Tom O’Brien recruiting on display as Pack shut out of NFL draft

ACC Teams Alums Football Recruiting Tom O'Brien14

I held this stat since the middle of last week waiting for the NFL Draft to conclude….and then Luke DeCock went and ruined it for me on Twitter over the weekend 🙂

Now that the NFL draft has concluded, it is safe (and sad) to say that NC State did not have a single player drafted in the NFL Draft for the first time since 1996. Obviously, it in just a coincidence that Mike O’Cain’s 1995 Wolfpack went just 3-8 overall and 2-6 in the ACC while posting back-to-back 3-8 seasons.

But, unlike the (lack of) athletics “leadership” that existed at NC State in the Larry Monteith and Les Robinson era, the 2012 version of NC State executive leadership was anchored by Debbie Yow and Randy Woodson. (Thank goodness!) Where Monteith and Robinson failed to be proactive with the declining NC State football program in the mid to late 1990s, Yow and Woodson recognized the ‘talent valley’ that was on the horizon in the NC State football program in 2012 and ultimately brought a solution to west Raleigh as opposed to “accepting the status quo”. So, if there are any folks left out there who still love to grumble and be unhappy with unfair criticisms of Debbie Yow, then it is time for you to just top embarrassing yourself.

By the way, the ACC had 47 players drafted this year

The Atlantic Coast Conference finished up the 2015 National Football League draft in strong fashion, having a total of 47 players taken in the three-day event, the second-highest total in league history. The ACC had 51 picks in the 2005 Draft.

Florida State led all schools nationally with 11 players drafted. It marked the second time in three years the Seminoles have had the most draftees. FSU set an NFL Draft record for a seven-round draft (since 1994) with 29 players taken in the last three drafts. The Seminoles had 11 players chosen in 2013, seven last year and 11 this year. The previous high was 28 originally set by Miami during the 21002-04 drafts and tied by Southern California in the 2008-10 drafts.

[snip]

The ACC, which tied for the highest number of first-round selections with nine on Thursday night, had a total of 47 players drafted. That’s the second-highest total for a conference in this year’s NFL Draft. The ACC trailed only the SEC (54) and finished ahead of the Pac-12 (39), the Big Ten (35) and the Big 12 (25).

Beginning with the 2005 NFL Draft, the ACC has had 401 of its players drafted in an 11-year span, against the second-most of any conference during that time.

In all, 11 of the ACC’s 14 schools had at least one player drafted. In addition to Florida State (11) and Louisville (10), were Miami (7), Clemson (5), Boston College (3), Georgia Tech (3), Duke (2), Virginia (2), Virginia Tech (2), Pitt (1) and Wake Forest (1).

ACC Had nine players selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, its second highest total in history and tied with the Pac-12 for the most first round selections in this year’s Draft. The SEC was next (7) followed by the Big Ten (3), the Big 12 (2) and the American (2).

The ACC also had 11 players chosen in the sixth round of the draft, which is its all-time high for sixth-round draftees. The previous best was nine in the 2011 draft.

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ACC Teams Alums Football Recruiting Tom O'Brien

Home › Forums › Tom O’Brien recruiting on display as Pack shut out of NFL draft

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
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  • 05/07/2015 at 2:33 PM #86162
    StateFans
    Keymaster

    I held this stat since the middle of last week waiting for the NFL Draft to conclude….and then Luke DeCock went and ruined it for me on Twitter over
    [See the full post at: Tom O’Brien recruiting on display as Pack shut out of NFL draft]

    05/07/2015 at 2:37 PM #86163
    packbackr04
    Participant

    so Carolina got shut out too? surprising

    05/07/2015 at 2:51 PM #86164
    5statewx
    Participant

    Also have to remember that our team was one of the youngest in the NCAA last season, which means we didn’t have as many chances for a player to get drafted.

    05/07/2015 at 3:04 PM #86165
    StateFans
    Keymaster

    we didn’t have as many chances for a player to get drafted because there was no energy around recruiting in the previous years and we had so many misses with players that were risks and weren’t talented or fits to begin with.

    Same point about TOB’s recruiting just magnified.

    05/07/2015 at 3:50 PM #86169
    ryebread
    Participant

    The last two years my eyes have told me that we didn’t have a lot of NFL talent. When the kicker is MVP (two years ago), then you’re in big trouble. The NFL draft this year just validated it.

    All the “TOB find the 2 stars and coaches ’em up” garbage was just that. Now, maybe he did develop talent better than this year’s staff, and maybe this year’s juniors and seniors were suffering from 2 years under this staff. You could probably argue that either direction.

    My eyes said talent. We just didn’t have that much of it. This past year, outside of BC (and possibly UNC/UCF), I felt like we played much won and lost based on our talent level and the opposition.

    05/07/2015 at 8:16 PM #86179
    choppack1
    Participant

    Interesting but not surprising that 1996 was the last year that happened. That being the case, some of that lack of talent fell on Sheridan. (The 96 season wss either moc’s 3rd or 4th.) Tob was fired (rightly so) because the talent well was drying up AND fan support had gotten very lukewarm… And yea, because Debbi had some balls.

    05/07/2015 at 8:30 PM #86180
    archdalepack
    Participant

    Anything on Bryan underwood?

    05/07/2015 at 10:40 PM #86181
    ancsu87
    Participant

    “All the “TOB find the 2 stars and coaches ‘em up” garbage was just that. Now, maybe he did develop talent better than this year’s staff, and maybe this year’s juniors and seniors were suffering from 2 years under this staff. You could probably argue that either direction.”

    What?

    05/08/2015 at 12:53 AM #86183
    PackerInRussia
    Participant

    ^ I think by “this year’s staff” he means the staff that brought in this draft year’s class (in other word, TOB’s). I could be wrong.
    I wouldn’t say the finding 2-stars and coaching them up was garbage as that did happen some. You just can’t have whole classes of 2-star recruits and hope they all, or most, turn out to be 5-star players.

    05/08/2015 at 7:47 AM #86188
    marinewolf
    Participant

    It’s time to let the Tom O’Brien era go.
    Tom was our coach and led us to some
    great wins.
    Now we have moved on to a great young
    coach in Dave D.
    Having met Tom, I liked him.
    He reached out an embraced the rivalry
    with unc and owned it except for one brief
    moment in his last game.
    I always remember the positives and discard
    the negatives.

    Thanks Tom (semper fi)
    Bob
    Bob

    05/08/2015 at 9:00 PM #86201
    Heelh8r
    Participant

    Well said and ditto…I like the way you think, Marine.

    05/09/2015 at 11:30 AM #86213
    Prowling Woofie
    Participant

    O’Brien brought a quiet dignity to the program. Didn’t flip out and lose his cool on the sidelines. And his buy-in to the rivalry down the road was classic. Owned The Hat and dryly turned the knife at every opportunity.

    Instilled tough love in our program while Da Boyz on Da Hill were partying with Fatz and cheating like hell.

    He didn’t recruit well enough to lift the program above mediocre. On the plus side of that – and it doesn’t mean anything to those of you that are not in the Raleigh area – he gave opportunity to some of the Cap 8 guys that grew up in Raleigh, guys that I watched come up through Pop Warner and high school. May not have won enough games, but I loved cheering for kids I KNEW.

    05/10/2015 at 8:14 PM #86237
    blpack
    Participant

    Good points listed above. Obviously we didn’t have a ton of talent in ’13 & ’14. That is changing with this incoming class and some of previous class. Coach D know he needs better players and more of them to compete with the FSUs of the world. As he said Friday night, he didn’t come here to win 8 games, he came here to win them all. Let us remember the high water marks of the previous staff and move forward with this staff as they take on new challenges. It should be a fun ride.

    05/10/2015 at 8:54 PM #86238
    Gowolves
    Participant

    I liked TOB. He said all the right things. He just couldn’t recruit.

    05/11/2015 at 9:01 PM #86241
    marinewolf
    Participant

    Tom recruited to the charactor of a recruit, the philosophy of the Marine corp is to build you
    if you had good charactor and athletic ability you could be honed into a great player.
    not saying all recruits were able grow into this mold.
    The guys on the 2005 team on defense just about all made it the pro’s Tank,DeMario,Mario,marcus Hudson and so on
    but did not have a good team.
    If you measure your team by the amount that make the Pro’s you will be disappointed.
    Most of Tom’s player were students of high quality (not all) I will always have respect
    for Tom and what he tried to do.
    SEMPER FI

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