Zach Galifianakis rockin' the NC State visor on the Red Carpet
I just ran across this picture of Zach Galifianakis (of The Hangover fame) sporting some NC State swag at the premiere of his HBO show Bored to Death. Can’t believe I’m just now seeing this. As Galifianakis’ stardom continues to soar I hope he will continues to promote NC State whenever he can. Maybe he can find a way to wear a NC State shirt in The Hangover 2. I’ll provide the shirt(s) if he’ll make it happen. Zach just drop me a line (dfcf99 at gmail dot com). That would be much better marketing than anything our futile marketing department has done over the past decade.
Speaking of our marketing department, how tough is it to reach out to Galifianakis and bring him back for a football game? Imagine how crazy that would be for the fans and how much good publicity that would generate for the University. At least incorporate his “one man wolfpack” scene into the jumbotron mix as I pleaded for in this article back in September. I know he’s a busy guy, but we should be able to find a way for him to be involved. Remember Galifianakis did attend State and left to pursue his acting career just one credit shy from graduating so this would be totally different from some random actor/actress wearing a UNC shirt because it’s “cool.”
I’ve been in Myrtle Beach playing golf (and bad golf at that) with a group of guys for the past few days so it’s been a little quiet here. I have some work … and sleep … to catch up on so enjoy the Cornhole Song video above that was shot at none other than Carter-Finley Stadium. Cornhole has been a strong addition to the DFCF clan’s tailgating. I had a good friend make me some custom boards which can be seen below. That’s one of my loyal readers standing there in the back.
Before DFCF there was DFDFB … Dave from Doak Field Bullpen. Oh those were the days. I didn’t bring much to the table for the Wolfpack baseball team, but I knew my role (bullpen catcher) and I busted my tail every day to do my part. Well except maybe that one time I had to be at Doak Field at 7:00 am to pull the tarp off the field and my roommate had to drive me because I had a little too much fun the night before. The best part of that story was my roommate got suckered into helping with the tarp because there was only seven of us (you know the guys that never played) that had tarp duty and it was very windy that morning. Oh I’ve already said too much.
Enough about me, the 2010 version of the NC State baseball team kicks off their season tomorrow. Check out the schedule here. I don’t know much about this year’s team, but they are not ranked in any of the preseason polls and the ACC coaches have tabbed them as the 8th best team. Wolfpack QB Russell Wilson will be the player that gets the most press because of how his baseball season will affect whether or not he plays football next year. There are some reports saying that Russell could be the team’s closer, in addition to playing infield. We shall see. I understand the team’s big question mark is the pitching staff so I can understand why Coach Avent is taking a look at Russell on the mound. This transition worked for former Wolfpack SS Chad Orvella so he’s trying to hit the jackpot twice.
Regardless of how the pitching turns out for Russell, I just find it hard to see him playing football next year. I hope like hell I’m wrong on that. I have heard from a few people that say the MLB scouts still give him a top 10 round grade right now. Of course that could change depending on how he performs this year, but I fully expect him to have a good season. I mean, he is skipping spring football practice and devoting all his time to baseball so why would Wolfpack Nation not expect Russell to perform at a peak level like we have seen him do so often on the gridiron. (Edit: After I posted this, GoPack ran this article about Russell and his outlook on the baseball season.)
Anywho, good luck to the NC State baseball team this season and congrats to the new NC State Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Dan Plesac, Doug Strange, and Steve Martin.
Nate Irving is healed and raring to play some football
This isn’t breaking news, but it still needs to be said … we missed Nate Irving a lot last year. His playmaking ability would have covered up some of our many deficiencies on defense. Opposing offenses would have had to try and stay away from him thus becoming a little more predictable. His intensity and emotion would have helped to compensate for the far too many times our team looked like apathetic robots out there just going through the motions, a direct reflection of TOB and the coaching staff. His leadership and experience on a young, inexperienced defense (minus the fact that we had 4 Seniors starting on the defensive line) surely would have helped us get off the field more on 3rd downs. Nate Irving is, without a doubt, a difference maker and something our team last year was sorely lacking.
Nate is now 100 percent healthy and ready for the start of Spring Practice. That is great news for Wolfpack Nation. I know I’m not along in saying this, but I cannot wait to see #56 back out on the field. I know Mrs. DFCF is ready for that too. The way she watches State football is to just follow #56 because “that’s where all the action happens.” GoPack has a very nice article about Nate and what all he has gone through in the past six months since the car accident. Go here to read it. The excerpt below tells me all I need to know.
Right now, Irving just has one thing in mind: the start of spring practice on March 9. “I’m ready to hit somebody,” he says with a smile. “I can’t put into words how it’s going to feel the first time I can put on pads and tackle somebody. The first thing I hit? Well, I really feel sorry for it.”
I learned back in college that in order to preserve my health I had to ration my NC State sports watching, and I don’t miss a second of a football game (obviously), so I only watched about five minutes of the basketball game this weekend. The video pretty much sums up my feelings. Whenever I have kids I will make sure the first thing they learn is how to hate the Tarheels just like this little guy.
So my favorite line is when the dad says, “We love the Wolfpack and they’re gonna be really good … someday, right?” That’s what I tell myself everyday to keep me going. I have the champagne on ice waiting for that glorious moment and when it finally comes it is going to be so sweet. That reminds me, Mrs. DFCF asked me over the weekend if I had ever had the feeling that everything in my life was perfect. My response, “uhh … I am a Wolfpack fan.” Someday, right?
I’ve been working on ideas for some fun articles (State of the Program, my fix to the BCS, Spring Practice preview, etc.) to write over the next few weeks since news comes to a standstill after National Signing Day, but with all the news happening in the Wolfpack Football program this week those articles are going to have to wait.
First, LB coach Andy McCollum left to be closer to home at Georgia Tech. He will be the DL coach and recruiting coordinator for the reigning ACC champs. Coach Mac was a good fundamental coach, but his presence will be missed the most when it comes to recruiting. The high school recruits are just magnetized by his cool, enthusiastic, fiery personality. He is the guy most responsible for the influx of players the Wolfpack program has experienced over the past three years from the talent rich state of Georgia.
Second, TOB wasted no time in hiring Jon Tenuta (bio) to replace Coach Mac as LB coach. I haven’t been able to confirm, but it happened so quickly that I have a good feeling TOB knew Coach Mac was leaving for a while and already had this plan in place. Tenuta has the credentials (29 years experience, 16 as a defensive coordinator, 5 straight top 30 defenses at Georgia Tech, coached a lot of NFL players, etc.), has always been a thorn in the side of Wolfpack offenses, and was more than likely TOB’s top choice so I would have to say this is a pretty good hire.
Tenuta fever is definitely reaching pandemic levels in Wolfpack Nation, but I’m not gaga over this like some that have proclaimed it as a “walk off grand slam!” Tenuta was the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame this past season and they were absolutely atrocious (397.8 ypg, 25.9 ppg) so put me in the undecided category for now. We have tons of fundamental flaws on defense that need a lot more than a new zone blitz scheme to be fixed. I want to wait and see the product on the field, but come Fall, I can be converted faster than warp speed.
So this year’s Super Bowl was pretty low key in the DFCF household. Last year there were more kids than adults at the Super Bowl party we went to so this year Mrs. DFCF and I decided to stay home and watch the game in our PJs. I was pulling for under 1:43.5 on the National Anthem, a Colts win by at least 5 points, and the Gatorade/water to be dumped on the winning coach to be clear* … none of which happened. So today as I’m avoiding my bookie and eating Ramen Noodles for lunch I reflect back on the one thing that made me smile last night … “Milka What!”
I’m not going to rank all the Super Bowl ads, but that one was my favorite. I don’t mind babies and the Super Bowl if they’re part of a new E*Trade ad that makes me laugh so hard I pee my pants. I’d invite that baby to my Super Bowl party next year, but only if he promised to show everybody his “shocked face” repeatedly.
The other ad that caught my eye was the FLO TV ad that featured NC State’s Lorenzo Charles dunk to win the 1983 National Championship. I always love seeing NC State get some prime-time exposure, but don’t blink or you’ll miss it (occurs at the 0:29 mark).
Congrats to former Wolfpacker DeMario Pressley. I don’t think he got on the field last night (he definitely doesn’t appear in the boxscore), but he’s still a Super Bowl champ. Not a bad title to carry around with you for the rest of your life.
*Note: Next year I’m not even going to mess with betting on the game. Mrs. DFCF and I decided we’re going to pick 15-20 prop bets and have fun with that. Her favorite part of the game was seeing if a live animal would appear on the field during halftime (Yes +500). When it didn’t happen she was so letdown that she promptly fell asleep in the 3rd quarter. Not next year, right babe?
The ACC released the 2010 NC State football schedule today. Looks like a pretty tough “road” for the Wolfpack, literally. A whopping six road games this year is the most since the 2002 season and that year we had a 13 game schedule. That’s not really a great thing since we have a 4-10 record on the road during the TOB era.
So that leaves us with only six home games and of the six home games two of them are on Thursday nights. While there’s no doubt the exposure from a nationally televised game on ESPN is always great exposure for the program, call me old school, I just love playing on Saturdays when college football games are meant to be played. Plus we do have a 0-3 record on Thursday nights during the TOB era and I have to take two days vacation at work because my boss man would never ever believe me if I were to call in “sick.”
I could go into more detail and analyze the makeup of the schedule, but that’s an absolute waste of time. What it all comes down to is the team strapping on their helmets and playing some damn football. So here’s the schedule. Contact your travel agent now and make your plans to join me on the road.
2010 NC State Football Schedule
Sept. 4 WESTERN CAROLINA
Sept. 11 at Central Florida
Sept. 16 CINCINNATI (Thurs. ESPN)
Sept. 25 at Georgia Tech
Oct. 2 VIRGINIA TECH
Oct. 9 BOSTON COLLEGE
Oct. 16 at East Carolina
Oct. 28 FLORIDA ST. (Thurs. ESPN)
Nov. 6 at Clemson
Nov. 13 WAKE FOREST
Nov. 20 at North Carolina
Nov. 27 at Maryland
Well 2010 National Signing Day has come and gone. It was a pretty routine day around the Murphy Center. No surprises, good or bad. My take: there are a few guys that really impress me, but overall it’s a lot of average. I will admit it’s a little crazy ranking the classes 7 months before these guys ever play their first game, but if you think the rankings don’t matter then you’re a little naive.
There’s a bunch of different recruiting services that release rankings, so I averaged the rankings from Rivals, Scout, and ESPN to come up with a consensus ranking. Let’s look at the consensus Top 10 classes in order: Florida, Texas, Alabama, Auburn, Oklahoma, USC (sorry Cock fans … this is the real USC), LSU, UCLA, Florida State, and Penn State. That list reads like a Who’s Who of college football programs. It includes the last seven national champions and eight of them show up in the top 14 on the Top 25 College Programs of the Decade list put together by my buddies over at Frumpzilla (one of my college roomies and half my fantasy football league keep that site running so show them some love). It’s a lot easier to win when you have the best players so let’s all just agree that the rankings do matter.
Speaking of rankings let’s get back to the Wolfpack’s class. The recruiting gurus have it as the 6th or 7th best class … in the ACC. I guess that is better than where we’ve finished in the actual league standings during the TOB era. I just expect better than that, especially with our passionate fan base and the best facilities in the ACC (per ESPN). We did get a few guys that I’m really excited about (shown in the picture below) including one BIG time pickup, literally.
The six guys I'm most excited about.
The jewel of the class is OL Rob Crisp (6’7″ 299lb.) out of Raleigh. He was rated one of the best players, regardless of position, in the country and should man the LT spot for the next four years. Two others that have me excited are DB’s David Amerson and Dontae Johnson. Hopefully they can step in immediately next year and help solve the massive problems we had in the secondary this past year. The final three I can’t wait to see in the Red and White are WR’s Tony Creecy and Bryan Underwood, and RB Mustafa Greene. You can never have too many speedy playmakers and I think these three will fit that mold for the Pack. I’m sure there will be a really good player or two come out of the rest of the class, but these are the six that have me looking to the future with hope and anticipation.
To these six and all the other new Wolfpackers (click here for bios) … welcome to the family! You made the best decision of your life (I’m not biased at all). To TOB, take a day to do your honey do’s, then start working on next year’s class. GO PACK!
As I’m writing this I’m watching Spike’s new sitcom about college football called Blue Mountain State. The show’s actually pretty lame and it has ten times more partying and sexual innuendos than football, but I miss college football that bad and it’s all I have so I watch anyway.
Today is a big day… National Signing Day. Yay! I remember back when I was in college I would skip class, stay at my apartment, and follow the recruiting stuff all day. I promise you it was better than sitting through boring lectures that you couldn’t understand by foreign professors. Of course, that was when we had one top 10 class and several top 25 classes. At the time NSD was my second most anticipated day of the year (after Christmas). Nowadays it’s just a formality. (Edit: NSD is my third most anticipated day of the year … stupid me forgot about opening day of the season … that surpasses Christmas as #1)
TOB likes to have his classes finished each year by New Year’s Day so there’s little drama and anticipation leading up to actual National Signing Day for the Pack. That is as long as we don’t have any last minute deflections. I always worry about these 18 year old high school kids and their “commitments” that seem to change every few days. Recruiting seems to get crazier and crazier every year. I do think it’s time for the NCAA to really look into creating an early signing period in the fall to help ease the stress on these college coaches. We don’t want Urban Meyer having a panic attack, stroke, and/or heart attack do we? Well … I won’t answer that question.
This is the sixth National Signing Day since I graduated from State and started working and believe it or not I haven’t called in sick to work for any of them. Honestly. Boy Scouts’ honor. That’s mostly because I’ve been out of the office at a job site for five of the six. WTF? It just always seems to work out that way. I try like heck to work my schedule around it too. I had it all set up this year to be in the office, but thanks to the snow/ice storm over the weekend my plans got changed. If I wasn’t tired of this cold weather before I definitely am now.
If I was in the office it would be no different than back in college. I would be on the internet all day and get little to no work done. All I can say is thank God for the iPhone. Now I’ll just be reading the internet while driving down the road. Seems like a bad idea, huh? Hopefully that fax machine in the Murphy Center will be busy early in the morning and done by lunch time so I won’t be refreshing waiting on that last Letter of Intent to come in. I’ll chime in with my specific thoughts on the class after everything becomes official later today. For any of you undecided recruits out there (*cough* Keenan Allen *cough*) don’t be a loser, come run with the Pack!
I think I may have just pulled a Lane Kiffin (a.k.a. secondary recruiting violation) by discussing an uncommitted recruit. Oh screw it. Let the NCAA come after me. That is way more important than finishing up the Reggie Bush investigation, right?
