Beyond the bye, into The Abyss

If — after that miserable showing in Blacksburg — you’re looking past the bye week for some kind of promise for this season, then I envy your naïveté.

For those of you seeing promise in the 3-0 Wake win at Boston College, just remember that Pitt beat Virginia Tech 10-7 last week.

After the desperately-needed bye week, State goes to the abyss called Winston-Salem, where a win would require divine intervention, because in the physical universe we occupy, it appears as impossible as accountability by The Flagship.

Here’s some (depressing) trivia for you: the last two State QBs to win in Winston-Salem are Philip Rivers (2001) and Terry Harvey (1995).

Not Jamie Barnette (1997, 1999), not Jay Davis or Marcus Stone (who both tried in 2005), not Daniel Evans (2007), not Russell Wilson (2009), not Mike Glennon (2011) and not Pete Thomas (2013).

State has a single win in Winston-Salem in the past two decades, and that was way back in 2001.

And many of those losses were some of our worst of that season — you may recall that 2003 loss the week before going to Columbus was one of Philip’s worst of his career.

I’m not here to analyze it, because it defies all logic and borders the surreal.

But after two ugly losses to open ACC play, we desperately need a win in Winston-Salem. Partly, for any chance to salvage the season, but mostly to start the process of shaking our suffocating fatalism, which is always lurking, even during the (increasingly rare) good times.

From a simpler perspective, we’ve just lost what appeared going into October to have been two of the more winnable games on our league schedule. After Wake, we have Top 10 Clemson at home, and then trips to Boston College (0-5 in Chestnut Hill since they joined the ACC in 2005) and then at Top 10 Florida State. Then we end the season with a who-knows Syracuse and current Coastal favorite, Carolina.

I’ve seen comments about the disappointment of being 7-5 again. Based on what we’ve seen so far, I think we need to be more concerned about finding that fifth win.

Because an impossible win in Winston-Salem may be our best shot at avoiding another 0-8 conference season.

About LRM

Charter member of the Lunatic Fringe and a fan, loyal to a fault.

Big Four Rivals

Home Forums Beyond the bye, into The Abyss

Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 121 total)
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  • #90359
    LRM
    Keymaster

    If — after that miserable showing in Blacksburg — you’re looking past the bye week for some kind of promise for this season, then I envy your naïvet
    [See the full post at: Beyond the bye, into The Abyss]

    #90360
    Wulfpack
    Participant

    State has a single win in Winston-Salem in the past two decades, and that was way back in 2001.

    Oh my goodness.

    #90361
    Alpha Wolf
    Keymaster

    “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”

    That should be the official motto of NC State football: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

    I for one am no longer buying the “building a program” crap, we’ve been “rebuilding” for 35 years and 7 head coaches. We are what we are, and that’s just not very good and without any sign we ever will be.

    Like I said in the game thread…we’re the Glass Joe of ACC football.

    #90363
    Fastback68
    Participant

    Gee, I haven’t read this stat line 50,000 times every other year for the last decade. Put down the vagisil and go buy tickets to this game. It won’t be hard to drown out the 9,000 wake fans. Overall, State 62-36-6 so we must have done something right once upon a time.

    #90364
    ryebread
    Participant

    Alpha: I’ve said that for years. I’ve watched NC State football since about 1982. During that time we’ve been right around .500 other than a good run under Sheridan. That’s just what this program is.

    I know everyone wants the Michigan State/Michigan/Ohio State level of success where you are good at both football and basketball. That’s realistically probably not going to happen here. All our budgets are near the bottom for Power 5 conferences. It’s been past time to pick one, go all in, and hope that the windfall generates success in the other.

    I’ve never understood all those that wanted to abandon basketball and go all in on football. It’s like they don’t understand how the deck is stacked and the resource delta between Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, FSU, Clemson, Michigan, etc. and NC State.

    For this reason, I’ve been advocating going all in on basketball for some time. We’re a basketball team in a basketball league. We’re already in the top 20 in attendance year in and year out. We recruit at a top 15 level historically over the past 30 years despite some pretty bad coaches.

    All of this rambling is not to say give up on football. It’s more like we should just take it in stride. This might well be another 6-6 kind of year. If so, then so be it.

    #90366
    Wulfpack
    Participant

    Gee, I haven’t read this stat line 50,000 times every other year for the last decade. Put down the vagisil and go buy tickets to this game.

    The fans have never been the problem.

    #90367
    PackFamily
    Participant

    Some more useless trivia: Since we last won there in ’01 (i.e. since ’03), Jim Grobe’s success against us also coincided with success overall against the other two Tobacco Road schools:

    From ’03 to ’13, He won a total of 25 home ACC games, 12 of which were against NC State/Duke/UNC. 6 win against us; 6 against Duke/UNC

    #90369
    Wufpacker
    Participant

    We (the fans, that is) are the Griswold’s of CFB….
    (NSFW, btw)

    #90370
    Greywolf
    Participant

    What’s that chirping noise, Mr. Dog?
    That’s the quitters coming out to play, Mr. Grey.
    .

    #90371
    Tau837
    Participant

    How are we not “all in” for basketball?

    #90374
    MISTA WOLF
    Participant

    The Wake game is a must win. No question. I honestly thought we would be 5-2 heading into our Halloween match up. We still have a chance to do that but must bury the hatchet in Winston Salem. I for one will be there like always, raising hell win or lose because it’s who I am.

    #90375
    ryebread
    Participant

    Tau: I don’t think we’re all in. I think we’re in at a level around 20th – 25th:

    Witchita State just paid $3.3M for Marshall which is 50% more than we pay Gott. It represents 15% of their athletics budget. That’s all in.

    Smart just agreed to $3.1M average over 7 years at UT plus bonuses. He made $1.8M at VCU.

    Now, that’s not to say that we should go and pay Gott 15% of our budget and expect we’d see better results. You can look at that list and see a Crean or a JT3 who make more but haven’t delivered more. Money doesn’t guarantee success.

    It’s just to say that I don’t think we’re really all in for basketball. We’ve upped our game, but if we want to get to the promised land, there are seemingly a lot of programs ahead of us in this list, and those are the programs we’re competing with in the ACC, NCAAs, etc..

    Mista: I agree with you that Wake is must win. I had us at 8-4 (4-4) with a loss to Louisville and a swing game against VT (along with BC and UNC). I can understand 0-2 based on my prediction, but we’re going to need to win all the games we should win (Wake and Syracuse) and now have to win the rest of the swing games (UNC and BC).

    #90377
    MISTA WOLF
    Participant

    Greywolf,

    I think a lot of people are sick of the same ole same ole. This was suppose to be the year based on our schedule and things haven’t quite turned out like they were suppose to. I personally don’t get upset like I use to. I played at Methodist down in Fayettenam and I had a hand in whether we won or loss. Now-a-days I don’t think I do. I show up, support the guys and go home happy one way or another. Some people can’t do that.

    “If they weren’t b*tching they’d have nothing to say.” – Rebel Son

    #90378
    MISTA WOLF
    Participant

    Rye,

    I had us at 8-4 (4-4) as well with a loss to VT and Wake (along with BC and UNC). As inept as we’ve been on offense, I can only imagine what the BC defense does to us. We’ve got to win next Saturday and beat the Cuse and Tarheels. I can live with that. I think we give Clemson hell in Raleigh too because it is what we do. We’ve done it to a ranked team every year for last 15 years minus DD’s first year.

    #90379
    PackofMac
    Participant

    Apparently Fastback68 has never been to a game in Winston. During conference play the entire visitor side of the stadium is the color of the visiting team. At Wake you really only have to drown out ehh….maybe 500 people? That stadium will be red as it always f-ing is when we play at Wake so vagisil not needed or warranted for the NC State fan base. For some god forsaken reason we’ll be there.

    #90380
    13OT
    Participant

    What a pessimistic bunch!

    Take heart! We will probably go 2-6 in the ACC this season, but we’ll still have the fuh-cilities!

    #90381
    WolfBlood86
    Participant

    I hope the coaches are running the players’ a$$es in the ground the next few days before building them back up for the Wake game. They need to get tougher right now.

    I was hoping that the players and the coaches were keeping the team on a short leash for the cupcake OOC schedule then would unleash everything during ACC play. Looks more like the players and coaches are bringing the exact same effort and intensity they brought during the cupcake games. Not going to work in the ACC. Something better change fast. Who knows what team will show up at Wake or any other game for that matter. Next game is extremely important to see if the ship’s course can be corrected…

    #90382
    Daniel_Simpson_Day
    Participant

    I’m sure WV Wolf will be putting up the post game stats soon, but I noticed in NCSU’s two losses, the opposing QBs have managed to complete 43% of their passes for a total of 261 yards.

    #90383
    Fastback68
    Participant

    ^ I went to the Pete Thomas Del Boca Vista Bowl 2 years ago and many other Wake snoozers. We were on the 50 yard line about 10 rows back and there were thousands of empty seats behind us. WFU, TicketCity and Stubhub have been e-mailing the —- out of us for the last month about this game. The people at ticket city actually called my wife on Friday. We were surrounded by Wake fans last time. Anyway, Section 15 row F, I’ll take pictures of that sea of red?? or aluminum. Too many “I went to winston and we lost so I’m never going back” quotes out there.

    Wulf, we need a pinned thread on SFN debating the “bestis” fans in the world. Let everyone chip in with facts. I recall a 44poster referencing a study about NC State and it’s abysmal donation rate. Then PP posts a thread where donations are increasing and the endowment fund is near 1 Billion. Which is it? Fact or Fiction. We have a world class university providing a world class eduction which results in a much higher lifetime of earnings but that doesn’t translate into higher levels of financial support for academics and athletics Something doesn’t reconcile. We can’t expand the stadium because of the lack of money due to the lack of butts in the seats.

    I read everything NC State. The level of participation on PP, SFN and other sites probably closely mirrors the level of participation on the financial support side. Google says there are approximately 1 million living NC State graduates. A grand each provides 1 Billion. Perhaps my math is flawed. I will say the majority of State fans that go to the games are quality people no doubt. There simply aren’t enough of them out there.

    Where are you sitting Pacomac???

    #90385
    Pack1997
    Participant

    Live in Winston and will be at the Wake game. Hate it though, as we never win in basketball or football here. It’s simple, Wake always wants it more than we do. Our talent levels aren’t so different in either sport that we can go through the motions. I see no urgency in this team. The energy level isn’t there. If we don’t show up and fight against Wake, want it more than they do we will lose easily against them. While I didn’t expect us to be great, I did expect Brisset to be more than Mr. Checkdown. Gonna be rough all season if we cant stretch the field with our wideouts.

    #90386
    tjfoose1
    Participant

    I for one am no longer buying the “building a program” crap, we’ve been “rebuilding” for 35 years and 7 head coaches. We are what we are, and that’s just not very good and without any sign we ever will be.

    So many things wrong with that on so many levels. From reading Alpha’s other post over the years, I suspect that’s frustration and not his true thoughts. I doubt he lives his life that way.

    Of those many things, I’ll just state the obvious: Current coaches, current players, current administration, and current AD have nothing to do with the past performances of their predecessors.

    #90388
    tjfoose1
    Participant

    We (the fans, that is) are the Griswold’s of CFB….

    Nice Wuf’

    #90389
    Wulfpack
    Participant

    Just please, no chest thumping about how we are going to do this and that to Wake, how this time is going to be so much different, etc. etc. I’ve been here a good long while, and seen so much of it that I’d like to forget. But I can’t seem to forget, because it just seems to keep on happening, no matter the state of affairs at the time. Hopefully we find a way to win and to bury this beast for the time being, and that it can jump start some good play going forward. We desperately need it, that much is for sure.

    #90390
    PackofMac
    Participant

    Fastback68, section 3..home side. Unsure of row or seat my man, always go with a Wake grad friend of mine but we’ve been going since we were kids. I do however know my exact tailgate location, first row of the blue lot right on the corner at the main rd. leading in and the road separating the blue from the gold lot. I was more taking a shot at the attendance of wake supporters than boasting our “great” fan base.

    #90391
    Fastback68
    Participant

    ^ At least you are in the shade. Just got Wake message High Noon. No carnival this year. I rarely get pissed at away games but there was a Wake loudmouth who kept on saying “Same old State, Same old State”. I wanted to kill him 3 quarters in.

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