.

Top junior quarterback Connor Mitch from Wakefield High in Raleigh was also in attendance. Mitch sports a Wolfpack offer. An unconfirmed visitor was cornerback Marchez Coates from McDonough High in Pomfret, Md. A player with a striking resemblance to the Pittsburgh commitment was spotted before the game, but the recruit was not wearing a name tag.

Wolfonthehill (backingthepack.com)
CMU @ NC State post-mortem

And then, of course, the concerns…

Coaching. We shouldn’t need half a season to figure out how to play ball. And we shouldn’t have to play the first half of a game against CMU to figure out how to effectively defend them. It’s called summer workouts and game film. Use them. Develop game plans. Go kick someone in the teeth from the first kickoff on Labor Day weekend. Have some FIRE!!!! The next time I watch TOB actually coach a player in the middle of the game will be the first time… I saw him pluck grass more often yesterday (once) that I saw him coach a player (zero).

Akula Wolf (BackingthePack.com)
NC State 38, Central Michigan 24

That first half was about what we’ve come to expect from this team, except this time the offense decided to show up early. While Ryan Radcliff was getting whatever he wanted, Mike Glennon led a pair of touchdown drives in the first quarter, which was a sight for sore eyes, to say the least. His third touchdown pass and a late fumble recovery by Earl Wolff ensured the Pack would have the lead at intermission despite allowing Central Michigan to rack up over 250 yards of offense.

I don’t know if they made adjustments or just improved their execution, but State played significantly better defense in the second half and finally got Radcliff to look like the error-prone quarterback he is. A dreadful decision under pressure ended with the ball in Terrell Manning’s hands and the Wolfpack offense in great shape for its first score of the 3rd quarter. Takeaways like that one, and the strong play by the defense in general, gave us an opportunity to remove all doubt before the start of the 4th quarter. State’s first three drives of the second half began in CMU territory but they only managed points on one of them.

CONFERENCE EXPANSION

Akula Wolf (BackingthePack.com)
Andy Schmedsall Nixes UConn-To-ACC Proposal

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

50 Responses to Monday Musings

  1. WuffDad 10/10/2011 at 8:36 AM #

    Well the CMU game followed the script. Allow three fast scores before we attempt to make any changes to the defense. Only difference this time was 2 TDs and a FG instead of 3 TDs, and, we scored too. Limited our stupid-ness to ignoring an obvious on-side kick, delay of game after a quarter change, and an unexplainable penalty for illegal substitution (does anyone know what we did wrong there?).

    Was glad to see CJ Wilson benched for Rashaad Smith. Both Wilson and Amerson are feast or famine – if they don’t intercept, and the quarterback doesn’t have a seizure, its a sure completion for 7 to 20 yards and sometimes more. We have taken to renaming the backs that trot out with the defensive line to “NEUTRAL OBSERVERS” cuz they sure aren’t defending anything. Apparently their only job is to watch from a safe distance and then file a report – “that guy ran a so-so route, but made a routine catch and run, seems like we could be friends”.

    Should be obvious to the opposition that they are in much better position with third and long than third/fourth and short. Over the last 3-4 years it is unbelievable how many huge gains we’ve given up on third and long. There’s that “Prevent” defense that only prevents success. If we are to be Wolves, we need to rip heads off every play – but there we go back to the role of “Observers” again.

    On the plus side the offense had a nice game. Decent pass protection, MG actually looked before he threw a couple of times. One beautiful long pass completion. But the improved running game, led by J Washington and supported by Creecy is the biggest reason the offense is getting better.

  2. Wulfpack 10/10/2011 at 8:45 AM #

    The Belk bowl? GREAT! (Sarcasm). Good luck with that, TOB. Might want to make some early holiday vacation plans.

  3. BJD95 10/10/2011 at 9:19 AM #

    The biggest WTF moment is how we weren’t the least bit prepared for the onside kick at 38-24 (with like 8 minutes left). That’s inexcusably bad coaching.

    IMHO, TOB is coaching for his job November 5.

  4. TruthBKnown Returns 10/10/2011 at 9:45 AM #

    BJD95, I logged in specifically to ask if I was the only one that thought about that.

    I think maybe we were “lulled to sleep” by the fact that CMU appeared to be mailing it in. They were down three scores and simply running the ball (when they weren’t throwing interceptions). So maybe we felt like they weren’t even trying, so we didn’t consider they might attempt an onsides kick.

    But that’s not a valid excuse. Any time a team cuts the lead to 14 with eight minutes left, it should be time to send in the “hands team” in anticipation of the onsides kick.

    And IMO, I don’t think a win on November 5th saves his job. Total wins should be what saves (or do not save) his job. Or, IMO, if he replaces Mike Archer with someone competent. If TOB does that, I’m willing to forgive this bad season and give them another chance. Because IMO Archer is the main problem.

  5. JVM4PACK 10/10/2011 at 9:55 AM #

    I agree with you both, it is just inexcusable that our team was not completely prepared for the onside…too many games are lost suddenly with less time on the clock and a 14 point deficit. It’s also a shame this “slack prevent” we play so often just keeps giving up the big play on 3rd down especially. It’s nice to see some injured starters coming back, it’s nice to see that some sort of running game is coming around and other small gains are being made…still so much to work on. Hopefully we can really focus/continue to get healthy during the bye week.

  6. eas 10/10/2011 at 10:08 AM #

    What is sad is all the articles saying the Wolfpack is back on track with a 38-24 win over CMU? WTF???? CMU sucks and if we didn’t get lucky will several interceptions we would have been lucky to win. So why do we still take a 1/2 game to figure out a terrible team.

    Sorry but this is not acceptable. Somebody’s a$$ better be gone at the end of the season or before. Otherwise we may have an empty Carter Finley next year. Pretty close to it now.

  7. coach13 10/10/2011 at 10:17 AM #

    Spot on. Whether they do or not, it looks like our defense is not prepared for the other team’s defense, period. We never look prepared for what is “thrown” at us the first half. Do they watch film blindfolded? Why do we have to make such huge adjustments t halftime? I just don’t get this. This is ALL coaching. I think with players healing and getting back after the bye will help tremendously, but the coaching is lacking significantly. The D unprepared, little reminders “watch for the on side kick! “. Hell that’s PeeWee league stuff. C’mon man!!! Alot of things coaches are NOT DOING. It’s like they are just scrambling to get the people on the field, forget the preparation.

  8. TruthBKnown Returns 10/10/2011 at 10:21 AM #

    I wouldn’t call it luck that we made several interceptions. Our guys made plays. Some say they baited the QB into throwing those ill-advised passes and went and got them. We have better athletes than CMU. That’s why we made those interceptions. It’s not as if our guys were just laying there and the ball landed in their laps.

    We shouldn’t sugar-coat it too much. But let’s not salt-coat it, either. CMU had a 77 yard run where we missed some tackles and their man got free with some blazing speed. Other than that ONE PLAY, we held them to something like 95 yards of total offense in the second half.

    We did give up too much on defense in the first half, though. We let them hang around too long. But let’s not go off the deep end and just call it luck that we made some interceptions in the second half. Sometimes, luck is earned. I think their QB was forced to throw, and was also less comfortable in the pocket because we were getting after him.

  9. baxter 10/10/2011 at 10:30 AM #

    This defense is theoretically built on turnover generation, so I’m not really bothered by the fact they came out and threw the ball on it, I don’t want to put all the blame on him, but Wilson got benched for a reason yesterday and the defense snapped back quickly afterwards.

    The pass rush showed up suddenly in the 2nd half (I wonder if this has to do with Sweezy and Slay’s football shape finally getting back to normal – the only DL member to practice all week was Norman) and then the INTs were popping up. Right now we are tied for 3rd in the nation in turnover generation with 18, and 13th in the nation with turnover margin (1st ACC). As long as we keep the TO margin positive and play 3rd down defense well, I think we will be fine, especially with the starters returning (just look at the huge difference Manning made and he’s still probably at 80% best). I don’t think they converted a single 3rd down in the second half.

  10. baxter 10/10/2011 at 10:32 AM #

    Also, lets not forget TJG’s punt fumble. That definitely kept CMU energized and in the game. That was a big mental error, either TJ didn’t think they’d punt it to him or he thought he could make a big play when he didn’t need to.

  11. TruthBKnown Returns 10/10/2011 at 10:43 AM #

    baxter, that fumble was awful. Our defense gave up a TD on their previous possession, but then stopped them on their second possession. How deflating was that fumble to our defense? It kept them in the game when we had a chance to start seizing control.

    It made our defense look even worse because they gave up another quick score after that. But they did not get to reap the reward of getting that stop.

  12. TheCOWDOG 10/10/2011 at 10:56 AM #

    Pretty fair takes this morning guys.

    Never handle an end over end punt unless you absolutely have to. If one must, ya stick that arm up and cradle the ever lovin’ life out of it.

  13. Ed89 10/10/2011 at 11:06 AM #

    ^^^IMHO, TOB is coaching for his job November 5

    And October 22nd, 29th, as well as November 12th, 19th, and 26th.

    ^^^Right now we are tied for 3rd in the nation in turnover generation with 18, and 13th in the nation with turnover margin (1st ACC).

    Let’s please remember three of our six games have been vs. South Alabama, Liberty and CMU. Nothing to write home about…

    We’ve lost against our only real BCS opponents.

  14. 61Packer 10/10/2011 at 11:32 AM #

    As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t defeated a true Div 1-A opponent this season. Not yet. And a program as down in the dumps as we are isn’t going to improve its stature with half-assed games (playing bad one half, great the next).

    I really wish we could get the South Alabamas, the Libertys, and the Central Michigans off our schedule. I’ve heard we might go to 9 ACC games next season when Pitt and Syracuse are added; I hope so. Does anyone know?

    I’m not opposed to having one, maybe two of those small school games each season; do what South Carolina does and play the smaller in-state schools on a rotating basis, where we’d see one of them each season. What is it we owe South Alabama anyway? Pay them off for the next two games and dump them. Then, we could start playing some decent OOC teams. Even a road game against a BCS-level team (preferably no more Big East teams please) would be better than home games vs South Alabama.

    But we need to be realistic when we talk about this team. We have an inexperienced, leaderless group of players whose defense is at best erratic. We have an inexperienced QB who probably won’t be here long enough to contribute much to the program. We have no ground game. We have inept assistants in key positions, led by an experienced but inflexible coach who is nearing the end of his career and isn’t likely to remain long-term.

    And if we get smacked by a UNC team led by an interim coach here on November 5, which I think we will if we keep playing like we are now, the one ace in the hole that this coaching staff has will be trumped. Beating UNC has been the thing that’s kept this staff around for 5 seasons. And it just isn’t realistic to believe we’ll keep beating them every season. It’s nice to beat them, but we’ve got to start whipping up on somebody else in the ACC for a change.

  15. TeufelWolf 10/10/2011 at 11:52 AM #

    I’m in Afghanistan and just started reading the articles. Whats the verdict on the uniforms? Did they look alright? The pictures I’ve found haven’t persuaded me. I’m not impressed with the score much so I figured I’d ask about something else.

  16. packalum44 10/10/2011 at 12:19 PM #

    If I’m Yow, it isn’t about the Wins & Losses…its about fundamentals. This team looks like Sidney Lowe is coaching. They are awful on the most basic levels. The state of the program is in disarray, starting with the most important aspect, recruiting. We have Wake Forest level talent without Jim Grobe coaching.

  17. Wulfpack 10/10/2011 at 12:58 PM #

    If we lose to BC, even with a win over UNC, I’m done. That will truly spell doom.

  18. logarithm 10/10/2011 at 1:02 PM #

    More to the bright side, David Amerson leads the nation by 2 in interceptions:

    http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/individual/1018

    And TJ Graham is second in All-Purpose yards per game and first in Total All Purpose yards:

    http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/individual/1009

  19. Prowling Woofie 10/10/2011 at 1:09 PM #

    Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t the rules allow for bumping the receiver within 5 yds of the line of scrimmage ? If so, why aren’t our corners within 5 yds, chucking the receivers and throwing off the timing of the routes ?

    Given our depleted D-Line, this just might give our walking wounded additional time to apply heat to the QB and force a few more sacks or errant throws.

    I’m sick and tired of seeing the 7 yd cushion by the corners, which is totally useless on 3rd and 5, or 3rd and 8, because an inside slant picks up the first down with ease. Got to be deflating for the D-Line, especially when they’re having to play 2nd and 3rd team guys.

  20. HPWolf 10/10/2011 at 2:00 PM #

    TeufelWolf, our uniforms for the CMU game were some of the ugliest I’ve ever seen any team at any level wear. Three shades of red and or pink with black. Hell, even the helmets weren’t NC State red. Couple that with the staff wearing pink and we looked like a bunch of pussies. Note I said we looked like I didn’t say we were. I know its about breast cancer awareness but damn.

  21. BJD95 10/10/2011 at 2:24 PM #

    FWIW, I’m talking about whether TOB is allowed to coach out the 2012 season and retire (as opposed to being fired with a big buyout, thanks to our shitty contract writing dept – see Folwer, Lee and Lowe, Sidney). I don’t think anyone – TOB included – wants this train to run any farther than that.

    So as long as he beats UNC, I don’t see a compelling reason for us to eat another $1.5M in sunk costs (on top of the very necessary firing-related buyouts for the worst AD and basketball coach in Division 1). After all, we will just be making a “lighting in a bottle” dart throw search, so what’s an extra year? Especially if a decent 2012 record (with a senior Glennon and lots of veterans on both sides of the ball, a distinct possibility) makes our situation look deceivingly less like the probable career killer that it is.

  22. lawful 10/10/2011 at 2:47 PM #

    I’m afraid I have to agree with packalum44. I don’t think we’re looking at the big picture. Has anything really changed since game 1 (or season 1)? Make excuses for injuries if you want, but injuries had little to no affect on Liberty. Liberty? We’re making excuses for teams like Central Michigan, South Alabama, and Liberty? Before this season, probably none us knew what division they played in or what city they were even located. No offense to these programs but we should be able to survive these injuries better than we have. Shouldn’t we have enough depth at this point in the program to pound these teams with or without injuries? I’ll bet Maryland could handle these injuries, or Rutgers, or Central Florida. I won’t even include a team like Michigan St. or Missourri. What does that say about the state of the nation?????

  23. wolfonthehill 10/10/2011 at 2:50 PM #

    ^^ And with that, I’m depressed…

  24. vaeda11 10/10/2011 at 2:53 PM #

    Uniforms blew ass….could auction the jerseys off to raise money for the Yow foundation. Our “S Block” logo puts me to sleep just looking at it.

  25. JasonP 10/10/2011 at 3:09 PM #

    Can’t just allow the contract to run out. That last season would be an even bigger recruiting black hole than what we’re looking at now.

    After this season, it’s either renew or terminate.

1 2

Leave a Reply