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chop: I agree. We had those good years with Rivers where we were on the cusp of breaking through. We were probably better positioned on the 5-3 year, but choked coming down the stretch. I still remember sitting in a restaurant and watching it unravel on the road against a fairly mediocre UVA squad. Talent wise, those squads were similar (or possibly a bit better).
We had a year with TOB where we were close, but didn’t get it done. That was with Russel the magician but little defense. This year’s squad is much more balanced and deep.
The two games after the bye tell us whether this will be a special season. Go 2-0 and we are setting ourselves up to play the most meaningful games really since 1979 in our football program. Go 0-2, and we need to finish strong to keep the season from spiraling.
All three of those years we were very talented. Honestly, the most talented player on the field in all of those years was TA McClendon in 2002.
If we have any younger posters, they should watch you tube clips of him that season. I think even NC State fans because of his diminishing effectiveness his next 2 seasons, forget just what a revelation he was that first year.
We have great talent on this team – and I dare say, more mature talent and more depth than those other squads. However, Amato’s teams were too reckless to win consistently.
TOB’s teams didn’t have the depth and they were led by a coach that they may have respected, but there were always a couple of games each year that they lost when TOB’s conservative approach, combined with our lack of depth, kept us from reaching our goal.
Those other 3 teams were better positioned and faced less talented opposition to win a share of the conference title. The TOB team was one game away (some would argue one quart away), the amato team in 2002 was in the same position as this one when the infamous illegal procedure penalty against ga tech, resulted in a 3rd and forever conversion, and just 2 straight wins with 2 games to in 2003…we know how those ended. It’s time to break the string.
I think IMHO this team is light years ahead and world’s apart from anything Amato produced. I was in the stands for every home game back then and I know I heard ” dead ball , personal foul, 15 yard penalty, automatic first down” at least 3-5 times every game. Coach DD has taught his team to think and play.
I’ve written about my trip to Death Valley in 1979 on this site before. Other than the ’83 win in Reynolds over the Cheaters, it’s my best live Wolfpack sports memory. Hopefully some different State fans will get to experience the thrill of beating a highly regarded opponent on the road in a couple of weeks. This team has a chance at a very special season. I’m still afraid to get too excited, but I’m not dreading the next two games either.
In retrospect I think two very important things came out of that game Sat. First, I think the team was tight. Really tight, been there and it can make you lose focus. Hines said it best, people weren’t finishing (blocks, tackling, catching the ball, ect.) Quite simply they were afraid of losing.
I’m not sure what DD said in that locker room but it probably went something like this, “you guys have come too far, not only this year but the past 3 years, to let this game get away. If you just go out there and do the job you’ve been trained to do and give it your absolute best then you’ll walk off the field winners. If you don’t you’ll be kicking yourself in the rear forever. This team is better than that team. This team is the best team this school has seen in a long time. It’s the team the fans have been waiting on for years. That blue collar, hands in the dirt team that refuses to lose. That’s the team that you are and that’s the team I expect to see when we go back out there.”
Then came the second. They responded, They responded with the best second half of a game I’ve seen from this team under DD. We’ve all read multitudes of comments about the team not doing well in the third quarter. Well that didn’t happen Saturday. And by the end of that third quarter Pitt knew they were going to lose. You could see it in the way they executed. They became the tight team. When they punted that second time in a row they knew they were beat.
Smarter than the average bear
This team has me truly believing in them, so much so that I am taking my first trip to Notre Dame, and trusting that they will again come thru with a big victory on national television. Go Pack!
Still baffled. We finally are having a break thru season, and State Fans Nation just not showing the love. What is up with that? During previous lack luster seasons, we were bombarded with storylines and blogs. Come on guys, get this site back to what it has previously been. Normally we would already have a story regarding the Notre Dame game. What ever happened to all the moderators, and now there is one? This site sat the standard, so that is what I have come to expect. Go Pack!
Mak – this is primarily a forums board now. And conversation has definitely picked up here in last 6 weeks.
Still baffled. We finally are having a break thru season, and State Fans Nation just not showing the love. What is up with that? During previous lack luster seasons, we were bombarded with storylines and blogs. Come on guys, get this site back to what it has previously been. Normally we would already have a story regarding the Notre Dame game. What ever happened to all the moderators, and now there is one? This site sat the standard, so that is what I have come to expect. Go Pack!
All of the ‘regular’ writers rage quit when we hired Keatts and not Archie.
Funny, I am a huge fan of Keatts. I see him he way I saw Gregg Marshall and Paul Johnson, guys who are outside that standard deviation of their school’s typical success. You had to strain to make the same case for Arch.
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