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Picked up TE from Pisgah High (my old roomie’s alma mater). Here is the PP link. Blueshirt candidate.
Grey, I don’t mean to imply favoritism toward Avent, and I have been very pleased with Yow’s willingness to let coaches go when they don’t perform. Avent is the enigma. Other posters have mentioned that the administration is fine with mediocrity, but I don’t buy that for the afore-mentioned reasons of other coaches in other sports (including FB and MBB) getting fired for poor or average performance. Another year that goes is another year for a different school to grab up one of those really good coaches who don’t have great facilities but have great talent and have overachieved. Keatts came from UNCW; Popolizio from Binghamton. A great baseball coach is out there waiting to take the yoke and move this team forward.
Shyheim Battle, come on down! Here is the link!
GreyWolf, I completely agree with you, and I am concerned that Yow is NOT following her own policy here with regard to baseball and Avent where she clearly has with other sports. She’s made quality hires with Wes Moore (WBB), Pat Popolizio (Wrestling), Braden Holloway (Swimming/Diving), Dave Doeren (FB), Kevin Keatts (MBB) et. al. but Avent appears safe in his position. In the back of my feeble mind, I am hopeful that this ‘conversation’ included an agreement to let Avent coach out the rest of his contract, and then be done. 23 seasons is enough for any coach, especially one who has been consistent but not spectacular. Yow kicks the can down the road for the next AD to make a big hire knowing that the 2018-2019 sports program is in a better financial place to make one. I am disappointed that she didn’t make a change, but I completely understand that the finances are not there to buy him out or to replace him with a quality coach.
I’m puzzled as to why they are occurring at all. Unless the ‘conversation’ is to assure his outright release/retirement and the promotion/hiring of another coach. I don’t think his last few years have been enough to earn him an extension, and this season’s high point occurred much too early and the collapse at the end was far too steep to warrant extension discussions. 22-seasons worth of this has salted me crusty. I want an announcement of retirement and a press conference with a new coach. And I know I’m not going to get that with news stories of ‘contract conversations.’
Avent is in contract ‘conversations’ according to WRAL; the link is here. First, global warming, then Helsinki, now this.
Ted Roof is the X-factor here. For as good as our starting D-Line was last year, the stats were NOT as good as 2017. Even SBNation noted that in this “preview”/back-handed compliment. Our defense has yet to become super-special and scheme is a large part of that. I would like to see more blitzing and more disguised coverages, but Huxtable generally runs a vanilla 4-3. Our linebackers last year were especially susceptible to routes over the middle from TEs and RBs. Also, run stoppage was an issue in games against Clemson and BC in particular. I’m hoping that the coaches have some nice scheme changes to really give us a different look this year. With all the talent up-front, a basic scheme was still good, but those guys are gone. Insert creativity (where Roof needs to make his coin).
Lastly, don’t let anyone tell you that we lost that WF game. The only reason we lost, is the ACC doesn’t use goalline cameras. By the way, are those going to be installed this year? #ACCGonnaSwoff
Pitching Coach Scott Foxhall has bolted for the same position at Mississippi State. Backing the Pack has a good write-up here. I was believing that Scott would stay if offered the head coaching position, and I think he would be an upgrade in the chair. I hope we get an opportunity to give him that spot soon!!
For Mac (and everyone else), Michael Clark at PackPride put together an interesting list of the Top Ten recruits based on 247Sports rankings/formulae over the past 5 years. Here is the link. I was very surprised who topped the list but just as surprised at the amount of great talent (even those recently drafted) who are NOT on the list. I think Mac is very right in terms of not buying recruiting rankings (either team or individual) as gospel. The #1 on this list is a microcosm of this very point. Enjoy.
Here’s Khalid Martin’s Pack Pride write-up. This has been a stellar in-state recruiting class, and there could be more on the horizon. Getting back to the focus of this post, if we have a major flip or a top-5 get (Crouch is the one I’m eyeing here), then I believe State will have moved into that territory. But this success in recruiting requires proper context on the field, which only comes with player development, which has been strong under this staff. For the 2020 class, it will be interesting to see if the coaches have really done what many have tried before … to put up those iron gates around the state.
Harris completes the Trifecta!! Here’s the Pack Pride write-up!!
Zonovan Knight (Greywolf’s 2nd leg) has committed. Here’s the Pack Pride. Here’s the Twitter.
The 3rd leg Joshua Harris will announce later today and 247Sports has him all in for the Pack. Tomorrow is when Khalid Martin from East Forsyth will announce, but he seems to be about 50-50 between State and Va Tech.
An interesting comparison of recruiting geography between Doeren and O’Brien was put up by BackingThePack. Interesting, but in my opinion, it’s comparing apples and golf balls.
Here is the link.
Submitted for clarity. This post was atrocious, and I apologize again for it. I have the important links located below to help with the discussion.
Link to NC State’s 2017-2018 Revenues for Athletics
Link to NC State’s 2017-2018 Expenses for Athletics
Link to NC State’s Athletics Expenses from 2010-2018
These are the photos I failed to embed properly. If someone, a mod let’s say, would like to embed these properly, I would greatly appreciate it. If not, that’s cool too.
Fastback, I agree that seeing a bit more transparency in regard to where the money has been spent delineated according to a line-item breakdown would be in order. I also would not hold my breath as to receiving any such information. And as for Reynolds and the renovation, that is a huge sore spot for many solid donors. I graduated from State in December of ’98, and personally would like that building to remain viable for all sporting endeavors, including men’s basketball games; however, I understand the trepidation and consternation for those who feel it was a money sump. If I had more skin in that game, I would have more empathy for those who have contributed much more than I. It is one of the few museum pieces from my time at State that I want to remain.
Mods, if you could delete the original post. I will repost with the correct links and embedded pictures. I screwed up on this one. DO OVER!!
My take: Yow has done remarkably well with non-revenues. The current FB and Men’s BB coaches appear to be in good position to take that next step, but that progress has been slow. I look forward to having another strong leader in the AD position. My fear is that LF 2.0 will somehow finagle his way into the chair, and all the great successes we’ve had (albeit in the non-revs) will be lost. I’ve been supportive of Yow given that she’s at least competent enough to fire bad coaches and hire better ones, but I’m pessimistic that the next hire will have her same focus. If we lose our swim coach or our wrestling coach, for example, because of hiring Cougar Judge Lee Fowler or someone comparable, then both small and large-level successes will be gone.
Marquise did play for a conference title and won his division. Kudos for that. He also went turtle against us three out of the four games State played him. My point is that the caliber of his high school competition was no more impactful to his college career than any other factor. And if I was taking QB’s in a draft for any level of play, I would take Rivers, Barnette, Finley or Wilson over Williams regardless of whether Williams played for a title. You take MW and his retired Mallard Creek jersey … I’ll take the field.
Marquise Williams played at Mallard Creek and took his team to the state title. Going with Tarheel blue didn’t cover up the lack of toughness.
So your concern is that our coaches are not offering dominant players from small schools scholarships to play for our team? These small school players are too weak?
Todd Gurley played at Tarboro (602) and Keith Marshall played at Millbrook (2432). Which one would you take coming of out of high school? Mark Richt got them both but one became a superstar and one got himself hurt several times. It does not matter where you played nor who you played against in high school.
Mario Williams played at Richlands High (900+ students). Philip Rivers played at Athens High (AL), (932 students). Levar Fisher at East Carteret (632). It’s silly to forecast a player’s performance based on the size of the players he played against. If the player is good, he will work hard and find his way onto the field. For every Andre Brown (J.H. Rose) and Toney Baker (Ragsdale), there’s a Shadrach Thornton whose high school had 1100 students.
Nate Irving played at Wallace-Rose Hill (1A). Torry Holt played at Eastern Guilford (2A). Many great State players came from other places besides Butler and Mallard Creek.
