Dave from Carter-Finley

It’s time for my DFCF Christmas tradition.  Merry Christmas! See you in Charlotte on Tuesday.

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Murph,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a smurf.
The stockings were hung by the lockers with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

The players were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of ACC Championships danced in their heads.
And Mrs. DFCF in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap.

When out in Carter-Finley there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to the balcony to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the banners and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new flat sod field,
Gave the lustre of hope for the future to yield.
When, what to my wondering eyes should await,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight former Wolfpack greats.

“Now Philip! now, Roman! now, Torry and Ted!
On, Bill! On, Dick! On, Dennis and Jim!
To the top of the stadium! To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each big hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the stairs St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed in NC State red, from his head to his toes,
And his clothes were all cluttered with ads and logos.
A bundle of footballs he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a winner, just opening his pack.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old dear,
Especially since the Pack beat the Heels 5th straight time this year.
A wink of his eye and a flash of the wolf sign,
Soon gave me to know that everything would be fine.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And striking the most famous Heisman pose,
And giving a nod, up the elevator he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all Wolfpackers, and to all a good night!”

I’ll have plenty of things to say about yesterday’s State-UNC rivalry game, but it’ll have to wait a little bit longer as I’m still celebrating #5 in a row. All week I was worried I’d have to take down my favorite part of the site, the counter at the top right of the page. Well it’s still there … and at 1,814 days and counting. Man it feels so good.  For now, enjoy these two pictures of the jumbotron yesterday. Love it!

Finally … game week is here!!!  I don’t know why, but the offseason has seemed extraordinarily long this year.  It’s time to start talking games, depth chart, injuries, tailgating menus, and everything else.  TOB had his first weekly presser this week to talk Liberty.  I won’t bore you by rehashing that so go over to GoPack to get all the info and quotes.  Here’s the depth chart (courtesy of The Wolfpacker):

A few quick thoughts … It’s nice getting Duran Christophe back so quickly after his surgery for a torn knee meniscus.  No sooner than getting good news like that, though, we find out Sterling Lucas will be out the entire season with a knee injury.  James Washington will get the first shot at stepping in for Mustafa Greene while his out with his foot injury.  Other than that there weren’t many surprises.  The biggest surprise will be if the depth chart looks the exact same next week for Wake and then again the following week for South Alabama and so on.

I’m ready to get out to Carter-Finley and start tailgating now.  Saturday can’t get here soon enough.  Here’s a video to tide you over until then.  Go Pack!

Meet the Pack Day is a must attend event for kids.  I don’t have any kids myself so I had never been before, but I went Saturday to help a friend out with his kid and take a few pictures.  Other than the fact that we had to stand in the rain waiting for the gates to open 15 minutes late, I was very impressed with the event.  There was a very good turnout too.

Big Kudos should go out to the players.  They were all great with the kids and very engaging with the adults.  Here’s a few pictures:

I salivate over a 73″ HDTV at Best Buy to put in my mancave, but that’s got nothing on this.  Today, NC State released this “rendering” (a.k.a. Photoshopped image) from Daktronics of the new HD videoboard that is being installed in Carter-Finley.  Pretty damn impressive!

By my guesstimation it will be in the 32′ x 92′ range.  That’s a whopping 2,944 square feet or 423,936 square inches.  It’s no Jerry-Tron or Godzillatron, but it would immediately be the biggest and nicest in the ACC.  A huge upgrade over the paltry existing non-HD videoboard (24′ x 32′).  If you’re so inclined, it appears that you can even bid on parts from the old scoreboard on eBay.  Who knows if that’s actually parts of the old scoreboard so beware.

The demo of the old scoreboard is currently underway and the new scoreboard will be completed in time for the 2011 season.  Carter-Finley has come a long way from the ugly duckling it looked like my freshman year (1999).  Of course I’m biased, but I absolutely love Carter-Finley.  What a great place to watch football and this new HD videoboard will only improve the gameday experience.

Happy Birthday to me!!!  The wonderful Mrs. DFCF and the pastry chef who wants to remain unnamed (Tyler … oops!) came up with the design.  I had no idea what the cake was going to look like.  My only request was that it had some kind of NC State reference on it.  I was a little nervous before the Cake Boss style unveil at the Kay Yow Spring Game, but once I saw it I was amazed.  Wow!  Yeah, the meticulous side of me saw the few small inaccuracies, but it was still the coolest cake I’ve ever seen.  Huge thanks to Mrs. DFCF and pastry chef Tyler!!!  Job well done!

I’ll post some of my thoughts on the Spring Game in a few days.  For now I’m gonna finish eating this cake.

I ran this last year, but I’m so proud of it that I have to run it again.  Let’s call it a DFCF Christmas tradition.  I hope everybody has a very Merry Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Murph,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a smurf.
The stockings were hung by the lockers with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

The players were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of ACC Championships danced in their heads.
And Mrs. DFCF in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap.

When out in Carter-Finley there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to the balcony to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the banners and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new flat sod field,
Gave the lustre of hope for the future to yield.
When, what to my wondering eyes should await,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight former Wolfpack greats.

“Now Philip! now, Roman! now, Torry and Ted!
On, Bill! On, Dick! On, Dennis and Jim!
To the top of the stadium! To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each big hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the stairs St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed in NC State red, from his head to his toes,
And his clothes were all cluttered with ads and logos.
A bundle of footballs he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a winner, just opening his pack.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old dear,
Especially since the Pack beat the Heels again this year.
A wink of his eye and a flash of the wolf sign,
Soon gave me to know that everything would be fine.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And striking the most famous Heisman pose,
And giving a nod, up the elevator he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all Wolfpackers, and to all a good night!”

I’m still pissed about losing to those punk ass Pirates.  Nobody’s a more ungracious winner than they are.  The ECU guys I tailgated and sat in the game with were great, but everybody else … not so much.  After the game we were berated as we stood outside the stadium waiting for everybody in our group, on our walk back to our tailgate spot, and by cars driving by our tailgate spot as we tailgated after the game.

Speaking of our tailgate spot, it was at a Lutheran Church just around the corner from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.  As we were pulling in there I was wondering how the whole drinking in a church parking lot was going to work.  I was shocked to find out they didn’t care.  If you think that was bad, just up the road from us was a Pirate Club permit lot at a middle school.  There wasn’t any drinking going on there [wink, wink].  I guess that’s just how they do it down east.

The highlight of the day was the tailgate menu, but it almost didn’t happen.  On the way down to Greenville on Friday night we stopped by Kroger and bought 3 of those Coleman mini propane canisters.  We fired up the grill Saturday morning to grill some Krispy Kreme doughnuts with the last little bit from the old mini propane canister (which was not a Coleman) left over from the BC game.  After the doughnuts we threw on some of ECU Big Mike’s deer tenderloin bites.  These things were a chunk of deer tenderloin and a jalapeño slice wrapped in bacon (see picture below) and they were heavenly.

As soon as we threw these things on the grill our old propane canister ran out.  No big deal, right?  Just swap it out with one of the new ones?  Well we found out it was much more complicated than that.  We tried all 3 of the brand new canisters and none of them worked.  After trying over and over for 15 minutes we figured that the new canisters were defective because the threads weren’t as tall as on the old canister.  ECU Big Mike saved the day by trading one of our defective canisters to somebody else in our lot for a canister that worked (which also was not a Coleman).  Whew, crisis averted!

The deer tenderloin bites were just the appetizers so the main course on the menu was a whole pork loin.  The pork loin wasn’t finished until right before the game so we left it on the grill for the 4+ hours we were in the game and had that after the game.  Of course we turned the grill off for that 4+ hours so that probably wasn’t the most sanitary thing to do with meat, but what the heck, it was still good.  Not as good as my “best in the history of the world” pork chops, but still a strong showing by ECU Jeff.  It was fun, but I’m ready to get back to the friendly confines of Carter-Finley.

I had the privilege of getting to chat with Chuck Amato in the RV lot before the game this past Saturday.  He was very upbeat and said his cancer treatment was going well.  He’s lost a good bit of weight, but still appeared to be in good health.  He was very gracious with his time and even posed for a few pictures with me and Mrs. DFCF.  My picture is below, but it isn’t near as good as Mrs. DFCF’s.  She caught Chuck a little off-guard with a kiss on the cheek which immediately caused him to start blushing.  Then she asked to take the picture like that.  After getting Mrs. Amato’s approval, Chuck was fine with it as long as we didn’t post the picture online anywhere.  Mrs. DFCF is so proud she’s already got the picture framed and on her office wall.  It was nice to see Chuck taking in a game at the renovated Carter-Finley that looks the way it does now largely thanks to him.  We should refer to it as the “House that Chuck Built.”  What a great guy!

DFCF and Chuck Amato

Apparently this was Chuck’s second game this year, he also attended the Virginia Tech game.  This one had a much better outcome as the Pack opened a case of Whoop Ass on the Eagles.  The Pack was the much better team and really should have won by more.  After last year’s embarrassment I was pulling for us to give BC a little of their own medicine and hang half a hundred on them, but we called off the dogs.  We still have plenty of holes so I’m trying to temper my expectations, but sitting here with a 5-1 record at the halfway point of the season and looking at our remaining schedule it seems that 8-4 would be the worst case scenario.  If we can continue to improve and try to fill some of those holes who knows what the best case scenario might be.  Regardless this is a very fun team to watch and the rest of the season will be an interesting adventure.  TOB finally gets that illusive first win against his former team and is again one win away from a .500 record.  The TOB-O-Meter currently stands at: