NC State

Aren't you glad that you did not matriculate from North Carolina State University? Not because of the thrashing you took in one football game, but the fact that your athletic program is a consistent model of Mendoza line relevance. Every conference has these schools. Illinois, California and Texas Tech are great examples. Not the bottom feeders, but forever destined to be just on the cusp of the National spotlight. Sure, they pull the annoying gnat-on-your-nose upset every so often, and their fan base cockily charges forward like the Pomploynian Bulls only to discover that they were not bulls, but sheep and are herded back inside their pen by their overweight Spanish master.

It just seems like it would Milton-damning to be a true fanatic at one of these Universities. Like rolling a boulder up a ginormous hill only to see it hit a pebble at the peak and roll off to the depths on the other side. As an AD, I would be seriously tempted to gamble everything and just put all my resources on one sport to create the necessary notoriety. Sustaining excellence in one sport translates to not only athletic giving, but general alumni gifts and a huge uptick in student applications. Standards are raised and your diploma is now worth more - all because the school dumped what initially seemed like a ridiculous amount of money into the football program...With the exception of an occasional transcendent situation - like Oregon - this simply never seems to happen. Sorry, Wolfpack fans; and I know there were more members of the pep band than Pack patrons in Doak this week, but that seems to be your lot in life.

At one point in the first quarter, one of the propeller heads in the press box tweeted that we were on a pace to outgain NC State 1,600 yards to 104 by the end of the game. Needless to say, it was a pretty nice start and dispelled any concern about this being a tweener game. What was even more amazing about our offense in that first quarter and a half was that it was not even close to perfect football. On the first play from scrimmage, Cam and Josue whiffed on a stunt and almost got Jameis killed. Stork had more trouble than any other game this season with missed assignments, and all three starting wideouts had at least one drop. Still, we somehow plodded along to a respectable 35 Love lead in about 13 minutes of football. At that point in the game, we had more points than they had yards. Like a group of no-armed boys chasing a pinata, every team seems determined to blitz us. Why? I guess it must be cuz Rashad, Kelvin, Kenny and the BusBoy have been so darn easy to blanket in single coverage. I keep waiting for teams to go the opposite direction and just rush 3 and keep 8 back to double everyone. That leaves Devonte alone with a LB, and Jameis with 20 yards of real estate in front of him as well. Is that papercuts and razornicks approach better than minute long scoring drives? We will see...

The Wolfpack coach commented after the game about our defense and one man in particular..."That #8 was just too much for us..." Yeah, when he keeps his helmet on, he is a handful. Tough sledding inside with he and Goldman manning the middle.  Although Christian played very well this week and seems to improve every game his hand is in the dirt, I anticipate that future opponents will be micro-focused on running the ball right at him in the future. With his relative size and only a smallish LB and DB behind him, off-tackle, pulling, power runs are coming until we can prove that we can stop them. MEJ has proven that he can hold his edge until help arrives, but if there is a weakness right now, it is on the opposite side. On the plus side, having a "defensive end" that can cover like Christian is an incredible luxury that really confuses Offensive Coordinators - even traitorous ones that graduated in Tallahassee and decided to work for a rival.

Done picking nits. This defense has been terrific for a month now. Especially, if a team thinks that they can move the chains in the air. Ronald Darby is finally 100% healthy, and it shows. He is flat taking apart the best wide receiver that any opponent throws at him. This frees up the two safeties to make the kinds of incredible plays that Brooks and Joyner have been making of late. If the tall skinny flyers are covered in garnet, and the bad guys decide to toss it to a back or TE, then watch out for and angry and very fast Telvin Smith to make a play. Folks, when you come to a game and watch the back half of our defense, there simply are not many windows to throw to. The threats left on our schedule will not make a living above ground, they will go all BC on us and attempt to pound the pavement, hold the ball and move the sticks.

For the few, the proud, the people who stayed after halftime, I will say this. Our second team is not as good as the NC State starters. I know, this is depressing, and Duke says the same thing about us on February days in Cameron. Jacob Coker looked tentative for the first time and although he showed outstanding arm strength and athletic ability - desperately needs more field time. That should not be an issue in between the rivalry games. Honestly, only Carter and Lovelady looked like they are ready to step in if one of our starting five big uglies get hurt. Cross your fingers there. Defensively, we were simply young and out of place - a lot. Great decision by the staff to play all these kids. The reason we dominated in the dynasty was there was no dropoff year over year with players leaving. That happens with true depth and only occurs when you blow out enough teams on your schedule to justify playing time for backups. Heck, if blowing out teams and showing no class is how you get to Pasadena, then keep it. I will be happy to go 14-0 and bitch with class.

Please, please, please do not make the Miami game the first one that our little Perfecto Roberto goes off the reservation. This kid is quietly putting together an incredible season. I say we don't even test him with anything but a seven spot of extra points. All in? Well, Savannah Lee got the big call this week. She is indeed one of the 14,276 recruits in the house this weekend guaranteeing a sellout of Doak. Since the NCAA whiffed last week, I guess it is left to us to try an inflict some long range damage on our friends from Coral Gables.