Tuesday Tidbits

September 27, 2011

NC STATE FOOTBALL
ncsu helmet

J.P. GIGLIO (N&O)
Injuries have Wolfpack searching for answers

O’Brien pointed out the fundamental problems with his team’s defense against Cincinnati, particularly on the Bearcats’ second scoring drive, which was extended by mental lapses, coverage breakdowns and penalties.

“Until you start doing the fundamental things on defense, we’re not going to be good,” O’Brien said.

The Wolfpack likely will be without defensive tackle Brian Slay (ankle) and defensive tackle A.J. Ferguson (knee) for the Georgia Tech game Saturday. Defensive end Jeff Rieskamp (shoulder) and tackle J.R. Sweezy (foot) already are on the injured list.

Monday’s two-deep chart featured three freshmen, two sophomores, one walk-on and only one starter (tackle Markus Kuhn) in the spot he was expected to be in the preseason.

O’Brien said sophomore Darryl Cato-Bishop will move inside to replace Slay at tackle and junior McKay Frandsen will start for Cato-Bishop at left end.

Associated Press
Injuries Threatening To Derail N.C. State’s Season

“I thought we’d be a winning football program and a bowl team” in his fifth year, O’Brien said. “Generally, it takes five years to install your program, to get it going up and running. The injury thing … every time we take a step forward, we’re taking two steps backwards. It’s like Year 3 again.”

The Wolfpack’s ground game ranks 109th nationally, rushing for just 85 yards per game, and a big reason for that is that they haven’t had running back Mustafa Greene, who continues to recover from a foot injury he suffered during spring practice. O’Brien said the coaches will have to decide by the team’s mid-October week off whether Greene will even come back this season or be redshirted.

On the other side of the ball, N.C. State’s front four has been a revolving door due to a rash of injuries that has wiped out any chance of continuity among that group. That’s a big reason why the Wolfpack allowed averages of 39 points and 470 yards against the two FBS teams they’ve played, Wake Forest and Cincinnati.

GoPack.com
Wolfpack Faces Nation’s Highest-Powered Offense Saturday

NC State’s chance to rebound after a disappointing Thursday night performance will come against the highest scoring offense in the nation in 21st-ranked Georgia Tech. Head coach Tom O’Brien met with the media at the Murphy Center Monday to discuss the tall order facing the Wolfpack this week.

“This offense is always hard to play because it’s so unique, but it’s a great challenge for the team,” said O’Brien. “We’re going to find out who’s disciplined and who’s mentally tough, because they force you to concentrate on your assignment each play. All it takes to get you beat is that one missed assignment.”

GoPack.com
Graham Named ACC Specialist of the Week

Graham returned seven kickoffs for 160 yards against Cincinnati, and also hauled in touchdown grabs of 87 and 49 yards. His 176 total yards receiving stands at the 10th most in school history for a single game, while his 160 kickoff return yards is tied for sixth in the school record book.

Matt Carter (TheWolfpacker.com)
Monday Morning Quarterbacking

Three things that did not work:

1. Winning the trenches
The stats tell the story. NC State ran for negatve-26 yards rushing. Their longest run was 12 yards, and that was a Glennon scramble. The pack gave up six sacks. Meanwhile Cincinnati had 240 yards rushing and allowed only one sack. The Bearcats had total domination on the lines.

2. Third down defense
Third downs continue to be a problem for the Wolfpack. They allowed the Bearcats to convert nine of 16. The Bearcats second and third touchdown drives included five third down conversions, giving them a 21-0 lead. Two of them were from distances of 17 and 13 yards. Later in the game, on another touchdown scoring drive, Cincinnati converted a third and 11 to get a 34-7 lead.

3. Making plays
The bottom line in football is you have to make plays. For whatever reason, State made very few plays while the Bearcats were brining their ‘A’ game. Even the Bearcats’ punter was sensational Thursday night. When Cincinnati is playing at that high of a level, NC State needs to respond by making plays, and they clearly did not do that.

Matt Carter (TheWolfpacker.com)
Injuries pile up on the defensive line

The plethora of injuries to one unit has forced some changes. Head coach Tom O’Brien announced Monday that they are going to move redshirt sophomore defensive end Darryl Cato-Bishop inside to tackle. Cato-Bishop has 23 tackles, including four for loss and three sacks, and 12 quarterback hurries this year.

True freshman T.Y. McGill, pressed into action this year, will back up Cato-Bishop. After that? The fourth defensive tackle is now walk-on and Campbell transfer Jacob Kahut, who started this year at offensive guard.

“He’s a little undersized right now, but he’ll play low and he’ll play hard,” O’Brien said about Kahut, 6-foot-4, 257 pounds. “He’s the end of the line right now.”

Because Cato-Bishop has moved inside, junior McKay Frandsen moves to the first string opposite redshirt freshman Art Norman, who replaced the injured Rieskamp in the lineup. Backing those two up are now redshirt sophomore Sylvester Crawford and redshirt freshman Theo Rich.

Akula Wolf (BackingthePack.com)
Week 4 By The Numbers

PackPride.com
Depth Chart: NC State vs. Georgia Tech

Aaron Schoonmaker (WRALSportsfan.com)
The truth and deception of defensive stats

When the stat crossed on Thursday night that NC State was third in the nation in interceptions after recording their eighth of the year, that indicated to the casual ears a shut-down secondary. That’s not what the eyes were seeing, so I wanted to take a deeper look.

The reality is that the Wolfpack defense is about as banged up as any I have seen in recent memory and losing cornerback Jarvis Byrd to a knee injury didn’t help that at all. But injuries aside, they still have to play 60 minutes every Sunday and statistically it is not all bad or all good. Depends on how you look at it.

NC State is giving up over 400 yards per game and has notched their only two wins against FCS schools. The 271 yards per game given up by NC State in the passing game are 103 in the FBS but the defense is opportunistic. In addition to their eight interceptions, the Wolfpack have four fumble recoveries – one returned for a TD by Brian Slay.

To sophomore David Amerson’s credit for NC State, he leads the nation in picks as an individual with four and has proven to be around the ball and willing to go get it.

Joe Ovies (WRALSportsfan.com)
Tom O’Brien era at the crossroads

By this point, O’Brien’s program should be able to overcome the absence of Wilson and Nate Irving rather than becoming a discussion point about what the Wolfpack miss. Now those individuals are seen as players of such talent that they masked huge problems, whether it’s Mike Archer’s maligned defensive scheme or poor offensive development.

Worse, the slow start calls into question O’Brien’s recruiting record since he arrived in Raleigh. This isn’t about the much-hyped star system so many recruitniks obsess over. O’Brien’s track record is to develop so-called 2-star and 3-star caliber prospects into effective system players. Find the talent that works for the system. But if he’s going to hang it all on his system, and why wouldn’t he since it worked at his previous job, the development of depth and results on the field need to be there. Unfortunately for O’Brien, that hasn’t been the case.

Thus the intense scrutiny just 4 weeks into the season. It’s why the Wilson story isn’t even about Glennon any more. That should have been done, with Glennon filling the quarterback role adequately, but “The Decision” is meta now. It simply highlights other instances O’Brien’s detractors will use to reveal his perceived inflexibility. The retention of Archer as defensive coordinator is right below Wilson in their talking points.

MULTIMEDIA/PODCASTS

PackPride.com
O’Brien: ‘We Are Going To Coach Them Up’

“We’re down four defensive tackles now, we only have two defensive tackles left to play this game. We moved Cato-Bishop inside, we’re going to play with a walk-on inside and that’s where we are. We are going to coach them up and get them ready to play a football game. You can’t play if you don’t have your guys there to play.”

“I thought we’d be a winning football program and a bowl team. I don’t think there’s any question. Whether we’d be challenging for the conference championship at that point. Generally it takes five years to install your program, to get it going and up-and-running. The injury thing is the thing that’s been so… every time we take a step forward we take two steps backwards. This is like year three again. One, three, and five have been…”

PackPride.com
PC: Wentz, Cato-Bishop Meet The Media

Jim Young (ACC Sports Journal)
The ACCSports.com Podcast, Sept. 27

Clemson is off to a 4-0 start, has two straight wins over ranked teams and has a huge game coming up on Saturday at Virginia Tech. So it seemed like a perfect time for Jim Young to talk about the Tigers with one of the journalists who knows them best, TigerIllustrated.com senior writer – and ACC Sports Journal contributor – Larry Williams.
Among the topics they discussed:
• What’s at stake for the Tigers if they can win in Blacksburg;
• Tajh Boyd’s incredible transformation since the spring;
• Why this Clemson team feels different from its disappointing predecessors;
• Why Virginia Tech has opened up as a seven-point favorite
And how the Hokies D might try to match up with Clemson’s high-powered offense

GoPack.com
Watch The Tom O’Brien TV Show

In this week’s episode, Head football coach Tom O’Brien breaks down the Cincinnati game with host Tony Haynes. Mark Thomas visits with defensive lineman Markus Kuhn and previews the Pack’s next game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

WRAPSportsfan.com
Cato-Bishop: Georgia Tech tough to defend

Defensive End Darryl Cato-Bishop says State has a tough task this week stoping the Georgia Tech offense.

WRALSportsfan.com
Wentz: State needs to play harder

Offensive Lineman Camden Wentz says NC State went into the season thinking they were better than they are.

WRALSportsfan.com
Tom O’Brien previews Georgia Tech

Tom O’Brien says his team has to play through the injuries. He talks about what it will take to stop the Georgia Tech defense.

ACC FOOTBALL

Matt Hinton (YahooSports.com)
Headlinin’: Tallahassee police book Greg Reid on two misdemeanors

The Rap Sheet, Seminole edition. Florida State cornerback/return man Greg Reid was arrested by Tallahassee police early this morning on a pair of misdemeanor charges for perjury and resisting an officer without violence. No details yet, but Reid, 21, was booked at the Leon County Jail on $500 bond.

Already this season — which was supposed to be a breakout year for a former five-star recruit on the heels of his MVP turn in last year’s Chick-Fil-A Bowl — Reid has missed one game to a suspension, another to a knee injury, been posterized on one of the plays of the year and depending on the circumstances in this case, may not be seeing the field again anytime soon. [Orlando Sentinel]

Brett Friedlander (starnewsonline.com)
ACC REPORT CARD: How low can State, Maryland, Miami go?

N.C. State, D-: The Wolfpack is a wounded, fragile team right now and Thursday, all it took to send it over the edge was a 76-yard punt by Cincinnati and the first of two early interceptions by QB Mike Glennon. From there on, virtually everything that could go wrong did go wrong for State in coach Tom O’Brien’s nightmare return to his hometown. Offensively, State couldn’t run the ball, couldn’t protect the quarterback and turned it over three times. Defensively, a unit that was already depleted by injuries – especially up front – lost two more linemen during the course of the game when Brian Slay and A.J. Ferguson went down with injuries and was burned for 503 total yards. While many of the mistakes on the field were physical, O’Brien and defensive coordinator Mike Archer didn’t help matters any by continuing to blitz until the bitter end, even though the pass rush was ineffective and their secondary was getting riddled by screens and passes into the soft middle. The only thing that keep the Wolfpack’s grade from being an F was another strong performance by T.J. Graham. The senior WR caught seven passes for 176 yards and two long TDs. But with the running game accounting for minus-26 yards, Glennon looking like a deer in headlights under the Bearcats’ pressure and a patchwork defense that lacks both confidence and playmakers right now, Graham’s effort wasn’t nearly enough.

Andrew Skwara (ACCSportsJournal)
ACC Football Power Rankings, Sept. 26

10. N.C. State (2-2, 0-1 ACC)
A 30-point loss to Cincinnati is especially disturbing considering the Wolfpack beat the Bearcats by 11 last year (with Russell Wilson, mind you). Tom O’Brien’s program is taking steps backwards while the quarterback they could still have has led Wisconsin to a 4-0 start.
Previous Ranking: No. 9
Upcoming Game: Saturday vs Georgia Tech (4-0)

Mike Huguenin (Rivals.com)
Monday with Mike: FSU not done yet

NCAA FOOTBALL

Rand Getlin, Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel (YahooSports.com)
Ex-Vols aide funded airfare payment for Seastrunk

An assistant coach during Lane Kiffin’s tenure at the University of Tennessee wired $1,500 to a talent scout in July 2009, funding the airfare for an unofficial recruiting trip by then five-star prospect Lache Seastrunk and his mother, Yahoo! Sports has learned.

In an apparent NCAA violation, then-Volunteers secondary coach Willie Mack Garza sent the money to one-time scout Will Lyles, who had paid for plane tickets for Seastrunk and his mother Evelyn. Garza, who joined Kiffin’s staff at USC in 2010, stepped down from his position with the Trojans in September citing “some personal issues unrelated to USC that I need to address.” His resignation came shortly after Lyles informed NCAA investigators in August of the transaction. Lyles said NCAA investigators were conducting a wide-ranging look into Tennessee recruiting practices.

CONFERENCE EXPANSION

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Governor: UConn interested in ACC

Connecticut’s governor confirmed Monday that the University of Connecticut is interested in becoming part of the ACC should that league expand to 16 teams.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, speaking to reporters outside his Capitol office, said he no longer expects the ACC to act quickly after adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse from the Big East this month.

“I think there was expectancy built up initially that this was quickly going to be resolved,” he said. “That’s clearly not the case. The ACC has the first decision to make and that’s whether they’re going to stay at 14 teams or stay at 16.

“I know that there’s one team, one school that they would like to get into the ACC that would guarantee them going to 16 teams and that’s been speculated to be Notre Dame. I suspect that that’s true. I don’t know how likely that is to happen or not happen. Although, I tend to think it’s not terribly likely.”

Malloy said if Notre Dame isn’t interested the ACC must decide if there is any compelling reason to expand again. “Beyond that, then you fall back to the Big East,” he said.

Malloy, a Boston College alumnus, said he has had a half dozen conversations with UConn President Susan Herbst about the move.

About 1.21 Jigawatts

Class of '98, Mechanical Engineer, State fan since arriving on campus and it's been a painful ride ever since. I live by the Law of NC State Fandom, "For every Elation there is an equal and opposite Frustration."

'11 Football College Football Tom O'Brien

52 Responses to Tuesday Tidbits

  1. triadwolf 09/27/2011 at 7:14 AM #

    “A 30-point loss to Cincinnati is especially disturbing considering the Wolfpack beat the Bearcats by 11 last year (with Russell Wilson, mind you). Tom O’Brien’s program is taking steps backwards while the quarterback they could still have has led Wisconsin to a 4-0 start.”

    That’s just awful/lazy reporting. Wisconsin is still 4-0 without RW, and NC State is still a train wreck with him. I’m sure Wilson watched our game on Thursday cringing every time he watched the NC State 0-Line.

    I can buy some of the excuses on defense, although I don’t accept them, but saying that Greene being injured is the cause for.our running woes is bull.

    Lack of depth is particularly disturbing.

  2. Prowling Woofie 09/27/2011 at 7:58 AM #

    Greene is probably the best back we’ve got, but you’re right, triad – his absence isn’t the reason State has a dreadful rushing attack.

    Starts in the trenches, and we’ve got girls on the line, apparently. Notice the nice hair ribbon Wentz is wearing in his video…

  3. Hungwolf 09/27/2011 at 8:01 AM #

    An unfriendly media has been part of our problem for years in regards to recruiting. N&O and Charlotte Observer run articles about North Carolina recruits leaving the state. Now even the ACC aka Tar Heel Sports Journal has an article on it. With UNC-CHeats problems seems their is even more focus on it. I guess since we all realize top recruits are not going to want to got to a school on probation, guess the media doesn’t want them to go to NCSU either. Most media outlets support their local teams. Run articles on why recruits should choose local schools. Some actaully try and help schools retain kids in state. One would think that our media would be writing articles on why kids should want to play for a coach like TOB at a school where kids actually earn their grades, write their own papers, and leave school with real degrees. NCSU is a top rated school for kids getting real top paying jobs in the country. Not once have I seen a newspaper article in this state with this type of info, giving recruits reasons to stay home and play for the state’s largest and best University!

  4. NCStatePride 09/27/2011 at 8:08 AM #

    Offensive Lineman Camden Wentz says NC State went into the season thinking they were better than they are.

    …and I think this may have, in large, contributed to some of the early fan disillusionment that was going on around here and elsewhere around the fanbase. A lot of people have come to say “we believe O’Brien; he is nothing if not a straight shooter!” We heard from various sources on the team how well things were moving and improving, so we definitely didn’t expect what we got this year.

  5. wolfonthehill 09/27/2011 at 8:22 AM #

    I didn’t click on the link out of sheer laziness… but how can any two ACC teams be power-ranked lower than us? We are the worst ACC football team I can recall seeing in 20’ish years…

  6. triadwolf 09/27/2011 at 8:27 AM #

    Pride – You’re absolutely spot on with that observation. TOB had a smug confidence coming into this season which was a contradiction to how he normally tries to downplay everything. He may have sealed his own fate without realizing what he was doing.

  7. baxter 09/27/2011 at 8:31 AM #

    Or he thought he had a very good defense, a good QB, a soft schedule and only a running game that needed work. He was right about Glennon so far. The LBs and secondary would look way different if we didn’t lose a DT every week.

    When Sweezy went down, my hopes for the season did as well. Its been a slippery slope since.

  8. 61Packer 09/27/2011 at 8:50 AM #

    “MOST MEDIA OUTLETS SUPPORT THEIR LOCAL TEAMS”

    This is California-based McClatchy Newspapers we’re talking about, not the locally-owned News & Observer or Charlotte Observer that your granddad or dad once read.

    The current N&O is in my opinion first and foremost a political publication that doles out hard-left political opinions and only the news it wants you to know.

    Sports reporting follows these same guidelines, and the N&O, who has a Charlotte-based reporter covering NCSU, is about as likely to report us in a good light as it is likely to say anything bad about Obama.

    I cannot wait to see this company go under.

  9. Plz2BStateFan 09/27/2011 at 8:55 AM #

    Can any coach expect to lose 4 of your 6 defensive tackles in such a short time span?

    Should you have 10 defensive tackles on the roster just in case all of your injuries hit one position? Well then lets have 10 WR, 10 DT, 10, DE, 10 CB, 10 S, 5 C, 10 OT, 10 OG, 10 RB, 10 TE, 5 punters, 5 kickers, 5 long snappers, 5 return specialists, 5 QB’s.

    Oh….we only are allowed 85 scholarships.

    If these injuries were not almost entirely on one DT position and spread around the team to 1 TE, 1 OT, 1 WR then we would be much better looking. But its all at the DT spot. And almost injuries in general are starters.

    Its disgusting, but you must live in reality. Its going to look like year 3 unless we get a lot of guys back during the bi-week.

  10. NCStatePride 09/27/2011 at 9:12 AM #

    baxter says,

    “When Sweezy went down, my hopes for the season did as well. Its been a slippery slope since.”

    In the NAVY, we have this thing we bitch about called “single point of failure”. Imagine if you were on a war ship traveling through the GoO and suddenly your SPS-67 surface radar went out. Oh Shit, I can’t determine anything on the surface of the water now! I mean, yeah, I have some back-up plans, but I didn’t count on losing MY BEST F—ING SURFACE RADAR! I guess I can get some guys to just “watch” the water. We’ll suck and performance will be worse than any other surface vessel we’ve sent to sea for a while, but we’ll make it work….

    The point is that we have back-ups and back-ups to back-ups. We have replacement parts that are equally as good as the originals and we can modify our tactics and adapt to our sensor deficiency.

    Tom O’Brien is a war ship without a surface radar and he has no back-ups and no change of tactics. Much like a ship in the middle of the sea, O’Brien sent this vessel to war in August ill-prepared. Should he have 100 back-ups for everything? No, but we had people start dropping before summer training was over. My question, and the question that is going to either save his job another year or sink him like the Titanic, is this: Did O’Brien perform due dilligence to ensure that he did not send a ship to sea with a single point-of-failure or did he see that there might be a problem and fail to adapt?

  11. codebrown 09/27/2011 at 9:20 AM #

    We need blood. I offer Mike Archer and his 2-page playbook to the chopping block.

  12. coach13 09/27/2011 at 9:30 AM #

    Of course he was smug. If you don’t know both your offensive and defensive lines are sub-par, and how they do against each other is your only measuring stick, then they probably looked “relatively” good.

    GT is going to break records against us Saturday. It will be the ugliest game of the season. it will be the kind of game that will make players curl up in the fetal position and destroy the rest of the season.

    Predictions after Saturday? We will lose every game badly after GT as we will be spiritually crushed, except for UNC. We will play them a tough first half, make it look like something, and fold in the second half. Final record…2-10.

  13. coach13 09/27/2011 at 9:35 AM #

    Wow…i read it after I posted it. How pessimistic. But I don’t see anything in this team. maybe they will surprise me. And damn, does anyone ever get better from injuries? Is anyone gonna make it back for GT ???

  14. TruthBKnown Returns 09/27/2011 at 9:52 AM #

    GT is only favored by 11.5 points. I’m thinking about coming out of “gambling retirement” and putting some action on GT minus the points. That’s a ridiculously low spread, considering the disaster that State has become.

  15. TruthBKnown Returns 09/27/2011 at 9:54 AM #

    does anyone ever get better from injuries?

    I remember TOB’s second year, I believe it was. We had a ton of injuries and started 1-5. Then we got some guys back from injury and won 5 of our last 6, including the last four games, and went to a bowl game.

    Hard to imagine that kind of recovery, though. I don’t think we have the personnel (that includes COACHES) to pull that off, even if they’re all 100% healthy.

  16. NCSU88 09/27/2011 at 10:01 AM #

    I mentioned this last year, and the year before: Has anyone taken a really hard look at Strength and Conditioning? I understand that injuries happen. But year after year this happens to our football team. How are the players getting injured? Bad conditioning? Bad technique? Bad form? Bad play calling? Bad luck? If I was on this staff, these are the questions I would be looking at. Maybe next year.

  17. TruthBKnown Returns 09/27/2011 at 10:12 AM #

    We have a couple of injuries that are bone breaks. That’s not a strength and conditioning issue. And we really don’t have THAT many injuries, either. They’re just several at the same position, so they have a bigger impact. Maybe we could absorb the few injuries we have if they were just more spread out at other positions.

  18. NCStatePride 09/27/2011 at 10:14 AM #

    I believe after the 2009 season, TOB supposedly conducted a review of the S&C with their staff and found now major flaws.

    I don’t really buy that. To me, that is like having congress audit itself for irresponsibly spending it’s own money. “No, no, NO! We didn’t find ANYTHING wrong with OUR program!!!!”

  19. coach13 09/27/2011 at 10:16 AM #

    I remember u saying that 88, and I am starting to agree. Strength and conditioning usually hand in hand, and we look physically weaker at the line both sides, ie we are getting manhandled on D and can’t manhandle on the O-line. So is our stregth AND conditioning a big factor here? The results would lend to this perception, whether it is true or not. I’d love to know what our guys bench, squat, etc and if it is what you would expect out of a GOOD D1 player. And if such numbers in strength are sub-par, maybe safe to consider the conditioning is too????

  20. Baccapacker 09/27/2011 at 10:27 AM #

    Heather D. almost sounds pissed with us over on ESPN after last week, I guess we are making her job a little more irrelevant.

  21. packof81 09/27/2011 at 10:29 AM #

    It’s a safe bet Saturday will be a butt kicking using our butts.

  22. gso packbacker 09/27/2011 at 10:31 AM #

    WHEW, PROBLEM SOLVED!!! Rest easy boys as Aaron Schoonmaker over at WRAL has solved our defensive woes. According to him, apparently our defense is ready to play on Sunday and NOT Saturday (and definitely not Thursday either).

    “But injuries aside, they still have to play 60 minutes every Sunday”

    So, all we need to do is change their calendars so when they wake up this coming Saturday they’ll think it is actually Sunday and therefore be ready to play, 60 minutes even. 😉

  23. Wulfpack 09/27/2011 at 10:40 AM #

    Huge game for Clemson Saturday. Can’t wait to watch two good teams play.

  24. triadwolf 09/27/2011 at 10:40 AM #

    The problem is no one ever told our team that playing 60 minutes meant game clock minutes not real-time minutes. Playing that other 2-1/2 hrs. can be a bitch. Heaven help us if we get to overtime.

  25. Hungwolf 09/27/2011 at 11:02 AM #

    Game is at home, we still have TJ Graham, it is still college football where anything can happen, Ga. Tech’s offense can deliver lots of turnovers, Ga. Tech doesn’t have a great defense, Dana Bible usually good for one or two excellent game plans a year, jon still coaching linebackers, and at some point this season most likely Glennon will arrive. Call me crazy or maybe it was the great Never Give up post the other day, but we can still pull off a win Saturday. Go Pack!

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