NC STATE FOOTBALL
AARON BEARD (AP)
N.C. State’s offense off to sluggish start
Coach Tom O’Brien said several factors have contributed to the slow start for Glennon – and the offense, for that matter.
“It starts with the protection and goes to the route running … and it goes to him with his decision making and what he has to do,” O’Brien said. “It’s a combination of everything and it’s something that we have to solve and we have to make it work this week.”
While offensive guard Zach Allen said the linemen need to communicate better to protect Glennon, receiver Tobais Palmer said the wideouts are still working to get their timing right with the quarterback.
“We need to be on the same page as one unit,” Palmer said. “We need to do what it takes – if it’s extra meetings, extra time to get routes right with Mike, then we need to do that. … It’s the first two games. It’s still early in the season, so it’s kind of hard to tell what we’re going to do be as a unit right now. We’re still working.”
Jacey Zembal (TheWolfpacker.com)
Wolfpack receivers progressing smoothly
NC State rotates 6-to-7 receivers each game, and Hegedus could end up working his way up the rotation. Palmer, Payton and Underwood have been taking the most snaps out of the group.
“He’s proven that he is a guy that we are going to count on this season,” Walters said. “When they throw him the ball, he makes plays. He has a tremendous future and we are excited about the progress he is making.”
The rotation helps the receivers stay fresh for the most part. Palmer had 58 snaps and Payton 56 against UConn.
“When you play 50, 60 plays, you get tired and your mind starts wandering,” Walters said. “We have to be mentally tougher than we’ve been.”
Walters wants to see the receivers become more consistent in the details, whether it’s running routes or blocking.
“There are times we aren’t getting our depth where we are two, three yards short,” Walters said. “There was a couple of times we were running the wrong route. For the most part, they know what to do.”
Akula Wolf (Backingthepack.com)
NC State Vs. South Alabama: Checking In On The Jaguars, A Year Later
What’s South Alabama look like now?
The Jags’ offense returns five starters, including quarterback C.J. Bennett and running back Kendall Houston. Bennett had a decent day against the Pack, going 17-32 for 182 yards, though he did throw a pair of INTs. Houston had an outstanding game, picking up 117 yards on 18 carries. Returning receiver Bryant Lavender caught three passes for 39 yards in last year’s meeting.But South Alabama returns just two offensive linemen, which can be extra problematic in these games against FBS teams, for obvious reasons. If they can’t open up holes for Houston they way they did a year ago, they might be in for a little extra pain this time around.Through two games, USA is averaging under three yards per carry, as is Houston. Demetre Baker has actually gotten more of the carries so far and has been more productive to boot.
Defensively, the Jags are in better shape, as they return nine starters from 2011. That includes linebacker Jake Johnson and safety Charles Harris, who both finished with over 80 tackles last season. Johnson had eight tackles against NC State, including a sack. He also recovered a fumble. Harris also recorded eight tackles against the Pack.
Omega Wolf (Backingthepack.com)
How They Do in Week 2? A Season-Long Look at Wolfpack Opponents
After opening the season 10-2, N. C. State’s opponents went 9-3 in the second week of the season, bringing the season record of Pack opponents to 19-5. Throw out games pitting a conference opponent against a conference opponent that are both on the Pack’s schedule (which necessarily results in a 1-1 split), and Pack foes are 17-3 (.850 winning percentage) so far. Toss out game’s involving State, and the record goes to 16-2 (.889), though that is largely cupcake inflated (looking at you, FSU).
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Week 3: South Alabama (1-1) 9, Nicholls State (0-1) 3
SOAL got its first win of the season in too-close-for-comfort fashion, toppling an FCS Colonels team that was 1-10 last year and outscored 380-198 on the season. The Jaguars managed just 3.7 yards per play against the dregs of the FCS, making it really difficult to get overly concerned about them when they come to Raleigh for blood money this Saturday.
Tommy Hicks (Press-Register)
Jones happy with South Alabama’s Tuesday practice
This will mark the Jaguars’ second trip to Raleigh. N.C. State defeated South Alabama 35-13 last year in what was the Jags’ first-ever game against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent. Several starters from that game return for the Wolfpack and Jones said his team must prepare with focus and attention to detail if it is to play well on Saturday.
“N.C. State is fast and on offense and defense they can do really well and execute very well (especially) offensively,” he said. “We’ve got to be sharp this week. I challenged our scout team. They’ve got to do a great job of giving us a look this week because N.C. State, they do things really well, so if the scout team gives us a good luck, we’ve got a good shot on Saturday.”
Good preparation is especially needed in the secondary. Wolfpack quarterback Mike Glennon threw for 274 yards and four touchdowns against the Jags a year ago, completing 17-of-20 pass attempts.
Tommy Hicks (Press-Register)
South Alabama more experienced in its return to N.C. State
To be fair, there were some on last year’s South Alabama team that were a bit awestruck, some that were taken aback by the size of the crowd and the atmosphere.
That won’t be true Saturday when the Jags make a return trip for a 5 p.m. CDT game against the Wolfpack. This time, the Jags carry more of a been-there, done-that attitude into the game and the stadium. Instead of looking around, they’ll be looking to cut out turnovers, concentrate on the opponent and play well.
“I think it helps a lot, especially with the guys who have never played at that level,” linebacker Jake Johnson, who played two seasons at Virginia Tech, said of the experience many of this year’s players obtained from playing there last season. “From last year, going back this year, they know what to expect. They’re not going to be shocked by crowd noise or the speed of the game, so I think it really helped out a lot going there last year to prepare for this year. I think we’re more disciplined this year offensively and defensively. I think we want it more than we did last year. We wanted it bad last year, but this year we’ve gone in the weightroom, on the field, in the film room, we’ve gone a lot harder and longer than we did last year.
“I think there was some (awe) last year, especially for some guys who had never played in a stadium anywhere near that size. But now we’ve played there. It’s going to be good. Nobody’s going to be in shock about the size of the stadium and all that stuff.”
Quarterback C.J. Bennett agrees with Johnson and said this year’s South Alabama team will have more confidence and be more comfortable than last year’s team.
“What we learned is that we can play with them,” he said of last year’s game. “The score (35-13) may not suggest that, but two or three plays our way and it’s a close game going into those last few minutes. They pulled away there at the end. They’re a very talented team this year; they got better. We feel like we did too. But the biggest thing is we learned that we have the talent to compete and we just have to come out and believe that we can win.
MULTIMEDIA/PODCASTS
WRALSportsfan.com
The Audible: Teams show steady progress in Week 2
College football’s second week failed to show any big surprises or successes for Triangle teams.
Riddick & Reynolds
R&R Podcast, Episode 64 — Tennessee, UConn Recaps
Lots of football goodness: Steve Logan helps break down the Tennessee and UConn games, “Hoot” Gibson of the 1957 ACC Title team stops by, Sniff Ratings, Austin’s “Stone Cold Lock Of The Week…” This show’s got it all.
NC STATE BASKETBALL
Bret Strelow (FayObserver.com)
Britt alum C.J. Williams sets off for pro career in Cyprus after playing basketball at N.C. State
Before this summer’s NBA draft, Strategic Sports Management agent Jamie Knox had Williams, Presbyterian’s Al’Lonzo Coleman and Southern Mississippi’s Maurice Bolden train together and live together in Alpharetta, Ga. Williams participated in three workouts with the Atlanta Hawks and one with the Charlotte Bobcats, but his name wasn’t called on draft night.
He had options to sign with the Ironi Nes-Ziona team in Israel or two clubs in Cyprus, which is located in the eastern portion of the Mediterranean Sea, below Turkey and to the west of Syria. He picked Intercollege Etha Engomis because that team won the island country’s Division A title last season and has qualified for EuroCup play, which attracts pro scouts.
“Obviously, my first dream is to play in the NBA,” Williams said. “When that didn’t work out, I’m still making money playing basketball, still doing it for a living and don’t have to worry about a cubicle job, which is not what I desire.
“It’s still kind of surreal to know basketball is what I’m going to be doing to put food on my table, to take care of myself and my future family.”
Williams said he would probably be enrolled in graduate school at N.C. State, trying to catch on as a grad assistant with the Wolfpack, if professional basketball hadn’t panned out.
Instead, Williams has packed his bags with important belongings, notably his PlayStation 3, which he can’t travel without, and prepared for the next chapter in his life. He’s learned more about Cyprus by chatting with N.C. State alums Courtney Fells and Jordan Collins, who both played there.
Stephen Schramm (FayObserver.com)
Looking ahead to N.C. State basketball
Four starters return, including All-ACC second teamer C.J. Leslie, and will be buoyed by a recruiting class featuring three McDonald’s high school All-Americans. In Mark Gottfried’s second season as coach, the Wolfpack will be considered among the favorites in the ACC and could earn its first preseason Top 10 ranking since 1974.
But Williams is quick to point out that with those raised expectations comes pressure.
“The guys have to understand that now that we’ve been to the Sweet 16 . you’ve got that target on your back and people are not going to take you lightly,” Williams said.
N.C. State earned its status as one of next season’s darlings the hard way. Its journey to the NCAA tournament came with some bumps as the Wolfpack seemed to save its worst luck for the biggest stages. There was the loss to Syracuse in which Leslie was sidelined during crucial moments with cramps. There were costly cold stretches in regular season losses to North Carolina and a coughed-up 20-point lead in a loss at Duke.
Bret Strelow (FayObserver.com)
Anthony “Cat” Barber could be down to N.C. State, Kansas and Alabama after Louisville pulls out
According to ESPN.com’s Dave Telep and FOXSports.com’s Evan Daniels, Louisville is no longer recruiting Class of 2013 point guard Anthony “Cat” Barber, leaving N.C. State, Alabama and Kansas as the remaining options.
Barber, who is from Hampton, Va., is ranked the No. 11 player in his class by ESPN.com. He has already visited Kansas and has plans to visit Raleigh this weekend.
UNC FALLOUT
Erin Hartness (WRAL.com)
Thorp: UNC strengthening policies in wake of latest black eye
Chancellor Holden Thorp said Tuesday that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is working to upgrade its internal processes so that issues such as one that led to an administrator’s resignation don’t crop up again.
Vice Chancellor for Advancement Matt Kupec stepped down Monday amid an internal investigation into his travel expenses.
Thorp said he pulled information about Kupec’s travels together as part of a routine review. Development officers travel extensively to recruit donors, but he said some of Kupec’s trips appeared questionable.
“(There were) trips he was making that appeared to me to be driven personally. There may have been some business conducted on those trips,” Thorp said.
The UNC-CH Foundation paid for the trips, and no taxpayer money was used, he said.
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Thorp said he also might call in an outside auditor to review the travel records.
â€I’m not going to kid people that we’ve had a tough couple of years,” he said, alluding to an NCAA investigation of the Tar Heel football program and an internal review of possible academic misconduct in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies.
“We’ve uncovered a number of problems in the university, and they are mostly the results of policies that have been here for a long time that need to be strengthened,” he said. “We are determined to find all of the ways in which we can improve the processes that we have here for auditing and controls and IT security.”
DAN KANE AND J. ANDREW CURLIS
UNC’s Kupec worked to establish job eventually given to Tami Hansbrough
The job for Hansbrough, who is the mother of former UNC basketball star Tyler Hansbrough, is listed on organizational charts as being part of Crisp’s office – an arrangement approved by Crisp and UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp that allowed the university to bypass concerns about the relationship and move Hansbrough into the job.
[snip]
Kupec’s relationship with Hansbrough raises questions about the mother of a basketball star getting two jobs at the university, and it has brought to light Tami Hansbrough’s past activities in Mississippi, where another of her sons was playing basketball in 2007.
Kupec had initially established a new fundraising position in his own office, and Hansbrough expressed interest in it, Thorp said Monday. Thorp said he intervened when he learned of the possible hiring, citing his knowledge of the relationship and nepotism rules that would prevent Kupec from having Hansbrough work in his office.
In an interview, Thorp said he supported the ultimate arrangement of having Hansbrough work in the student affairs fundraising job – one that he said was the result of a wide search for a “gifts officer†who would raise money from parents.
Crisp said Tuesday that he did not immediately know how much money Hansbrough had raised for his office, but he said that she had performed well in the position.
Asked whether he had initiated the creation of the position, Crisp said: “It was a position that Vice Chancellor Matt Kupec and I talked about putting together jointly. Ultimately, the final hiring decision was mine.â€
Asked to clarify, he said: “Matt came to me to propose that we work together on a major gift officer for parents. That was a position that I had been interested in for quite some time but had not had the ability to fund. But it was Matt who approached me with the initial conversation of having a major gift officer for parents of children.â€
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By the middle of 2008, Ben Hansbrough transferred to Notre Dame, and Tami Hansbrough has said she started looking to be closer to Tyler in Chapel Hill as he began his senior season with the Tar Heels.
She was first hired for a fundraising job in the UNC-CH dentistry school’s foundation in December 2008, records show.
The university’s announcement at the time said Tami Hansbrough “has led marketing efforts related to medical organizations and outreach – including her leadership of a woman’s health fair in her former state of Missouri.â€
The news release did not mention that she lived more recently in Mississippi or detail any work history there.
[snip]
Thorp said an initial review of records suggested that Hansbrough and Kupec were traveling to places where Ben Hansbrough was playing for Notre Dame, trips that would not be related to UNC business.
He has not disclosed more.
Crisp said Tuesday that he was also aware of Hansbrough’s relationship with Kupec and that he knew they had traveled together. But he viewed her as a great fit for a job that would require interaction with parents.
He said he could not say whether Kupec had Hansbrough in mind for the position all along.
“You know, I can’t begin to tell you that I know what Vice Chancellor Kupec’s motivations were or were not at this stage,†Crisp said. “What I can tell you is that there were absolutely legitimate reasons for us to create the position, and I can tell you that, without regard for what his motivations may or may not have been, it was a standard, independent, wide-open, full search that I have every confidence in how it operated.
