Dave from Carter-Finley

I hope everybody enjoyed the holidays. The holidays are always better for me when the Pack is in a bowl game and a bowl game win is the best so it was happy times in DFCF land. Best wishes to everybody in 2012. Before I move on here are my Belk Bowl thoughts and the final Pack the Caption of the 2011 season (photos by Ethan Hyman/N&O).

• State improved to 14-11-1 all-time in bowl games (has won 5 of past 6) and won bowl games in consecutive seasons for only the 4th time in school history.

• TOB now has a career 8-2 bowl record (2-1 at State).

• David Amerson added 2 more INTs to his already impressive season to set the ACC single-season INT record (13) surpassing UNC’s Dre Bly’s record set back in 1996. Amerson’s INT return for TD was the play of the game and the deciding score.

• Mike Glennon finished a pretty good season with 264 yards passing and 3 TDs earning himself Belk Bowl MVP honors.

• It was a Special Teams nightmare for the Pack … a botched punt (led to Louisville TD), allowed Louisville to convert a fake punt (led to Louisville TD), and allowed Louisville to recover an onside kick (State defense nullified). And we continue to have one assistant coach that’s dedicated solely to handling Special Teams … unbelievable! Hard to win a game after getting dominated like this on Special Teams, but we found a way to get it done.

• The key to the Pack’s season this year was the defense’s ability to force turnovers … 3 more in this game raised the season total to 39, good for 2nd best in the nation.

Hey Teddy ... it's the Boogeyman!!!

You complete me!

Interceptions: Easy as 1, 2, 3

Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake your booty

Guys, who pissed in the Gatorade cooler?

Also, ncsu01 does a great job of putting together highlight videos of NC State football games. Here’s his Belk Bowl highlight video:

So it’s almost a week later and I haven’t commented on the Maryland game yet. Sounds about right. I’m still in shock and disbelief that we actually pulled off the win. I was so pissed that I left the game at halftime to go back out and tailgate. We were watching it on the TV and once we started playing good I couldn’t go back in to watch it in fear that I would jinx us. Yep, that’s how my twisted mind works. A co-worker of mine couldn’t believe that so I told him, “I’d stay out in the parking lot every game if it meant we would win.” And that statement is 100% true.

There’s not much else I can say so I’ll let the photos (by Ethan Hyman/N&O) for this week’s Pack the Caption do the talking:

It's about to get ugly so you better hide in your turtle shell now...

Fear this German ... punks!

AHHHHHH!!! This roller coaster ride is amazing!!!

This next one … Wow! … could go so many ways. This is the definition of the sports cliche “giving you a softball.” Swing away.

Russell's got nothing on my white guy dancing skills!

Bonus Photo: This photo was actually from the Clemson game, but I just wanted to use this caption. (And, yes I’m being a little sarcastic.)

'Cause all I do is win, win, win, and if you goin’ in, put your hands in the air, make 'em stay there...

What a comeback for TOB & Co. Congrats fellas and I’ll see you at the bowl game!

TOB put it best in his postgame presser, “I really have no explanation for what just happened.” Yeah, him and everybody else that was in attendance at Carter-Finley on Saturday. The Pack’s 27 point avalanche in the second quarter was the perfect example of how crazy college football is. Absolutely everything was going right for us (offensively, defensively, and special teams) and there wasn’t anything Clemson could do to stop it.

A great win for the Pack that keeps our bowl hopes alive. Plus it’s always good to win on Homecoming and it’s even better to finally get a win in the Textile Bowl rivalry. Most of the photos from this game were celebratory, so I had to mix it up a little to give you some variety in this week’s Pack the Caption (photos by Ethan Hyman/N&O). Gimme some good ones:

Hey R.J., quit doing the hokey pokey and block this damn guy!

Thanks to these sick red helmets ... I'm really jacked for this game!

Man, how stupid do I look in these sweatshirts?

Thumbs up to you, DFCF! Love the blog!

In typical TOB fashion, the Pack lost on the road against an inferior opponent just a week after a huge upset win in a rivalry game. TOB continues to struggle mightily against the ACC Atlantic Division with a 5-18 overall record that includes an atrocious 0-13 record on the road. The only thing more mind-boggling is that there are still State fans that think TOB is a good coach and the right one for our program. Barf!

The Pack defense was on it’s heels a little on the opening drive of the game letting BC march right down the field for a touchdown, but after that they put the clamps down. The Eagles only had the ball for 11:52 in the 2nd half and was bottled up to the tune of -2 total yards of offense. There’s not much more you can ask your defense to do. The defense was bad early in the season, but has improved dramatically as it’s allowed 14 points or less in 3 of the 4 games since the bye.

The Pack offense, on the other hand, struggled for the 4th game in a row. Over the 4 games we’ve averaged a very anemic 267 yards and 11 points (taking away the defensive touchdown at Virginia). The offense hasn’t been that good all year either as it’s currently 100th in the nation in yards per game (331.7) and 83rd in points per game (24.3). The offensive line is still mediocre at best, Glennon has hit a wall in the past few games, and the play calling has been overly predictable and conservative.

That’s my somber thoughts from the game. I just want to forget about it so this week’s Pack the Caption is an abbreviated version (photos by Stephan Savoia/AP):

The Force, this one has not.

What excuse can I come up with for this one?

During the post-game singing of the alma mater a few fans up in Section 9 lowered the UNC flag to half mast (link to video). Here’s a picture of it in all its glory.

With all the smack talk coming from the Tar Heels (coaches, players, and even former players) leading up to the game, this was a perfect way to signify the way we dominated not only the game, but the whole rivalry week. I’m sure all Everett Withers was trying to do was get his players fired up for the rivalry, but his choice of words proved to be a huge miscalculation and his plan backfired big time.

TOB even used the Withers audio in his pregame speech to the team and boy did it work. A week after looking very lackluster, our team came out for this game with more intensity, focus, and motivation than we’ve seen all season. For all of TOB’s shortcomings, and he has plenty, it sure is nice that he understands the hatred in this rivalry and gets the absolute best effort out of his team for this game. This year a huge assist goes to Withers. Should TOB send him the game ball? [burn]

“We talked about it (Withers’ comments). We’re like the farmers and they’re the educated people, I guess. Whatever. We won and the farmers will be happy on Monday going to work.” — Audie Cole

 

“I give all the credit to them for firing us up for this game.” — Terrell Manning

 

“It showed us he (TOB) has our back and has the university’s back. He took it personal and added some fire for us. It was out character for him, so we really understood how much it meant to him.” — Mike Glennon

 

“This was a great win. It’s a great win for this football team. Kids in that locker room and even coaches on this coaching staff have never lost to North Carolina. But all we did today was tie the record (five straight wins over North Carolina). Next year, we get to go try and set it.” — TOB

Also, I heard from somebody that was around Randy Woodson at the game Saturday that the chancellors did not exchange apologies as was reported. Woodson accepted an apology from Holden Thorp, but did not issue any aplogies back since he didn’t have a reason to. Kudos Randy!

With rivalry week now over, my lingering question is … if you have to come out and declare yourself the “flagship” school of the state, is that really the case? I’ll tell you this, there was one team/university that acted like a flagship school this past week … and it wasn’t the one that wears that pansy ass blue.

Go Pack!!! Go to Hell Carolina!!!

Wow! What a crazy trip to Tallahassee. The game sure did suck, but we hung out with some nice FSU coeds and even a few cool dudes. I know you have to be wondering how I pulled that off? What can I say … I have mad game [insert Mrs. DFCF laughing hysterically here]. No really, it was a friend of a friend’s daughter type of thing that we had never met before, but after being there for 30 minutes it felt like we had all been longtime friends. I have way too many stories to tell so they’ll have to wait for now. Let’s get to this week’s Pack the Caption (photos by Phil Sears/AP & Mike Olivella/Seminoles.com):

Give it back or I'll tell my mommy!

This ain't flag football? Shit!

E.J. practicing a new dance move to use later at Yianni's.

It’s been mostly quiet around here for the past two weeks.  I took off for the bye week and this week has been very hectic with being out of town for work a few days and then having dinner club and a Darius Rucker concert the past two nights. I had a lot of stuff I wanted to do this week like a midseason report card, a UVA preview, an ACC standings update, the updated Spreadsheet, and of course my picks of the week.  I have to leave for UVA soon so I’m gonna give you a CliffsNotes version of everything.

Report Card

Offense:  B-  …  Glennon has been okay, but not the level TOB hyped him up to be. The RBs, O-line, and WRs have been exciting some games and disappointing others.

Defense:  D  … The defense has been bad on all levels giving up an average of 30.2 points per game.  The only reason this isn’t an F is because we’ve forced 11 turnovers largely thanks to David Amerson’s 6 INTs, which leads the country.

Special Teams:  B  …  The Freshmen have been better than expected and T.J. Graham has been our best player.  The coverage units have been very mediocre.

Coaching:  F  …  There have been injuries, but the team has seemed under prepared all season.  Coming out flat and getting behind in every game is a direct result of poor coaching.

UVA Preview

Series Record:  NC State leads 33-21-1 all time, but 0-5 last 5 games in Charlottesville (last win 1994).

Coach:  Mike London (2nd season, 8-10)

Players to Watch:  RB Perry Jones (#33, Jr.), RB Kevin Parks (#25, RS-Fr.), LB Steve Greer (#53, Jr.), CB Chase Minnifield (#13, Sr.)

Prediction:  Virginia had a huge upset win last week at home over previously undefeated Georgia Tech while we were on bye.  I think both of those play in our favor as Virginia will have to fight the letdown factor and we’ve had extra time to prepare.  Call me crazy, but I think we break the Charlottesville losing streak.

ACC Standings

The Spreadsheet

Note: It’s easier to read if you click on the full screen view link.

DFCF the Greek

#6 Wisconsin (-7) at #16 Michigan State LOSS

#11 Kansas State at Kansas (+11) LOSS

#25 Washington (+20.5) at #8 Stanford LOSS

Season Record: 11-8-2 (2-1-0 last week)

Here’s a few leans for this week: Northwestern (+4.5) L, LSU (-20.5) W, Alabama (-29.5) W, Oklahoma State (-6.5) W, and NC State (+5.5) W.  Season leans record: 15-18-0 (4-4-0 last week).

Yep, ESPN’s College GameDay was in Madison last weekend for the big Wisconsin-Nebraska showdown.  I was watching it while tailgating out at Carter-Finley and I saw this sign.  Honestly, it made me chuckle a little bit.  My buddies over at Frumpzilla tweeted out the above screenshot and I meant to post it, but frankly forgot to.  Yeah, I know having Russell Wilson back this year wouldn’t fix all our problems so save the hate mail.  [Edit: Actually, I've yet to receive hate mail and you really haven't made it as a blogger until you do so please send me all the hate mail you want.]

The big difference between Russell and Glennon is simply this… Russell can put a team on his back and will a team to victory and Glennon, at least so far, has yet to show that he can do that.  With a team that’s struggling like we are that is a huge difference.  I’m happy for Russell, though.  He’s finally in a position where he has a solid team around him and he can really show the country how good a football player he is.  It’s just sad that he went largely unnoticed the past 3 years while he was doing a lot of the same amazing things here at NC State.

I’ll definitely be rooting for him to win the national championship and even the coveted Heisman Trophy.  If you’re a State fan, how can you not?  We’ve never had a Heisman Trophy winner and if Russell can pull it off it that trophy will be 75% NC State’s, right?  I’m an engineer and Mama DFCF was a math teacher so I know my math people.

Also, during ESPN’s College GameDay coverage last week Tom Rinaldi did a very touching piece on Russell following in his father’s footsteps.  I just have to post it here. There’s a good bit of NC State love it there.  Enjoy!

I avoided re-watching the Wake Forest game as long as I could, but finally broke down tonight.  I’m still very pissed about the outcome so I’m gonna go rapid fire on my observations from the game.  Here we go:

• The tackling on Wake’s first TD (31 yd pass to Campanaro) was absolutely pathetic.

• Will Baumann’s punting was spectacular … 40.5 net yards per punt and 3 punts inside the 20 (2 inside the 10).

• With our experienced secondary, the receiver on the trick play TD pass should have never been that wide open.

• Curtis Underwood ran the ball very well (12 carries, 56 yards, 4.7 ypc).

• Niklas Sade absolutely drilled both of his FGs (45 yards & 37 yards).

• The offensive line played better than the Liberty game, but they still have a lot of improving to do.

• George Bryan, you’re a Senior Captain … Catch!  The!  Ball!

• Third down conversions killed us on both sides of the ball.  The defense allowed Wake to convert 50% of third downs and our offense only converted 36%.

• In a game against Wake and we got the only flag for chop blocking?  I call bullshit on that one.

• The penalty on T.J. Graham’s long kickoff return was ticky tack.

• David Amerson went from a stud last week to a scrub this week.

• Tobais Palmer is a playmaker.  We need to get him the ball more.

Another trip to Winston-Salem and another Wolfpack loss.  This shit is getting old.  It would be one thing if we were talking Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Oregon, etc. … but nope, we’re talking freaking Wake Forest.  This one hurts and may end up costing us a bowl trip.

I’ll breakdown the game tomorrow.  For now let’s do another round of Pack the Caption (all photos by Ethan Hyman/N&O):

2001! 2001! 2001!

I look so sexy in these new 'no belt' unis.

You do know I've been telling everybody you're better than Matt Ryan, right?