As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago (Link), many of the 2006 pre-season football magazines have hit the stores and preseason football talk has begun in earnest! No more of this pre-mature stuff!
(Update 6/13): The Wolfpacker has done a super job of summarizing the Wolfpack’s presence in all of the preseason magazines in this link.
Our friends at the Red & White from State are perterbed that the Wolfpack is picked dead last in the Atlantic Division (Link) and they aren’t pulling any punches with their feelings about Wolfpack football:
NC State football was once on the lips of national football media as program on the rise. What happened to challenging for conference and national titles? What happened to nationally respected recruiting? Now, there is only sobering reality and questions of ‘where have our dreams gone’. Sadly, after achieving the “stellar” record of 7-5 in 2005, the Pack is going to be rebuilding this year. The Pack, however, has been rebuilding since Philip Rivers’ departure, and there is no reason to believe that Chuck Amato is building anything of note in west Raleigh. Amato certainly has not shown that he can…and that has brought the ire of Wolfpackers, who believed that millions of dollars were laying the foundations for football greatness.
Blue Ribbon has released some of their thoughts on the 2006 college football season, and Pack Pride has highlighted the NC State players selected for pre-season All-ACC honors at this URL. Although it is not up yet…ESPN.com often runs Blue Ribbon’s preseason team profiles as premium content.
Just this week, Wilmington’s Andrew Jones took a brief look ahead at NC State football in this blog entry.
East Carolina visits Carter-Finley on the final weekend of the regular season (Nov. 25) renewing an old rivalry between the schools on a day that should provide terrific tailgating.
ECU is clearly headed in the right direction under second-year coach Skip Holtz and may be playing for a bowl bid, as Conference USA has enough tie-ins to put any team with a .500 or better record in position to challenge for an invitation.
State’s mindset, however, could play a role in how the Wolfpack enters the contest. If State is also playing for a bowl it will likely win comfortably, if it’s had a bad season and Wolfpack supporters are howling about coach Chuck Amato the team could be flat, which would benefit ECU.
At this point, it seems fair to suggest State will go 3-1 outside of the ACC.
SFN has had some really good football entries and conversations as of late. Check out a couple of the following that will be of interest to you:
