Dave from Carter-Finley

Well if you like offense today was your kind of game.  I’m sure NC State basketball legend David Thompson, who was sitting a few rows behind me, liked the offensive display but he wasn’t at all pleased with the outcome of the game.  Both defenses were terrible and both offenses made big play after big play.  The two teams combined for almost 1100 yards of offense.  For the Pack, Russell Wilson had 5 TD passes (3 to Jarvis Williams), Owen Specer had several long receptions, and Toney Baker ran hard over defenders all day.  If we can play like this on offense for the remaining four games then we’ll have a chance to win them all.

But in order to win any of them the defense is going to have to find a way to make stops and get off the field.  Today was a lot of the same we’ve seen the last few weeks; missed tackles, blown coverages, and no pressure on the QB.  We did create two turnovers, but wasted both opportunities.  I don’t know which made me sicker to my stomach, the poor clock management by Tom O’Brien before the half when we had a chance to take a lead or Natanu Mageo fumbling the ball right back to FSU on his interception return that would have gave us the ball inside the 20 yard line and possibly changed the outcome of the game.

It will be nice to return to Carter-Finley next weekend for Homecoming.  I just hope that Pack fans still show up and support this team.  Today the FSU fans sure didn’t as the attendance was the smallest at Doak Campbell Stadium in 16 years.  They sure didn’t deserve this win.  I guess they were trying to send Bobby Bowden a message.  Well I have a message for them, I’d give both my nuts and maybe even my left arm to have the success you’ve had the last 30+ years.  And you have Bobby to thank for all that.  Show the man some respect.

Visual evidence of the only time I've ever painted my face for an NC State game.

The above picture was from my freshman year (1999).  It was my first ever road trip and probably the point in time that started my whole obsession with NC State football.  Florida State, led by Chris Wienke and Peter Warrick, went on to win the National Championship that year.  That day in Doak Campbell was not so kind to the Wolfpack as FSU won 42-11.  It was an unforgettable road trip, though.

We left State’s campus at noon that Friday.  We had a three car caravan and we drove straight through the night, stopping several times to eat, use the restroom, etc.  We arrived in Tallahassee somewhere around 4:00 a.m.  We didn’t have a hotel so we found us a parking lot on campus and set up shop.  I fell asleep on the asphalt using a parking block as a pillow.  Not so comfortable so I would not recommend it.

Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. the frat house across the street woke us all up by blaring the Tomahawk Chop.  It was put on repeat and we would go on to hear that song about a million more times that morning.  We didn’t have any food or drink, I was a freshman that had yet to master the art of tailgating, so we walked around trying to find some people to bum off of.  We found a nice group of FSU lawyers who had a huge pig cooker loaded up with chicken, hotdogs, and hamburgers so we made sure to become friendly with them.  They also had 2 kegs so it felt like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  They were super nice people and we had a blast tailgating with them.

On the way back we did get a hotel room somewhere in Georgia, but we crammed all 13 people into one room.  There’s just nothing like broke college kids going on a road trip.  I miss those days, but I really don’t.  You know what I mean?

The defensive problems we have are well documented and, until Nate Irving returns next year, I don’t see it getting much better.  So let’s talk about the offense, which hasn’t been very good these past few games either.

In our three wins the average play breakdown has been 40 runs to 36 passes while in our four losses the average play breakdown has been 24 runs to 41 passes.  Couple those stats with the aforementioned fact that our defense is not very good and I say we should run, run, and run some more.

Scrap the shotgun, line up under center, and play physical football.  If we do that it will force us to be more aggressive.  It will make the defense better by keeping them off the field.  And it will give us opportunities to confuse FSU’s young inexperienced defense with some play-action passes.  Call me stupid, but what we’ve been doing has only been good enought to beat one FBS team and even that was really on the back of a Superman-like performance from Russell Wilson.

Nobody’s giving us a chance.  Hell, even most of our fans have written the season off.  Well not this guy.  Let’s not forget that Florida State is struggling at home this season.  Their record at Doak Campbell is 1-3 with the one win being a 19-9 snoozefest over Jacksonville State.  I think a lot of that has to do with all the turmoil surrounding Bobby Bowden, which is an absolute disgrace.  Anyway, I’ll be there rooting on our guys so look for me.  I’ll be the guy in red.

Note:  I realize this is not going to happen, but I can dream right?  We’ll continue to run the stretch run to the right on 1st down then long developing pass plays on both 2nd and long and 3rd and long.  Let’s just hope that Russell decides to pull it down and improvise more this week.

I’m heading down to Tallahassee this weekend.  Not really sure if that’s a good or bad thing.  I love Doak Campbell Stadium.  It’s my second favorite stadium in the ACC, behind Carter-Finley of course, to watch a game.  I’ll be going to Lane Stadium for the first time in November so check back then to see if that changes.

So I’ve been to Florida State twice, 1999 and 2003, and both times we lost.  The latter was the epic 2OT thriller that we just gave away.  T.A. fumbled inside the 10 right before the half giving FSU an easy touchdown and then Brian Clark fumbled on the final drive of regulation after we had just crossed the 50 yard line and were driving for the win.  Can you tell that I’m still bitter about that one?

I had a ticket for the 2001 game, but didn’t go.  You know, the first home ACC loss for the Seminoles and on their Homecoming to boot.  No joke, I had to stay in Raleigh to work on a group project that involved baking cupcakes.  I finally earned back my “man card” just last year.  My buddies still went to the game, which was great for them, but really sucked for me because I got to hear all their stories and agonize how stupid I was for not blowing off my group.  And if this story couldn’t get any worse, my buddies didn’t scalp my ticket either so I didn’t get any cash back.

This has been a very even and competitive series dating back to 1998 (6-5 Noles) .  It’s been a series of mini runs too with FSU winning in ’99 and ’00, State in ’01 and ’02, FSU in ’03 and ’04, State in ’05 and ’06, and FSU in ’07 and ’08.  The Pack’s pattern for the games at FSU has looked like this: loss, win, loss, win, loss.  Seems pretty obvious to me that all this means 2009 is our turn to get the win.

Twelve years ago today was Homecoming night at South Stanly High School. It was my Junior year. I don’t remember anything about the game. I think we won, but that didn’t really matter to me. I was focused on the Homecoming dance after the game and what happened there is something I’ll never forget.

I had been talking to this girl that I had been good friends with since 8th grade and we were going to the dance together. That girl was Mrs. DFCF and that night at the dance we started dating. The rest is history.

Our journey has been great and filled with lots of fun and laughs. We get along better now than we ever have. Somehow she has been able to put up with me through the years and always manages to keep that beautiful smile on her face in the process.

Times are a changing though. Mrs. DFCF started back to school to get her Doctor in Education (EdD) and I started this blog about NC State football. So she’s gonna be bringing home the bacon while I’m driving myself crazy. Good thing she’s a certified counselor. Still not sure she realized exactly what she was getting herself into. We joke to some of our friends that in our prenup I have permission to miss the birth of a kid if it’s on the same day as a State football game. I don’t think Mrs. DFCF has figured out yet that I’m not really joking.

What an awesome woman. All I can say is I’m one lucky fella and I definitely outkicked my coverage.

Well it’s bye week and there’s not much to talk about so let’s have a little fun.  I know everybody remembers the Where’s Waldo? game.  Well let’s call this Where’s DFCF?  The above picture is from NC State’s Red Means Go marketing campaign (visit the website here), which has been absolutely magnificent.  I love the innovation and creativity that has been put into this campaign and I always love seeing/hearing about the good things at my beloved NC State.  By the way, if anybody from the University is reading this I’m still waiting on my royalty check.  As you can see with one quick glance above, the campaign just wouldn’t have been the same without me

It shouldn’t be hard to spot me.  I’m the one that looks like he’s about to have a brain aneurysm.  Enjoy!  Where’s DFCF?

Look at me back in my college days trying to be cool with the hat on backwards.  (Cue up Will Ferrell’s sound bite from Wedding Crashers … “What a loser!”)  It’s always fun reminiscing back to the good ol’ days.  You know, back when our tailgate menus consisted of kegs and eggs, we could play our music as loud as we pleased, and the only rule involving a 5 was the 5 second rule.

None of those are the case any more thanks to former Chancellor James Oblinger and current Vice Chancellor Tom Stafford.  I can’t even believe I’m mentioning those two names on my blog.  I promise I’m not trying to sabotage my own blog.  Anyway, this whole 5 hour rule (actually don’t forget that it started out as the 4 hour rule) is flat out stupid.  It was a huge overreaction that hasn’t come close to solving the real problem that is at hand, yet somehow four years later it still stands.

This attack on tailgating has started to spread to places other than NC State too, even the NFL.  If I close my eyes it almost feels like I’ve been teleported back to Kindergarden and banished to timeout by my teacher.  I mean what is going on?  It’s gotten so bad that ESPN’s Rick Reilly wrote a recent article about it which you can read here.  I can’t put it as elegant as him so I won’t even try, but it just really sucks.

We don’t have any real football tradition at State.  We’ve had some great players in the past and a few good teams, but nothing anywhere close to putting us on the national map.  All us Wolfpackers know this and have accepted it (in my case very begrudgingly), but the one thing we have always had to be proud of was our tailgating.  I hope that our new Chancellor will put this issue at the top of his/her list and right this wrong.  If we want to be a top football program we at least need to act like one.

The game sucked so at least I got to look at cheerleaders.

So I’m not going to break down the BC game because it was just that bad.  Thankfully this is our bye week so I’ll at least have one weekend the rest of this fall free of nightmares about the opposing team’s offense.  Saturday I plan on going to my makeshift shooting range at the in-law’s house to take out some frustration with my Glock.  The paper silhouette targets don’t deserve the carnage that I plan to impose on them.

Speaking of bye weeks, the last two years TOB has really worked his magic during the bye week with our combined record improving from 3-9 before to 8-5 after.  Hopefully he has it up his sleeve again this year because we need to win 4 of our 5 remaining games to qualify for a bowl.  I love my brother and all, but I really don’t want him to be home for Christmas.  So here are the changes I would love to see to help turn around our season.  Some of these are obvious and some may seem outrageous, but at this point in the season you have to do whatever it takes to make the team better.  Sticking with the Boston theme for one more blog entry, I’ll call this our “Freedom Trail” to a winning season.

1. Be creative and unpredictable with the running game. Use more two TE sets or a FB to lead block.  Try running to the left side of the field a few times.  Set a limit of 3 running plays out of the shotgun per game.  Don’t call a running play just because it’s first down.  And  call more designed runs for Russell.
2. Shake up the O-line. The talent level between the seniors and underclassmen is minimal so start playing for next year.  Bench LG Julian Williams for a rotation of Andrew Wallace and Zach Allen.  Give RG R.J. Mattes every snap and quit rotating him out for Andy Barbee.
3. Run shorter quicker passing routes. The golden rule says, “do unto others as they have done unto you.”  Well not exactly, but that’s how we need to apply it.  Our receivers struggle to get open consistently because the opposing defenses rush four guys and drop seven into coverage and all we run are straight long slow routes that are easy to cover.  Follow the examples of Duke and Wake, run more screens, slants, quick outs, pick routes, etc.
4. Get tougher and nastier on defense. You can’t fix the lack of instincts and bad tackling in the small amount of time left in the season, but we can put guys in there that are tough and nasty.  Audie Cole is terrible so bench him and move Bobby Floyd to his spot.  Put J.R. Sweezy at MLB.  Burn redshirts before putting Koyal George or Justin Byers back on the field.  Play Clem Johnson deep in cover one and bring Brandan Bishop and Earl Wolff up closer to the line so they can be physical in run support, underneath coverage, and blitzing the QB.
5. Be aggressive on 3rd and 4th downs. Teams have been killing us all year on 3rd and 4th down because that is when we sit back in soft ultra conservative mode.  Play tight man coverage on the outside and blitz, blitz, blitz.  Dare the other team to beat us deep instead of giving them the wide open short passes.  Our D-line is the strongest unit on our team so make the QB hold the ball longer in the pocket so they have time to do their thing.

Everybody wanted seafood on Friday night so we decided to go to The Barking Crab on a recommendation from one of Tommy’s friends in NYC.  When we walked up we saw a line out the door so we knew something must be up.  We then found out that The Barking Crab had been on a recent episode of the Travel Channel’s Man v. Food.  I had never heard of this show before, but it was still kinda cool so we decided to wait it out.

Well we waited for two hours, half of that outside in the freezing cold, before we were seated.  Me and Tommy started taking shots of Jameson to keep us warm which was probably not the best idea, for me anyway.  There were six other groups of NC State fans either already eating or waiting to so we felt in good company.  While we were waiting we struck up a conversation with one of the groups and found out that it was George Bryan’s family.  It was cool getting to know them a little and talking some Wolfpack Football.

Once we were finally seated we were absolutely starving so we ordered the largest thing on the menu, the 10 pound lobster and 3 pounds of crab legs.  Check out the claws on that lobster, they were almost as big as my head and I have a big head.  We couldn’t wait for that thing so we had to get some clam chowder, oysters, and mussels as appetizers.  Once the lobster and crab legs got to our table, we destroyed the platter.  We left The Barking Crab a little lighter in the wallet, but the food was good and well worth it.

Boston is a great city. Had a lot of fun walking around and seeing the sites on Thursday and Friday. Went on a tour of Fenway Park, walked the Freedom Trail, took one of those famous Duck Tours, walked around Harvard’s campus, and ate at several good local restaurants/pubs. All in all a lot of fun.

Then came Saturday. We were at the place to be before the game, Roggie’s Brew & Grille. The atmosphere was great, the food was good, the beer was cold, and the people were nice. Then the game happened.

It was cold as balls out there and we got destroyed. Not much more to say than that. I told several friends this week that I thought Boston College was going to try to run the ball against us. It’s safe to say that I was dead on accurate about that. BC’s Montel Harris set school records with 264 yards rushing and 5 touchdowns. This is the worst State defense that I can ever remember and somehow they were ranked the #1 defense in the country through the first month of the season. Yeah, that’s not a typo.

The game was so bad that I could not even muster up the energy to start anything. The only minor incident happened in the 4th quarter with two 10 year old kids. They came over to the 90% vacated State section and sat down a few rows behind me. The score was 52-20 and they proceeded to boo State. I turned to them and calmly said, “Look at the scoreboard, you’re beating our ass so cool it.” They looked like they had just seen a ghost and then immediately moved. Crisis averted.

Most of the BC fans were very nice, but I think it was mostly because they felt bad that I traveled all this way to watch that. I even made a few BC friends after the game at Mary Ann’s, the hole in the wall BC student dive bar. We were the oldest people in there and the only Wolfpackers. There was plenty of friendly ribbing going back and forth. Me laughing at them for drinking Busch Light, in my opinion the cheapest nastiest beer on the planet, and them laughing at me for State taking Tom O’Brien and Dana Bible off their hands, in their opinion the boringest worst coaches in college football. Good times, great oldies.