With today’s big news I have to spend some time talking basketball. That big news being five-star forward CJ Leslie re-committing to the Pack (see the N&O’s take here and here) … joining five-star guards Ryan Harrow and Lorenzo Brown in a class that Sidney Lowe hopes will be the cornerstone of the future of Wolfpack basketball. And today just happens to be the 17th anniversary of Jimmy V’s passing. I’m just saying. Watch this video and see what the excitement is all about.
Wow! Every time I watch that it gives me goosebumps. I’m not a basketball expert (hell I’m not a football expert either even though I try to act like one) but I don’t need to be to realize how big a deal this is. I did have the chance to see both Leslie and Harrow play this past December in a tournament here in Charlotte and the athleticism of both was very impressive. I have to fess up to a little jock sniffing since I did go out of my way to talk to both guys. I basically just told them how awesome they were and wished them luck for the rest of their seasons. Unfortunately I didn’t pose for any school pictures with them. Can we just skip football season and jump straight to basketball? For the first time in a long long time I’m more excited about Wolfpack basketball and it’s not even close.
I’m mostly happy for Sidney Lowe. I loved the hire and still do. In my opinion he shouldn’t have been on any hot seat, but at least this will shut that talk up. While I’m on this topic let me vent a little. So I’m still a little bitter how Chuck Amato was railroaded out of town (I’m not the only one … Philip Rivers) and I’ve been worried that Sidney would have to face the same fate. I just feel that alums should be given more respect. To them it’s not just a job, they take it personal like the rest of us do. We were still competitive under Chuck so the whole thing was the penalties. Would you rather have a team that gets a few personal foul penalties because of their physical, all-out play or a team that never gets penalties because they play like a bunch of robots? I’ll take the penalties. Having a chance to win every game beats the heck out of getting your butts kicked all the time. Enough venting. Hopefully this recruiting class will get Wolfpack Nation excited enough to really get behind Sidney. He’s the right guy and the future of Wolfpack basketball is right now.
In other bball news I have to give Duke’s Jon Scheyer some major kudos. Yeah I said that. Scheyer is using his notoriety to host a video game tournament with some of the proceeds going to The V Foundation. To find out more info click here. I knew there was a reason I pulled for them to win the National Championship a few weeks ago. Hey, I see a pattern here … UNC 2009 National Champs … Duke 2010 National Champs … NC State 2011 National Champs? Okay, maybe that’s going a little too far. It’s been way too long (1989 to be exact) so I’ll settle for an ACC Championship.
Tuesday I posted this write-up welcoming Chancellor Woodson. Then today, Tim Peeler of GoPack has a great article about getting to know Chancellor Woodson (click here to read it) which deals more with the sports angle of his chancellorship. Not sure if I used that term correctly, but I’m an engineer not an english major so it sounds good to me. I loved what Chancellor Woodson had to say. Here’s some of the quotes that stood out to me:
“What I see is a university whose alumni are passionate about athletics. I have already heard from a lot of them.”
“… we have world-class facilities for athletics at NC State. All the pieces appear to be very strong to put this puzzle together. But our alums and our fans want us to win. And, frankly, I like to win too.”
“I just need to do everything I can to create an environment here where the coaches can be successful and the student-athletes can be successful. I’ll be a big fan, but I need the athletics director to be the person [in charge of] the coaches and the organization.”
“Let’s not go back and tell [Purdue athletics director] Morgan Burke this, but Saturday’s game was a bigger spring event than I ever experienced at Purdue.”
What I take from all these quotes is that NC State should have a successful athletics program and that Chancellor Woodson will do everything in his power to make sure that is the case. That is definitely something that DFCF is on board with and it gets even better. The quote that should really give all of Wolfpack Nation a warm fuzzy feeling that Chancellor Woodson understands “it” is the following:
“In 1974, I was a high school student and I just remember seeing David Thompson play on television. I had never seen anybody jump like he did. He was such an iconic basketball player.In terms of 1983, it was just such a wild ending to a season. This was a team that was on the bubble of even going to the NCAA. I was at LSU during that season. It just is an iconic moment in college basketball history. I have also come to appreciate that Reynolds Coliseum was a huge part of the growth of college basketball in the state of North Carolina. I think Everett Case was, too. To a certain extent, Duke and North Carolina should be grateful to NC State for what was created here.”
He saved the best for last, huh? As I read that it felt like I was sitting in the back pew of a Southern Baptist church … Amen Brother Woodson! Preach on! He not only realizes how important it is now, but how important it has been to our school’s history. Call me crazy or call me a homer (not homo), but if NC State athletics were a stock I’d definitely be buying as much as I could right now.
The tone of my posts over the past few weeks have been more serious than normal so I wanted to lighten up the mood a little. I went to YouTube and searched ‘funny nc state football’ and the second result was this video. BOOM! I’ve been taking dance lessons with Mrs. DFCF for a while now, but we have yet to learn this move. I feel shafted. And this guy got escorted out of Carter-Finley. Man I’d love to swap stories with him because this is one that I could be proud to tell my grandkids about. Enjoy!
Today I took my semiannual trip to the dentist. Woohoo! With all the Diet Dr. Pepper I drink (I’m addicted to that stuff like Tiger Woods is to … women) it’s a miracle that I didn’t have any cavities, but everything checked out good so no worries. How does this relate to NC State football? Well everything I do somehow relates to NC State football. For example, the dump I just took ran through me like Travis Leggett (21 car, 129 yds) ran through the second team Defense at the Kay Yow Spring Game. Where else can you get Spring Game analysis like that?
Anyway back to the dentist visit, when my dental hygienist was done poking sharp pointy metal things around in my mouth for half an hour she tried to schedule my next visit for October 28 … the day of the Thursday Night ESPN game vs. Florida State. It took me about five milliseconds to start telling her why that wouldn’t work. Come to find out she’s a Carolina fan, most likely of the Walmart variety. What a shame, I was just starting to like this dentist office.
So if I haven’t bored you to death or grossed you out, let’s move on to some more Spring Game analysis. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again … you can’t take too much away from a Spring Game. It’s good for the coaching staff because they can evaluate progress (or lack thereof), see younger guys/walk-ons in game like situations, try out different things, and work on specific situations. It’s also good for the fans because it gives us a chance to tailgate (I might not have been at Carter-Finley, but I was still tailgating on Bald Head Island) and get a taste of football to hold us off until the Fall. I’m not going to go through all the stats (go here for that) because most don’t tell you much, but there are a few that do. Here’s the things that really stood out to me:
More than 20 regulars were held out with injuries so only 46 scholarship players participated. Most of these injuries were nothing more than minor tweaks. With so much time to heal before actual games begin I’m a little curious why they were all held out. Smells a little fishy to me.
The secondary is still very bad. Mike Glennon is a great talent, but he’s our second team QB with the following career stats: 24 of 39 for 248 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. Against our first team Defense his Spring Game performance was 21 of 38 for 423 yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Most of the time it looked way to easy too.
The Offensive Line is still not the strength that it should be. They can pass block, but it still seems like they aren’t physical/nasty enough to dominate the line of scrimmage in order to run the ball effectively. James Washington had 12 carries for a paltry 27 yards against a Defensive Line that is a huge question mark heading into next season. These stats can be a little misleading because Dana Bible does get very pass happy and absolutely abandons the running game at times. Even so the Offensive Line has got to get more push and open up more holes for the running backs.
The defense worked on adding the 3-4 all throughout Spring Practice, but I didn’t see any in the Spring Game. [Note: I was watching on Pack Pass so I could have missed it. Correct me if I'm wrong.] It will be interesting to see how and when we implement this into game plans this season.
Nate Irving was only suppose to play in the first half of the Spring Game for precautionary reasons. Nate had other plans, though, and didn’t want to come out so he played the first series (maybe two) of the second half against the will of the coaches. You have to love his passion for the game and it sure is great to have him back on the field.
Jeff Ruiz can punt a pretty good ball … when there’s no rush in his face. Knowing that can we scrap the stupid spread punt formation. Here’s where the worn out cliché ‘trying to put a square peg in a round hole’ comes to my mind.
Our team still has a long way to go before Western Carolina comes to Carter-Finley on September 4th. I’ve examined the schedulebackwards, forwards, sideways, inside out, and upside down and I still can’t find more than five wins (best case scenario). The one thing I can say for certain is … it’s going to be a long, agonizing four months waiting for the season to get here.
I did watch the Kay Yow Spring Game on Pack Pass. I devoted way too much of a perfect day at the beach watching a live stream of a NC State football practice, but that’s what I do. I have plenty of thoughts/observations that I’ll get to in the next few days so check back. I’m still trying to talk to a few people I know that were actually there to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
There is some other important NC State news that I have neglected far too long that I have to mention. Randy Woodson has officially taken over as the new Chancellor (read his bio). While I was a student Marye Anne Fox was the Chancellor and I loved her. She did a great job for the University and was very pro sports. She left right before I graduated and James Oblinger took over. I was never fond of him at all. Even before the embarrassment of the Mary Easley fiasco he was never a pro sports guy and he helped usher in the 5 hour tailgating rule that I absolutely despise and still doesn’t make any sense to me. I’ll reserve final judgement on Chancellor Woodson, but he’s definitely made a great first impression on me. I’m very excited about what NC State University could be under his leadership.
New NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson and his wife Susan
The NC State Alumni magazine had a great article about new Chancellor Woodson in the Spring 2010 issue which can be read here. Aside from the fact that he looks like a great person to lead our University, I really liked seeing the following quote from him:
“I think one of the areas where [we’re] different from Purdue right now is [that NC State needs] to win a little more in athletics. It enhances the brand when athletics perform at the highest levels. It has the potential to tarnish the brand when things go awry. And what I mean by that is not just losing, but having controversy associated with the athletics program. I’m a firm believer in the value of competitive athletics for the institution. I believe that it’s got to be done with integrity, with strong business principles so that it’s a solid resource and on solid financial ground. When it’s done well, it really adds tremendous value to the NC State brand. You can’t buy the kind of advertising that you get from a successful athletics program.”
That’s music to my ears Chancellor Woodson. Now let’s start making it happen. Welcome to NC State!
I’m writing this blog from Bald Head Island. Sitting here on the deck overlooking the Atlantic Ocean with a nice cool breeze in my face, life couldn’t be any more perfect. Back in Raleigh the Wolfpack are taking part in the Kay Yow Spring Game. It’s the first Spring Game I’ve missed in five years and only the second since 2000. I have to admit I hate not being at Carter-Finley today, but this is way more relaxing.
I will take an hour or so away from my fun in the sun to watch the Spring Game on Pack Pass. It’s probably best I’m not there in person anyway. A second coach approached my brother at practice this week about my questions at the Badin WPC Caravan. He said I was ’giving TOB the business’ so there very well could be Wanted posters calling for my head.
Well enough blogging for now. Time to go enjoy the beach. I’ll check back later with my thoughts on the Spring Game.
I know my loyal readers have been brimming with anticipation for this entry. Sorry for making you wait, but I was hoping you would come back several times looking for it so I was just milking it for a few extra page views. Anything to drive more traffic to the site. You can say I’m like a cheap hooker in that regard. Enough already, here’s part two of the Badin WPC Caravan recap featuring the headliner … Tom O’Brien.
Bobby Purcell introduced TOB. I didn’t really pay attention to everything he said about TOB and the football program, but I did hear him close with the fact that TOB is 3-0 against Carolina. As soon as TOB got up to the mic he joked that he was talking with one of the boosters in the back about how that was the only thing keeping him his job. Of course the whole place laughed, but that is the only thing of note that TOB has accomplished in his three year tenure so there’s probably some truth to that. I hate Carolina more than anybody, but I think State fans get too caught up in beating Carolina that they lose sight of the real goal … winning championships.
After that joke, TOB thanked everybody for coming out and made a few comments about the Badin Inn & Golf Resort. He then went into talking about last season and the two things he mentioned were … youth and injuries. No big shock there. That’s becoming a broken record with TOB and his convenient go-to excuse for underachievement. You’ll see it even more as we move to the Q&A session later. He continued giving an overview of the program hitting all of the following topics: Spring Practice, recruiting, roster turnover, injury news, next season, and finally the Kay Yow Spring Game.
The comment that really stood out to me was the following, “I had a good thing up at Boston College so I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t think we would have a lot of success. I’m here to win ACC championships and national championships.” I’m glad to hear him talking about championships, because as I mentioned earlier that is the ultimate goal, but national championships? Nothing like blowing a little sunshine to the boosters I guess. We’ve yet to finish higher than 5th in the ACC Atlantic Division so he can’t actually believe that national championship talk, right?
Finally he opened the floor for questions. Most of the questions were ones you would expect. Is Nate Irving back to 100%? How’s recruiting? What does Jon Tenuta bring to the Defense? Is Russell Wilson coming back? How does Mike Glennon look? TOB gave the same answers to these questions that you’ve already heard in the media recently. I had a list of five questions that I wanted to ask. I didn’t want to dominate the Q&A so I decided to only pick one. I like all the questions I had come up with, but the one that baffles me every single day and sometimes gives me nightmares is the one I went with.
“I’m sure you’re aware of this fact, but over the last three seasons we’ve lost 13 games by 17 points or more. In a lot of those games, specifically the four from last season (Duke, Boston College, Clemson, Virginia Tech), it looked like our guys just quit and rolled over in the 4th quarter. What are you and the coaching staff doing to make sure that doesn’t happen any more?”
TOB first said he didn’t think we gave up in any of those games last year. Wow! I was at them all, but apparently I was watching the wrong game. I’ll give him Duke and Clemson, but the Boston College and Virginia Tech games we definitely quit. I don’t know how I stayed until the end at BC (it was freezing cold too), but at Virginia Tech I didn’t even stick around to see one play in the 4th quarter. I’ve only left a handful of games early and never ever missed an entire 4th quarter (by choice … we won’t talk about that one ECU game). That’s how frustrated, disappointed, and embarrassed I was.
Then TOB said we were young and had a lot of injuries (I told you that excuse would come back around) that caused us to start 10 different lineups on defense and we just “weren’t a very good football team.” Then he took a shot at Amato by saying that when he got here there wasn’t much talent to work with. He must have forgot that most of the best players he’s had were all Chuck recruits including Russell Wilson, Nate Irving, Willie Young, Andre Brown, and Toney Baker just to name a few. The best part was the 5 second death stare he gave me when he was done answering the question. I’m not making that up either. Stay classy!
“When you have a team that’s young and injured and has to start 10 different lineups like you mentioned earlier, isn’t there something you and your staff can do with the game plan or the scheme or something else to hide your weaknesses so that you can still be competitive and win football games?”
That was the follow up question that I asked a little later on in the evening. TOB was real brief in his response to this one. He said that they tried everything and then repeated that we “weren’t a very good football team.” I don’t know which I find more troubling: that it’s year three and we’re still not a very good football team or that our coaches tried everything to turn it around and they couldn’t find anything that worked.
The story gets better, Tuesday at practice one of the coaches approached my brother and said that he heard I was “angry” at the Caravan dinner the night before. Angry is how I was after most of our games last year. Monday night I was very civil and asked a couple legitimate questions. Sorry if I didn’t jock sniff like everybody else. I’m still puzzled as to how TOB knew who I was. He must be one of my loyal blog readers! If so, my only message is … just win baby!
I always look forward to the Wolfpack Club Caravan stops. I didn’t attend these functions the first few years after I graduated from State because they are mostly for the big wheel donors (a.k.a. old geezers), but I have been to at least one for the past 4 years. It’s always nice to be around a bunch of fellow Wolfpackers and I like to think I’m on my way to becoming one of those big wheel donors. Maybe not the big donor part, although I do give more than my fair share, but with my birthday this week I’m definitely moving closer and closer to the old geezer part. I’m even starting to get the gray hairs to prove it … thanks to NC State football no less.
So the WPC Caravan stop tonight was at the Badin Inn & Golf Resort. It was the first time I’d been there since my Sophomore year of high school and my days in Youth Leadership Stanly. Yeah believe it or not I was once aprotégédestined for great things. Don’t even ask what happened. Anyway, my date for tonight was my lovely mother and I even let my oldest younger brother tag along. I think they both had a good time and I tried not to embarrass them too much. The Badin Inn & Golf Resort was a nice setting, but it was just too small and not really equipped to handle the announced crowd of over 100 people.
The featured speakers were Tom O’Brien and Kellie Harper with surprise appearances from men’s golf coach Richard Sykes and men’s wrestling coach Carter Jordan. Bobby Purcell was also there to introduce all the coaches and to thank all the donors. He always seems to remember me from my days of being on the Board of Directors for the Student Wolfpack Club too. What a guy! He made sure to highlight the fact that the Wolfpack Club is one of only five donor organizations in the country (along with Texas A&M, Florida State, Clemson, and Penn State) to ever surpass 20,000 members. Very impressive and something that I’m proud to be a part of. Wolfpack Nation is alive and well.
Coach Sykes went first and he was short and sweet. He talked about the new Lonnie Poole Golf Course, the four Wolfpackers currently on the PGA Tour, and the reigning NCAA individual champion Matt Hill. His golf tip of the night was, “if you’re hitting it left aim right and if you’re hitting it right aim left.” And here I was working on my swing plane, take away, hip rotation, grip, posture, etc. I’ll take that tip to the course this weekend. Maybe there’s hope yet for me to be a scratch golfer. Watch out.
Coach Harper was next up and she was very impressive. She talked about how the team’s goal for the season was to make the NCAA tournament and how they weren’t the best team a lot of times, but they fought hard and played with a lot of heart and ultimately achieved their goal. She joked about how her assistant coach/husband has to swallow his tongue every day dealing with her. She’s pleased with how recruiting is going so far and really expects to consistently be one of the best teams in the ACC. She has some huge shoes left by Kay Yow to fill, but I think she is without a doubt the perfect woman for the job. She exudes confidence and already speaks with a huge passion towards NC State. She’s got the wolf sign down too. I thought she was the highlight of the evening.
DFCF getting some Wolfpack love from Kellie Harper
The third coach up was Coach Jordan. He talked about how he wrestled at State, met his wife at State, and all his kids are either State grads or current State students. He’s NC State through and through. How do they say it in the South … he’s good people. He discussed 2009 NCAA champion Darrion Caldwell and his rollerblading injury that kept him out of action this past season. He’s excited about his return next year and even more so about his prospects of being a US Olympian in 2012.
Then TOB wrapped up the evening. It’s getting way past my bedtime so I’m going to have to cut it off here. I need a whole entry to dissect what all TOB had to say anyway so check back tomorrow.
What a great sports week this has been. The Final Four, Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season, and the Masters have all been exciting. I have to admit I was pulling for the Dukies. My reasoning, if NC State can’t win the National Championship I sure as hell don’t want a crappy (no typo … I intentionally left off the ‘s’ there) Butler team to do it. I’m not one of those people that just pulls for the huge underdog because that’s what everybody’s doing. Although, if Butler had been playing the Tarheels I would have been the biggest Butler fan this side of Indianapolis.
As for the rest of the week, I love watching baseball and golf. I know far more about baseball than I’ll probably ever know about football and I just love watching the strategy and nuances of the game. Also, if it wasn’t for Major League Baseball I’d go crazy in the Summertime waiting for the NC State football season to start. Then the Master’s is just “a tradition unlike any other.” It always falls around my birthday and I really suck at playing golf so I love watching it, especially at the pristine Augusta National. I’ve never been able to get tickets for the Masters, but one of these years I’ll make the trek down there and check it out in person.
Among this crazy good sports week NC State had their second Spring Football Scrimmage yesterday. The stats have been released, but they never tell the whole story so I’m waiting to hear from my sources so I can really give a report on how Spring Practice is going and where the team stands heading into the final week and the Kay Yow Spring Game. I’ll report back when I have some good information to pass along. Also, tomorrow I will be attending the Wolfpack Club Caravan in Badin to hear TOB speak. I always have a few questions that I want to ask and tomorrow will be no different. If there’s a particular question you would love to ask TOB leave it in the comments and I’ll see if I can work it in.
I hope everybody had a great Easter. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. I’m still coming down off a Reese’s Pieces Eggs high. That’s my absolute favorite candy and I hoard as many bags as I can get my hands on. Last year my stash lasted almost til Christmas. Okay, enough about my Reese’s Pieces Eggs addiction let’s move on to another one of my addictions … NC State football. Too bad this one doesn’t satisfy the appetite quite like the candy does.
So last Saturday the Pack had their first Spring Scrimmage. TOB never releases all the stats, which still doesn’t make any sense, but he’s addicted to control like I am to those Reese’s Pieces Eggs so why should we expect anything different. From the stats he did release one thing is very obvious.
Our offensive line, which has always been the strength of TOB coached teams, still has a long way to go. Our RBs had 35 carries for 97 yards which is a 2.77 yard per carry average. Not very good at all. Then you see the defensive stats. Just four players (Nate Irving, Terrell Manning, Markus Kuhn, and Darryl Cato-Bishop) combined for 11 tackles for loss and 5 sacks. Now we do play two hand touch on the QBs during the Spring, but even so those are very troubling stats. Still a long time before we play meaningful games, but the O-line has to step up big time if we want to play in a bowl game.
If you haven’t listened to TOB’s interview on the Solid Verbal podcast here’s the link again. If you don’t want to listen to TOB I don’t blame you since it was more of the same coach speak that we’re used to, but you definitely need to listen to the Solid Verbal’s follow up podcast to the TOB interview (from the 33:18 to 34:45 mark). That’s where yours truly made his podcast debut. I wasn’t interviewed or anything, but they did read my email that I sent in the week before the TOB interview. Of course, Ty and Dan used it to take an unnecessary shot at Chuck Amato, but they did give me a pretty nice shout out so I’ll take it.
