Dave from Carter-Finley

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.

Men get excited over new sports uniform (aka “uni”) designs like women do for New York Fashion Week.  Did I really just mention New York Fashion Week on my blog?  Oh man, well Mrs. DFCF will be so proud!  There’s even a blog devoted solely to everything you could possibly think about when it comes to unis.  If you are in to that kind of thing I highly recommend it … www.uniwatchblog.com.  I bring all this up because there is a lot of news out there this offseason regarding the NC State football unis.

The first thing is that we will be getting new football unis this year.  This has been confirmed by numerous people at NC State.  I can’t find it, but I think TOB even discussed it in an interview.  [Edit: Further confirming ... there will be a sale of game-worn jerseys at the Kay Yow Spring Game this weekend.] Anyway, there is an Adidas ad for the new adiZero 5-star football cleat, which at 6.9 oz. will be the lightest football cleat on the market, that got leaked on the internet depicting an NC State football player.  Sure is nice to finally get some publicity like this from Adidas, huh?  From my sources inside the program … “the pic of the Adidas ad is the new jersey.”  Here’s the ad:

The changes from last years jersey are: 1. replacing the wolf statue logo with “Wolfpack”, 2. adding TV numbers to the sleeves, & 3. moving the Adidas logo to front center underneath the collar.  The changes are very subtle so you people out there hoping for a total redesign may be a bit disappointed, but I think it looks very sharp and crisp.  DFCF approves.  The jerseys will also be the new Adidas TECHFIT compression style, which is the Adidas response to the super popular Nike Pro Combat jerseys.  Some other NC State football uni news that has been circulating the internet this offseason are rumors about a black uniform and a red helmet.

I absolutely hate the idea of black uniforms.  Let me take that back … hate is not a strong enough word for how I feel about that.  NC State has never worn black football uniforms before so why start now?  I don’t care how <air quotes> cool or badass </air quotes> they may look, it’s a terrible idea.  I figured this would be the one thing I wouldn’t have to worry about after we hired uber-conservative TOB, but I’m hearing that it’s a done deal.  Now on the other hand, I absolutely love the idea of a red helmet.  Of course, I have a soft spot in my heart for red helmets since my freshman year at State (1999) was the last time we donned them.  The word on the new red helmet is that it will have a triple stripe like the 1983 helmet, be worn with the black unis, and then become an alternate helmet.  Below is a poorly done Photoshop of what this black uni, red helmet combination could look like.  Until this is publicly announced I’ll cross my fingers and hope it’s all bogus.

Even bigger NC State uni news is that Debbie Yow confirmed at one of her many recent pressers, that we have started the process to get an all-sports apparel deal.  Currently we have Adidas for football and men’s basketball (both contracts end in June 2012), Majestic for baseball, Nike for women’s basketball, and Under Armour for softball.  It’s so confusing I can’t even tell you what soccer, volleyball, track, golf, wrestling, or any of the other sports wear.  This is a huge problem for the school because it hurts our brand.  An all-sports apparel deal is something we’ve needed for a long time so it will be nice when we get this finalized.  Per Debbie, that should be happening soon.  I personally hope it’s Nike because they are just the best right now in terms of quality of shoes, apparel, and marketing, but all signs are pointing to Adidas … with Under Armour being the dark horse candidate.

[Update 4/28:  Debbie Yow confirmed at the Charlotte Wolfpack Club Caravan on April 27th that we will be going to STATE across all our team's jerseys.  She said people will know it's NC State.  This Adidas ad depicts the new uniforms so I'm not sure if Debbie's comments mean that WOLFPACK will be replaced with STATE or that STATE will be on the away unis.  Hopefully an official uni unveiling will be coming soon.]

[Update 4/29:  Another version of the Adidas ad has surfaced. (see below)]

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 love Carter-Finley … hence my name, right?  But it is always fun to go on road trips and it seems like every time I come away with some pretty good stories.  At least I think so anyway.  I need to get back to telling more of these road trip stories (and tailgating stories for that matter) and leave the journalism stuff to the journalists so that’s what I’m going to do today.

So last Saturday me and Mrs. DFCF woke up before the butt crack of dawn (4:30) to hit the road and make our way down to Clemson.  We were half asleep and trying to keep each other awake by telling jokes, stories, and doing some bad impersonations.  I think that’s what we were doing anyway.  I really was still half asleep since I stayed up til 1:00 Friday night for no good reason.  We took an exit somewhere near Greenville at a Bojangles’ to pick up a Super Tailgate Special and meet up with some friends.  As we were waiting for our friends I was still joking around with Mrs. DFCF and she even uttered the following words, “don’t tell anybody, but I still have fun hanging out with you.”  Sorry babe, the cat is out of the bag now.  I couldn’t resist.

Once we got down to Clemson we drove around for what seemed like 3o minutes to find a parking spot.  The lot we used to park in is now an IPTAY permit lot so that threw us off.  I still can’t believe that’s what they call their booster organization.  It’s one of the best in the country, but that name is absolutely terrible.  Anyway, once we finally parked we were beside a group of 4 male NC State students that had to be Freshmen.  They remembered to bring beer, but no food so we shared some from our spread.  We then told them some of our road trip stories from our student days to educate them a little and they filled us in on the developments regarding the Free Expression Tunnel.  It was definitely interesting tailgating with them.  You could tell they were “green” (watch out I’m using terminology from Deadliest Catch), but they’ll get there eventually.  I was just like that back in the day.  Hell, I remember sleeping in the car at Virginia one year and actually on the asphalt in the parking lot at Florida State another year.  Excuse me for sounding old for a bit, but those were the days.

Then we went up closer to the stadium to tailgate with some Clemson guys that my buddy knew.  These guys where what I like to refer to as bigwigs.  One was a SC State Senator and another was a former All-ACC Clemson QB.  They offered us beer and food and had plenty of stories to tell about the legendary Clemson Coach Frank Howard.  The State Senator started off telling us about running into Howard the week they were playing an away game at Georgia.  He mentioned to Howard that him and a buddy wanted to go to the game, but couldn’t find tickets.  Howard told them to find a way down there, be at the stadium when the buses pulled up, and he would get them in.  Sure enough they met the team buses and Howard gave them each a bag of balls to carry in the stadium.  As soon as they were in told them to get lost and find a seat.

The best story was the one former Clemson QB Jimmy Addison told us about the Spring Practice when he became the starting QB.  Clemson was installing a new offense at the time so all Spring the #1 & 2 offenses were going against the #3 & 4 defenses every day.  So that meant the #3 & 4 offenses were going against the #1 & 2 defenses.  Addison was the 4th team QB so he was going against the #1 & 2 defenses every day.  They finally had their first scrimmage where the #1 offense would go against the #1 defense and so on.  Clemson had a pretty good defense that year and had been beating up the Clemson offense all Spring in practice.  Early in the scrimmage the 1st team QB got injured pretty bad so Howard was pretty mad and called the whole team together.  He was tired of seeing his guys getting injured so he had a plan.  Here’s how the exchange went:

Howard:  Where’s that little sh*t Addison.
Addison:  Right her sir.
Howard:  Well son, do you believe in magic?
Addison:  [confused] I don’t know, I guess so.
Howard:  Well … POOF! … you’re the #1 QB.

Well Addison never lost the #1 QB job and went on to make first team All-ACC in 1966.  Now he’s in the Clemson Hall of Fame.  It’s not a NC State story, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless.  So, other than the actual game and the punk ass Clemson student that got in my face afterwards, it was an enjoyable day.  I’m dreading our next road trip, though.  I haven’t been back to Chapel Hill since the infamous TA game.  That place just makes me sick to my stomach.  At least I’ll have my little bro there to keep me out of trouble.  Yeah, he’s gonna have his hands full with that.

Speaking of my little bro, his team (Illinois State) was playing Youngstown State this past Saturday where former Pack QB Shane Montgomery is the Offensive Coordinator.  He got a chance to talk to Shane before the game and Shane had nothing but nice things to say about NC State.  He’s still a huge fan and follows the team.  He must have had Gametracker on in the locker room because he knew we had a 7-0 lead and that we had a field goal blocked.  It’s always great to hear former players that still live and die with the Wolfpack.

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:

I’ve often told Mrs. DFCF that I loved her more after a Wolfpack win.  Unfortunately that hasn’t bode too well for her the past few years, but after today’s 45-28 win over Georgia Tech (improving the Pack to 4-0) Mrs. DFCF is getting love overload from me this season.  I admit that may sound a little extreme, but you know the feeling … when you’re winning it makes everything better.

I’ll admit I was totally wrong about this team … and it feels so good to say that.  This is a very good football team, but we still have a lot of areas that need work (e.g. kicking game, redzone offense, offensive line, and secondary) before we can step up to that next level.  Aside from being very good, this is also a fun team to watch because of the fact that they play with so much heart and effort.  I think it’s a little too premature for Wolfpack Nation to be talking about the ACC Championship Game, but we will definitely be bowling this year.  Now we need to just sit back, enjoy the ride, and see where this team takes us.  Go Pack!

I started this blog a year ago today.  First it was just a simple & free WordPress blog then in early January I upgraded to this paid dedicated server so that I could get the look and feel I wanted.  Somehow after a year of bad jokes, terrible writing, and insipid content I still have people that want to read what I have to say.  If I thought I was a loser for starting this blog then what does that say about the people that read it?  Wow!  I figure it means one of two things: you don’t have a life or you just feel really sorry for me.  Either way I cannot say enough about how much I appreciate your support (seriously)!  Shameless plea #1:  if you want to support even more … (edited per Google’s request).

The website still is not exactly what I want, but it’ll do for now.  Shameless plea #2:  but if anybody out there is an expert at webdesign and would like to donate their services I would greatly appreciate it.  Also, I’m still looking for a kickass logo to help with my branding.  Branding?  Who am I kidding I have no branding, but if I got my own logo I would really feel like my life is complete.  Shameless plea #3:  so if logo design is your expertise give me a shout or just email me a few logos.  Hey I’m a proud guy, but I’m definitely not too good to beg.  Since I’m in this mode let’s go to the extreme.  Shameless plea #4:  if you have a business and want to advertise I’d love to take your money … unless you’re out of the closet and by that I mean a Tarheel fan.

Enough of the charity stuff.  That’s a pretty cool cake huh?  It’s no Cake Boss (love that show now by the way), but still pretty neat.  I’m holding out hope that Mrs. DFCF has something like that for me when I get home from work tonight.  Yeah right!  Anyway, I found some other pretty cool NC State themed cakes during my googling.  I think that is an actual word now, if not you know what I mean.  Check out this cuddly Mr. Wuf cake which would be great for an elementary age kid or your girlfriend of a few years.  Here’s a slightly deformed Mr. Wuf face cake; great for tailgate parties where Mr. Wuf would look like “a 10, a f**king 10″ through some beer goggles.  Couldn’t pass up on my chance to throw out a Varsity Blues reference.  Moving on, this nice fancy polka dot Block S cake would be the perfect addition to a family Christmas meal or your neighborhood dinner club.  And finally, I had no regrets about my wedding day until I saw this ultimate Wolfpack wedding cake.  That will definitely be the cake at my next wedding.  I kid!  I kid!

What better way to celebrate my 1st birthday than by the start of the 2010 college football season.  I will be celebrating all night in front of the TV.  Please leave me sweet birthday greetings in the comments and/or suggestions for how I could make year #2 even bigger and better.  Make sure you subscribe to my feed and follow me on Twitter to get all the creamy goodness I will be dishing throughout the season.  Thanks!  Go Pack!

Last year I attended every State football game for the first time ever (missed one game in both 2002 and 2003 and two games in 2004). It was fairly easy with 8 home games and only 4 road games. Since I missed the 2008 Papajohns.com Bowl my consecutive games attended streak is currently at 12. I’m no Dewey Corn (yet), but it’s still fun to be there every week living and dying with the Pack and good Lord willing I’ll be there for all 12 (13?) again this year. It will be a lot tougher to pull off with 6 road games and 2 of the 6 home games being on Thursday nights, but I’m still young with no kids so I can do stuff like this. Not that it’s going to change when I do have kids, I just thought that sounded good.  On top of that is that fact that I don’t get to see Mrs. DFCF too much since she’s busy doing that whole Doctor thing so I need something to keep me occupied.

Heck I’m even adding in trips to Knoxville, Tennessee on September 18 to watch the Vols-Gators, to Boone on October 30 to see App St.-Furman, and then my shortest trip of the season to Bank of America Stadium here in Charlotte for the ACC Championship Game. There’s even been some talk with some of my buddies here in Charlotte about a trip to Morgantown, West Virginia but I have my doubts that one will happen. If it does happen it would have to be October 23 vs. Syracuse for it to fit in my schedule. Regardless it’s going to be a busy fall for me, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. And speaking of road trips that brings me to the final thing I have planned for the website this season.

It’s going to be called “Road Trippin’ w/ DFCF.” Of course I’ll have stories like in the past, but with my spiffy new iPhone 4 I plan to add some video too. That is if I can edit it down to a PG-13 level. Mama DFCF is one of my loyal readers so I don’t want to embarrass her too much more than I already do. I’m also going to hit up and review some of the local food staples at each school so if you have suggestions let me know. This next idea came up while thinking about some of my past road trip experiences and the vast majority seemed to always involve me and my buddies getting into it with UNC fans no matter where we were. No kidding, those pathetic bandwagon fans are everywhere. So my goal this year is to find somebody at all of our away games wearing UNC gear and get their picture.

So I may be crazy trying to do all that stuff so I may have to skip a few here and there, but this last one I’m giving myself no choice. Last year I went to all the away games with no tickets because my brother could hook me up and leave me tickets at the gate. This year I’m going to all the away games with no tickets again only now I don’t have my brother to rely on so I’ll have to scalp, barter, sell my body … whatever it takes to get tickets. I’ve done my fair share of scalping in the past so I’m not worried about not getting tickets for a game. Let’s face it we are not Texas, Ohio State, USC, etc. so there will be plenty of tickets to be had. Heck I could have got 100 free tickets to the game at FSU last year as there were people every where that couldn’t give away their tickets. And scalping is a heck of a rush so it should be fun. I’m going to make this into a game to see where I can get the best tickets for the cheapest price. If nothing else it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

So Saturday was Media/Meet the Pack Day.  Go here to see the N&O photo gallery … there’s a few funny pics in there.  Not much news from Media Day other than TOB saying, “We have enough weapons, I believe, offensively and defensively to have a winning season and get to a bowl game.”  I hope he knows what he’s talking about.  Of course he followed that statement with “injuries could change that” which is fastly becoming his calling card here at State.  This is year four so I guess he still needs time to build up the depth chart?  If the depth chart is still thin why are we still kicking guys off the team?

Speaking of that Denzelle Good was added to the growing list of guys (Donald Bowens, DeAndre Morgan, Dominique Ellis, Jimmual Simmons, and Chris Ward just to name a few) TOB has kicked to the curb.  A few probably deservedly so, but as many or more for little to no reason at all.  I could elaborate, but I’ll just leave it at that.  Good had a lot of promise coming out of high school being one of the most talked about players at the 2008 Shrine Bowl so I had high hopes for him.  In other attrition news, Morgan Alexander was forced to leave the team due to bad grades.  He was very impressive last year on the scout team and a player even the coaches had raved about so of course I was excited to see what he could do in the Red & White.  Oh well I can still play with him on NCAA Football 11.  These losses won’t be felt this year, but it does weaken the depth chart down the road.

While everybody was at Meet the Pack Day I was helping Mrs. DFCF get some stuff done around the house.  With only two more weekends left after this one before the season starts and all my Saturdays are booked up she knew to take advantage of the day.  While I was finishing my honey-do list I was thinking about Wolfpack Football … shocker!  I wanted to finalize my plans for the website too.  It might be a little audacious but here’s what I have planned for the season:

1. Weekly game preview:  players to watch, key match-ups, stats, records, gambling info, etc.
2. Weekly team grades:  putting on my professor cap and grading the team/coaches’ performance each game.
3. TOB-O-Meter:  think the Shawon-O-Meter with TOB’s winning percentage (currently).
4. Arround the ACC:  news, commentary, ACC Championship Game preview, etc.
5. Tailgating DFCF Style:  setup, stories, recipes, videos, etc.
6. DFCF the Greek:  top 3 weekly ATS picks posted every Friday.

There’s one other thing, but I need a whole write-up to do it justice so check back later in the week.  Of course I’ll have my random rants, crazy stories, self deprecation, and such but I wanted to have something for my readers to depend on every week (kinda like a Wolfpack Football information crack if you will).  The countdown is under 20 days.  Woohoo!  Bring on some football!