2007 Football Schedule Update

'07 Football General92

Each year we run one entry that serves as our “schedule entry” entry and we update it as time passes and related news (like television schedules) evolve. Most fans usually use the entry as an opportunity to chime in with some preseason predictions. (Just yesterday we updated our evolving ‘basketball schedule’ entry when ESPN announced the match-ups for the Old Spice Basketball Classic over Thanksgiving.)

We also try to ‘byte’ some observations regarding the schedule. How about some of these fortuitous gems from last season’s entry?

* A seven-win or six-win season in 2006 will indicate the program has AT BEST stalled. Less than six wins and the program is in very deep trouble.

* The last time that NC State ended a football season with back-to-back games against North Carolina and East Carolina, NC State fired coach, Mike O’Cain.

* For real shits-and-giggles, ‘what if’ Skip Holtz was having a fantastic year at East Carolina and Chuck Amato was having a horrible year at NC State. Could we be watching Skip’s last game on the sideline in Greenville prior to taking the head job in Raleigh? It is not beyond the realm of possibility…but, it is nothing more than fun fan talk right now.

* To ^that same point – is it 1999 again? Remember in year seven of Mike O’Cain’s tenure at NC State the Wolfpack ended the season with back-to-back games against Carolina and East Carolina. State lost them both. O’Cain was fired. After three years of under-achievement compared to talent and expectations, is Chuck Amato on strong enough footing to weather a similar fate if he were to lose both of these games?

We do something very similar with the Wolfpack’s future out of conference schedule that can be seen by clicking here.

This year’s “official foootball schedule entry” was a little disjointed because we were working hard to piece together as much of the schedule as possible BEFORE it was released. Since NC State has announced the kickoff times and television situation for the Wolfpack’s first three games of the 2007 season, we thought this would be a good place to consolidate our “2007 Schedule Entry”.

2007 NC State Football Schedule

Sep 1 vs Central Florida, 6:00pm (ESPN 360 on internet)
Sep 8 at Boston College, 2:30pm (ESPN2)
Sep 15 vs Wofford, 6:00pm (ESPN 360 on internet)
Sep 22 vs Clemson
Sep 29 vs Louisville
Oct 6 at Florida State
Oct 20 at East Carolina, 4:30pm (CSTV)
Oct 27 vs Virginia
Nov 3 at Miami (FL)
Nov 10 vs UNC-CH
Nov 17 at Wake Forest
Nov 24 vs Maryland

* This is a tough schedule by any measure. Not the world’s toughest, but not a walk in the park.

* The Sporting News has ranked the ACC schedules. It’s not their best work, but it will do.

* There is ALWAYS significant variance between the actual performance of teams and the pre-season projections of teams. You have to think that the likelihood of variance that a team could end up being a lot better than projected (see Wake Forest and ECU last season) or a lot worse than projected is usualy about equal. For some reason, I feel like we have a better chance that the teams on our schedule could end up being worse than projected than if they ended up being better than projected.

* The schedule could quickly get better if Wake fails to repeat its performance from this past season and ECU struggles to break in a new quarterback

* If I had to pick 2 or 3 ‘wild cards’ of teams whose performance could vary the most from pre-season expectations then I would choose Carolina, Wake and Maryland. Interestingly, these three teams line-up in consecutive weekends at the end of our schedule.

* Back-to-back home games against Clemson and Louisville create a very attractive week in late September. If State finds a way to pull an upset at BC on September 8th then TOB will REALLY see that fan support that he was so impressed by during his visit to Raleigh last season.

“Just to walk into (Carter-Finley Stadium), and the enthusiasm in the stadium here, is incredible,” O’Brien said. “I’ve taken teams to State College and beaten Penn State there in front of 100,000 people. I’ve taken a team to Notre Dame when they were No. 4 in the country and came out in the green jerseys. The excitement that fateful night I was here in September (for the BC-NCSU game) was as good as any place I’ve ever been.”

* Speaking of the September 8th match-up in Chestnut Hill — that is going to be one of my designated, “ULTRA hang out all day, eat wings, drink beer, indulge myself in football days” of the season. In addition to the Pack’s game, just the ACC offers the following television line-up of action: Miami at Oklahoma, 12 pm, ABC; Nebraska at Wake Forest, 12pm, ESPN; Duke at Virginia, 12pm, LFS/R; Samford at Georgia Tech, 1:30, ESPNU; UAB at Florida State, 5 pm, ESPNU; North Carolina at East Carolina, 6pm, CSTV; Virginia Tech at LSU, 9:15pm, ESPN. WOW!

* The stretch between September 30th and November 9th sees NC State play only one home game in Carter-Finley (October 27th vs Virginia). After the coaching turnover within the conference last season, Al Groh may be the closest thing we have to being on the ‘hot seat.’

* Will NC State EVER play Duke again? Hell, if Chuck Amato could have just replaced annual Coastal-division losses to Georgia Tech with games against Duke then he probably would still be employed.

* Maybe Lee Fowler should stop worrying about pleasing Terry Holland and working so hard to elevate ECU’s Athletics Program and start helping our ACC brethren out. NC State and Duke could play football every year even if it didn’t count in the ACC standings. We’ve been touting this idea for years and for some reason it gets no traction. It must be way too innovative for the stuffed suits in Raleigh.

* The Wolfpack and Blue Devils could schedule out of conference match-ups and do battle in a historical rivalry that would help both programs. When State travels to Durham the Blue Devils see as much attendance as any game that they schedule. Why doesn’t Fowler support Wolfpack faithful by giving us a game that we can attend in Durham (in an easier journey than Greenville that brings much less physical risk to the average fan) that would also serve to support the coffers of one of our league brothers?

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'07 Football General

92 Responses to 2007 Football Schedule Update

  1. Redblogger 06/06/2007 at 2:31 PM #

    Hey look!

    A dead horse!

    Everybody grab a bat!

    Weeeeeeeeee

  2. packpigskinfan23 06/06/2007 at 2:36 PM #

    why arent we fuming over the basketball situation where we travel TO ecu this year!!! THAT I feel is “bitch worthy”

    this is too… as far as politics go… but who is ever gonna change politics?!
    right BoKnows?

  3. packbackr04 06/06/2007 at 2:39 PM #

    “yeah, so i guess we need to go ahead and have a little talk?”…..

    “mm, not right now, ive got a meeting with the Bob’s in a few minutes”

  4. lush 06/06/2007 at 2:46 PM #

    ^finally

  5. lush 06/06/2007 at 2:50 PM #

    “Wait, wait, wait. Your name is Michael Bolton. I gotta tell you, Im a huge fan. I celebrate his entire collection.”

  6. noah 06/06/2007 at 3:39 PM #

    As I said earlier, I’m completely agnostic on playing ECU. I really don’t care who we play. I’ll watch and pull for NC State. Wofford, Ohio State…whatever.

    If it’s a good idea to play ECU, great. If influential people at NC State want us to play ECU, great. If it really doesn’t make a hill of beans to play ECU….that’s great too.

    But there ain’t anyway in hell that an athletic director ought to allow himself to be blackmailed by some piece of …. state legislator who thinks he can push some buttons and make noise.

    State house rep…good lord…there are dog catchers who have more political clout. You’re a county commissioner with a stupid license plate. The fact that you eat at 42nd Street and have a stupid grin on your face doesn’t mean you’ll get what you want.

  7. highstick 06/06/2007 at 7:39 PM #

    If we’d beat the crap out of ECTC every year, they’d wanting to play us! Very simple solution to ending all of that madness, just beat the dog crap out of them!

  8. Mr O 06/06/2007 at 7:49 PM #

    So how do people think we will do against this schedule?

    I see worst case 3-9 and best case 5-7.

  9. VaWolf82 06/06/2007 at 8:28 PM #

    As I said earlier, I’m completely agnostic on playing ECU.

    I don’t care about playing them in FB one way or the other. When I was in school (watch your smart mouth youngsters), the ECU game was merely a preamble to a party in almost every dorm…..a good time was had by all (except for the socially inept). I had alot of HS friends that went to ECU and the game didn’t have the acrimony that I read about now.

    I don’t care one way or the other about playing in ECU in FB, because that game has no impact on State’s season or its bowl game. However, BB is a completely different story…

  10. VaWolf82 06/06/2007 at 8:31 PM #

    I see worst case 3-9 and best case 5-7.

    I’m hoping for 6-6….which means that someone on TOB’s staff has to find/forge a semi-productive offense. (It’s certainly not a given that a productive offense will be found in Raleigh.)

  11. bTHEredterror 06/06/2007 at 10:03 PM #

    I tend to agree with Noah on this one. If I recall, the primary complaint was that UNC and State were damaging EZU’s ability to compete on a level field by not playing them. And I laugh, because the governing body of college athletics, the NCAA, has never been about competitive equality, they established a bunch of socialist rules that limit potentially shady dealings with prospective athletes, but they have no interest in any effort to even the playing the field financially (or otherwise) amongst schools.

    Whoever’s got the best facilities and coaches will succeed, and this creates the inequality for EZU, as no one ever graduates from there anyway, and thus earns a million dollars less in their lifetimes per person than their cousins who went to NCSU and UNX.

    I’d like to point out they are so lucky to get us in these two down years, and I would love nothing better than rolling down to Doody-Fucklin Stadium and laying a whooping on their collective asses. Under the “Be careful what you wish for” banner. I doubt we will crush them like they deserve though.

    Additionally, I doubt any podunk legislator would muscle UNX into anything. I expect as the largest State funded liberal school, that they supply 50% or better of all the bloodsuckers in the State Senate anyway. They would sit on any legislation that threatened UNC’s athletic interests, or attach a slew of budget cuts to Sen Blackbeard’s proposal that if passed, would ensure he never worked in politics again. Explain what the hell is so important about a football game after his constituents found out their subsidies and road repairs were cut in trade.

    This is just a couple of poor AD’s who take a non-confrontational approach to just about everything, except alumni/fan interests. Squeaky wheel and grease ya know…..

  12. packpigskinfan23 06/06/2007 at 11:09 PM #

    yes… basketball is a COMPLETELY diffrent story.

  13. PamlicoPack 06/07/2007 at 10:04 AM #

    I just want to say thumbs up to Noah for some of the most entertaining posts I’ve read in months…

    Truth be told, noone knows exactly what sort of pressure was applied behind closed doors. I think it wasn’t simply the paintywaists at UNC and State knuckling under to some mouth breather from down East…I think there was sentiment to play ECU from some in the administration and Athletics Department and a sizeable plurality of fans, and the political pressure simply tipped the scales one way…I certainly prefer playing ECU to the Woffords and Middle Tennessee States of the world…

  14. CedarGroveWolf 06/07/2007 at 2:57 PM #

    “If we’d beat the crap out of ECTC every year, they’d wanting to play us! Very simple solution to ending all of that madness, just beat the dog crap out of them!”

    agreed!

  15. brown pelican 06/10/2007 at 11:22 AM #

    key for success in this schedule is maintaining confidence and health until the home stretch—if we can survive with wins against cfu, wofford, uva, and ecu—we will have a strong chance to get two of the last three and end up with six wins—wins against bc or clemson are a distinct possibility as well—the down side?—uva and ecu go the other way—and we struggle in with another three win campaign—i weigh in at 5-7—improvement—but just below the qualifying mark for bowl eligibility

  16. TomCat 06/18/2007 at 12:32 PM #

    So now… ECU is the most powerful legistlative power in the state??? That’s ridiculous. Check your facts. Not a single standing member of the counsel fo state, treasurer, governor, lt.governor,etc. or democratic or republican head of the house or senate are ECU grads. The UNC Board of Governors has 2 ECU grads while UNC and NCState grads compose the vast majority of the board. UNC and NCState has multi-million dollar PACs which distribute money to senators and house members through the legislature, last I check ECU doesn’t even have a active PAC.
    I know its easy to lean on conspiracy theories and excuses for every little thing- but it comes off as a bunch of whinning and crying. North Carolina is a big state, with needs from Murphy to Manteo. It is the job of this state to create opportunity for all it’s citizens not a priviledged class of prosperity for those who live in Wake and Orange and Mecklenburg county- and poverity for the rest. Otherwise… we are Mississippi or West Virginia.
    You have a problem with ECU being on the schedule, fine. Call it for what it is- you don’t like losing to ECU because your boss, your coworker or your neighbor went to ECU and you deal with it everyday. THAT- is the reason the stadium is packed everytime we hook up. That is the reason the 10 largest crowds to college football games in North Carolina in composed of games between NCState, ECU and UNC. Have a problem with ECU? Have a problem with them being a bowl team and we’re not? Simple. Beat’em. Beat’em to a pulp. Beat’em in front of everyone on a great football Saturday and do it again and again. The old days and old excuses no longer hold water. If we want success in football in this state we must take it ON THE FIELD against the UNC’s, ECU’s and heck even Wake- before we deserve the swagger to look down our noses at anyone.

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  1. StateFans Nation » Blog Archive » ACC Football Schedule Rankings - 06/12/2007

    uokoZr Major thankies for the blog article.Really thank you! Really Cool.

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