Coach Tom O’Brien was interviewed on Adam’s Gold radio show today. This is the first time I have ever been to 850’s blog, so I must give them credit for its content. There is a lot of good stuff over there.
Check here for the full audio.
* ECU expects to have their best team ever.
* South Florida is ranked in some people’s Top 10.
* Clemson is picked in most Top 10s and chosen by many to win
* TOB admits that he has a Graduate Assistant surf the internet. Dear God somebody please tell Lee Fowler and Bobby Purcell that Tom O’Brien has people on staff actually use this obsolete, negative tool known to the ‘50 fans’.
* Quarterback position should be a much better position than it was a year ago.
* We were an abomination last year. Got to give the assistant coaches tons of credit for turning around the ship in the off-season.
* Thankfully, much of the little things involved on the learning curve of implementing a new system should be behind us and allow us to get better more quickly.
Not much to comment on there except that of late, Russell Wilson’s name seems to come up first whenever QB’s are mentioned.
Noah says that Wilson will start, and I tend to believe that is the case.
I’m not sure we want to throw Glennon into the fire (without the benefit of spring practice, even) behind a questionable offensive line.
I think you can take it as 100% confirmation that Evans isn’t going to start, since there’s no way at this point in his development that he can get “much better.”
I am looking forward to driving down to Columbia in late August. It is less than 8 weeks away. This nugget from the audio jumped out at me:
“We were an abomination last year. Got to give the assistant coaches tons of credit for turning around the ship in the off-season.”
That level of honesty is something I wouldn’t expect to hear from most coaches. It is refreshing and I really like how TOB reflects any praise from him onto the coaching staff. That is the sign of a really really good coach.
Go PACK!!!!
My only disagreement w/ that Ruffles is that the players deserve lots of credit too. Or maybe he’s using it as a motivational ploy.
I do like that he didn’t play up last year as a success. How can I say it, but we’ve seen some seasons where our overall record was pretty rotten be deemed “successes” - and that’s been happening for a long time.
I am curious to see what our redshirt strategy will be with this class. We obviously need immediate help on the Oline, QB and LB. Will we ‘bite the bullet’ and redshirt those positions for long term? how many guys will we play?
I think that we will play at least one true freshman - Maddox? - at LB. Probably Sam Jones on the OL.
The real question becomes Glennon, RJ Mattes and the speedy trio of Palmer/Graham/Barnes.
^Those five players will be of interest to me.
Glennon needs to spend the entire year on the sideline. True freshmen at QB (who don’t have the benefit of spring practice) tend to get eaten alive. Peyton Manning, Jimmah Clausen, Mitch Mustain, Little Ronnie Curry, Drew Bledsoe…they were all awful as true freshmen.
(before anyone throws Rivers’ name out there, please re-read my paranthetical note about Spring Practice)
I think the OL will probably all redshirt as well. It’s my understanding that the problem with our current crop of OL isn’t a lack of talent. It’s a lack of cohesion and consistent effort.
I DO think that some of the freshmen LBs will play. Terrell Manning is out, of course, but the others are going to have to play.
How big is the South Carolina game?
Since the hype of the Rivers era, our program has fallen hard and fast. This game is a huge opportunity to turn some heads immediately and obviously winning that game is crucial in receiving a bowl bid next year.
Going into the season, there are only three games where I would say we are solid favorites(W&M, Duke away, ECU). We could even lose two of these games. Everything else will be close to even odds or we will not be favored to win. Somehow we need to win six games.
The ACC has games against two SEC teams(Clemson vs. Alabama) and one Big 12 team(Wake vs. Baylor). Wake shouldn’t have a problem with Baylor, but the ACC needs to win at least one of these games against the SEC.
^
Agreed.
Winning 6 games and getting to any bowl game are going to be lofty goals for this year’s team.
It would be very nice to win, or at least not get the shit beat out of us.
I want to know about if any of the guys we redshirted last year will be contributing. Seems like we’ll have a pretty string receiving corp and guys like Jay Smith & Steven Howard will be utilized this year. I don’t remember taking in many linebackers in 2007 so that would be my concern this year.
I will be interested to see how much more experienced are a few of last years’ youngsters (i.e.- Jake Vermiglio, Koyal George, Markus Kuhn) who got thrown into the fire, and how much they impact this year’s play. George Bryan, too, for that matter.
When asked about Evans, it sounded like the coach started to say “If he had played well in Spring…” but then changed what he was going to say. Even if I’m imagining things, this interview didn’t indicate a vote of convidence for last year’s starting QB. My money is on Wilson.
“The ACC has games against two SEC teams(Clemson vs. Alabama) and one Big 12 team(Wake vs. Baylor). Wake shouldn’t have a problem with Baylor, but the ACC needs to win at least one of these games against the SEC.”
The ACC has several games against the SEC this year:
NC State vs SC
Clemson vs SC
Clemson vs Alabama
Wake Forest vs Mississippi
Wake Forest vs Vandy
Miami vs Florida
Ga Tech vs Mississipi State
Ga Tech vs UGA
Duke vs Vandy
FSU vs Florida
Trout, I think the inference was to opening week.
^ Ah, you are probably right. My bad…….
“…..what I have to do is credit the assitant coaches and this football team…..”
They just need to show up ready to play hard this fall, anything above 4-8 will be acceptable if they are in all the games due to the rough schedule, I think they will be 5-7 again. IF they can sneak one in Williams-Brice, I’ll start hoping for a bowl. I think it is really too much to expect, and I’m a hopeless optimist.
Success would be a run on our rivals (ECU, Duke, UNC) and a good upset of a ranked team at home with a bowl berth.
And if D Evans is the QB, that signals that Glennon is the only hope at QB and the year is a throw away. Wilson should start because he at least poses a multiple threat.
Sorry it this has already been discussed elsewhere, but does anyone know our situation at PK?
Our guy was nothing short of AWESOME for his one and only season w/ us last year … I hope we have found or can find someone comparable
wufpup - I wouldn’t count on finding someone comparable, he’s the best kicker we’ve had here in a long time. I would be thrilled if we have someone who can make 75% of FGs 40 yards or less and can make an occasional one over 40 and all of his XPs.
I was hoping to see more from Wilson in the spring game, but it’s obvious that he has impressed coaches w/ his practices in the spring and last fall. Even though I don’t think he had a great game - you could still see the arm strength and mobility, coupled w/ some decent decision making ability which could easily result in improvement over last year at this position. Keep in mind - we won every game that the QB managed the game well: UVa, ECU, and Miami. We beat UNC-Ch when that wasn’t necessarily the case.
Success this season means winning the State Championship.
We beat Duke, Wake, UNC, and ECU = State Champs!
And if W&M is a sure win, maybe we can get one more and go to a bowl.
^ that “one more” is unlikely
“* ECU expects to have their best team ever.”
Huh? Although there’s not much to choose from, I would tend to think ECU’s 1983 team and 1991 team would have issues with that statement.
ECU manhandled us two years back; and last year they expected us to be roadkill and came out flatter than a crepe vs. us.*
Regarding redshirting, we had BETTER be playing our freshmen LB’s; and perhaps a few DB’s as well. Everyone else needs to prepare for the Glennon era.
*Not wanting to take anything away from our ECU victory last year, but it is THE recipe for succes this year… Solid QB play and no mistakes.