Great Wolfpack fans help save another bowl
So sorry for the lack of activity on the blog over the last week or so. In addition to the holidays I went down to Birmingham for the game and my laptop is having some issues; I am just now getting back to something that resembles a normal life.
I’ll have more from Birmingham later, but I just wanted to start off with a big shout out to Wolfpack fans for their awesome support of the program. The Wolfpack’s presence in Birmingham was fantastic. The only thing that saved Rutgers from major embarrassment was that their colors are identical to Wolfpack red.
(Update: We’ll also be posting a huge gallery of tailgating and inside the stadium when I get time to dump the cameras and put it together. — Alpha)
In the midst of a deep economic recession and a season when a bowl trip was not naturally ingrained into the fanbase’s psyche, it was a fantastic testament for NC State to take over 10,000 fans to a destination as lackluster as Birmingham. (I guess we should expect nothing less from fans who sit in the rain over the holidays just to watch practice).
The draw of this year’s game will go a long way to helping the PapaJohns.com Bowl to live to fight another day. The announced attendance of over 38,000 was the highest in the bowl’s three year history despite last year’s game that featured Southern Miss whose campus is approximately 250 miles from Birmingham.
The first PapaJohns.com Bowl announced a grossly inflated attendance of 32,000 fans for East Carolina vs South Florida game. The game was attended by so few fans that the bowl attempted to force most fans to sit on only one side of the field so television wouldn’t show the large number of empty seats.
Rob Daniels shared the following in the Greensboro News & Record:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The N.C. State football team didn’t win the Papajohns.com Bowl, but its fan base staved off potential disaster for the three-year-old game.
With an estimated 10,000 State supporters in attendance, the contest announced a crowd of 38,582 — a slight increase from the 35,258 figure of 2007. The Pack was a late replacement for the SEC, which was unable to provide a team when it placed two clubs in the BCS and everybody moved up a spot in that league’s pecking order.
Some context for the 10,000 figure:
* ACC champion Virginia Tech had sold 4,700 of its allotted 17,500 tickets for the Orange Bowl as of Tuesday.
* Miami distributed 4,000 of its 10,000 allocated seats for the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.
* About 5,000 Southern Mississippi fans attended last year’s Papajohns.com Bowl against Cincinnati. The Golden Eagles’ campus is 235 miles from Legion Field. N.C. State is 553 miles away.
A lot of you younger fans have never known the Peach Bowl (aka Chik-Fil-A Bowl) as anything other than a resounding success. So, you will be surprised to learn that in the mid-1980s the Peach Bowl was so close to the edge of extinction that the Bowl committee was throwing hail maries by re-branding the game ‘The NEW Peach Bowl” with the hopes of attracting enough local support to breathe some life into the bowl’s death spiral.
After five consecutive years of announced attendance under 51,000 fans, the 1985 Peach Bowl match-up between Army and Illinois generated attendance of only 29,857 and left the game financially reeling. Then came NC State.
The Peach Bowl hit a financial home run with their selection of NC State and Virginia Tech in 1986 as the two schools combined for an attendance figure of 53,000 fans – almost exclusively comprised of out of town visitors. The success provided the Peach Bowl the opportunity to live to fight another day and ultimately evolve into its current-day success. The 1992 Peach Bowl between East Carolina and NC State was the last bowl played in Fulton County Stadium before the game moved to the Georgia Dome. That game generated more attendance (59,322) than any Peach Bowl in history at the time (23 games).
60 Responses to “Great Wolfpack fans help save another bowl”
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Tracy Smith with 15 of our 32 points. 35-32 with 5 tto go in the first.
Towson’s not bad. They took Milbrook to the wire last Tuesday night.
^ Hey now, my alma mater is a good prep squad.
all in all it was a pretty good game.
it was disappointing to lose, but a really accurate statement about where our team is – on the verge of being good, but not quite there yet.
russell wilson got hurt because he was forced to run – he was forced to run because our offense isn’t quite there yet. we lost after he got hurt because we don’t have any depth – yet. next year we’ll be deeper and more talented almost everywhere and the first real test of TOB’a abilities with his own recruits. too early to predice 8 or 9 wins?
I’ll be disappointed with less than 9 wins and an ACC championship next year.
Well, if you’ve been a State fan long, disappointment comes natural, so you should be ok.
I won’t be too broken-hearted, because I know those are lofty expectations. But if this team picks up from day one where they left off this year, with a lot more depth, I expect big things. We’ll have a stable of running backs and receivers. We have a great QB (and maybe two!), and we should have an O-line that can protect them better. The defense will be deeper (unless Nate goes pro). And there will be more depth overall at about every position. The best part is we have good coaches now. We have all the parts we will need for success. It’s just a matter of going out and doing it.
Tracy Smith with 22 points. Sid has to find a way for him to play more minutes.
Sam – I have to disagree w/ part of your analysis. Part of what makes Russell so special is his ability to run. For most qbs if receivers aren’t open – they throw the ball away, take a sack, scramble for some positive yards or force a pass in there. With Wilson, the play he makes w/ his feet is not only going to be positive, but will usually be sufficient for a first down. You take the threat of Wilson running away, you somewhat diminish the threat of him.
Wilson got hurt because he got caught between sliding and trying finish the run – on artificial turf…if he slides a second earlier or if he finishes the run – he’s probably fine and we win going away.
Next year, we probably win this game because we bring in Glennon (hopefully) instead of Evans and Burke – both of whom were bailing out big time on almost every throw they had.
65-56 nc state with just under 12 mins to play. sad, very sad
tracy smith with 29 points!!!!!!
ben, meet the end of the bench. bench meet ben… you two are gonna be good friends.
Please keep the Towson score updates coming. Thanks!
There are no “bad wins” when we are sans Fergie. Any non-cupcake win would be a Christmas miracle.
79-67 NCSU 4:39 left
Tracy Smith has 31 points OFF THE BENCH!!!!!
81-67 NCSU 3:04
88-67 State with little time left
Final Score: 88-68 State
Well, it will look good in the paper, at least. Maybe we finally found a way to generate some offense without any guards!
is anyone else waiting for a surprise announcement that RW tore his ACL and MCL instead of just a sprain? Maybe God’s saving that one for 2009.
i thought that yesterday. it really was an akward fall. he needs to learn how to slide to avoid those big hits.
Well, it is easy for a 38 year old man to say, “you need to learn how to slide or just take the hit”…He was caught in between – anyone who has ever played contact sports has had this happen to him – it was probably a direct result of the lick he took in Columbia…and his previous success running – he makes the slide a split second earlier, and we’ve probably got a PoppaJohn’s blow out victory. But he didn’t – and that’s sports.
Like you BJD – I’m waiting to find out he tore something pretty serious. It worries me that the docs held him out – they must have felt something pretty bad.
“Well, if you’ve been a State fan long, disappointment comes natural, so you should be ok.”
I had to remind myself of this as I was leaving the game. It all started out so well. We had a great time at the Pep Rally, our hotel was 2/3rds wolfpack, the tailgating was fun even it was in the ghetto! Got to meet bobby Percell and Mr. Papa Johns… the win would have made for a perfect wolfpack day but what can ya do…
Disappointment comes naturally!
Friends and family only today at the Bank Center
(it wasn’t that bad, but it was pretty sparse) … Today’s crowd was definitely livelier than the other night though … not a terrible turnout for the afternoon of new year’s eve
Towson plays majority zone, and showed a lot of full court press today … Zone offense definitely gets an “A” today – not an A+ b/c there were a few turnovers – but it was a very, very efficient Pack attack today against the press and zone … We forced them to switch to man a few times in the second half
The zone offense was highly effective due to the passing of Brandon Costner and Dennis Horner and the positioning and spacing by Tracy Smith … I don’t if I’ve ever seen a player use his body better and put himself in great position to receive the ball more than Tracy Smith … His 31 points came as a direct result of his getting into the right position time after time against the zone and guys moving the ball and finding him – especially Brandon Costner … Costner had about 10,000 assists to Smith today out of the high low in the zone offense … McCauley is a great passer, but Brandon is pretty good in his own right … Also, Smith was 11/11 from the line – you read that right – great all around day from Tracy today
Speaking of Ben, he played pretty well today and fought hard, but he’s been pressing a bit since the Marquette game and he’s turning the ball over uncharacteristically down low … He’s either thinking too much when he gets the ball or is trying to react before he’s really got the ball … Hopefully he’ll snap out of this soon
Defense really picked up late in the first half and on into the second half … You guys can clown and rip Ferguson all you want, but in the 2 games we’ve played w/out him we have struggled mightly at times defensively … This isn’t b/c Fells can’t cover the 2 effecively – it’s b/c we’ve got no one to cover the 3 effectively after moving Fells back to the 2 … Dennis is a really good kid and works hard and I love him – but he will never be mistaken for a defensive stopper … And CJ and JT just aren’t ready yet … Ferguson is way better defender than he is given credit for – especially off the ball
In fact, probably our most effective line-ups today came when both Mays and Farnold were in at the same time … This was a really effective lineup today – with Fells back at the 3 and Costner/Horner working the 4 … I’d like to see this more until we get Fergie back
We’ll see how we look Saturday at Florida … Hopefully we’ll start out playing solid D and can cause some match-up problems for them down low … we’ll defintely need both Mays and Farnold to be top notch Saturday and if Javi is available it’s likely we’ll need him too
Also wanted to mention that Julius Mays is a really scrappy kid and doesn’t back down to anyone … He’s definitely got a little bit of “Javi” in him
Go Pack!
Admins, I have placed a Towson game review in here if you’d like to take it out of “moderation”
Of course, no one really gives a sh*t about what I have to say so I don’t blame you if not.
We do appreciate your input Wufpup, and in fact, I posted your comment from the game today in the game entry. –Alpha