Putting the Blame Where It Lies

Harsh, but spot-on. The source is really surprising, but apparently nobody in the Triangle market had the stones to call it like it is.

One simply indisputable fact about N.C. State football became obvious this week.

After spending the team’s bye week giving the third team (mainly expected-redshirt freshman, low-value scholarship athletes and walk-ons) as many practice repetitions as the first team, first-year coach Tom O’Brien was asked if any had impressed him enough to earn some playing time. Perhaps a player had been overlooked, misjudged or had taken the third-team designation as a hit to his psyche and worked his way onto the field on Saturdays.

No, O’Brien said. The best players available already were playing — the same ones that led to a 1-5 start.

So what’s this kernel of truth? Chuck Amato’s last trick was convincing the world he had some idea what he was doing.

Don’t say that SFN didn’t try to warn you.

Hat tip to Steve Williams at Pack Pride for digging this article up.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

'06 Football '07 Football Chuck Amato Media NCS Football Tom O'Brien

42 Responses to Putting the Blame Where It Lies

  1. vtpackfan 10/19/2007 at 4:51 PM #

    “Julian Williams out with a knee injury…hello Jake Vermiglio”

    Losing your LT before an emotional in state game during a bye week and replacing him with an untested freshman is too much to take right now. I’m not saying jumping off bridge crazy, just I’m not as interested in following the game as I was before I heard the news.

    The blind side of the QB will be in limbo so I expect the staff will have to rethink the whole playcalling strategy that they had been working on for over a week. Total horse crap and I’m sick of it.

  2. E-RO 10/19/2007 at 5:06 PM #

    “The blind side of the QB will be in limbo so I expect the staff will have to rethink the whole playcalling strategy that they had been working on for over a week. Total horse crap and I’m sick of it.”

    Well, you could have Evans throw left handed. It can’t be much worse. 😛

  3. john of sparta 10/19/2007 at 5:21 PM #

    is it Still Only 6 points? take Pirates give points.

  4. bTHEredterror 10/19/2007 at 8:18 PM #

    “Well, you could have Evans throw left handed. It can’t be much worse.”

    Yes, then Green will be covering his blind side, I’d take my chances with Vermiglio.

  5. old13 10/19/2007 at 8:19 PM #
  6. VaWolf82 10/19/2007 at 8:40 PM #

    If the younger kids in the program aren’t good enough to be challenging for playing time right now, then this could 4-5 year rebuilding job.
    ——————–
    Only if you assume that kids NEVER get any better.

    This is not really in question. Most kids that work hard will improve. However, just because we can be sure that most of the kids will “improve”, there is absolutely no guarantee that they will improve to the point of being “dominant” or even “competitive”.

    The length of the recovery will depend on the development of the younger kids and the JC kids that are brought in to fill the holes.

  7. VaWolf82 10/19/2007 at 8:41 PM #

    Wow…..that doesn’t look like I thought it would.

    First quote (large) from Mr O
    Next line from noah

    Last two paragraphs from me.

  8. vtpackfan 10/19/2007 at 9:16 PM #

    Yes, this is a four to five year rebuilding period. The transition period and it’s recruiting followed on the footsteps of catastophic steps taken by CTC. It has been well documented what these failure consist of and how they have caused huge deficinties in today’s program. All of that is, as they say, water under the bridge.

    The thing that gets me is that the failure of the Chuck was so immense that almost nothing is out there to compare it to. Sure, plenty of coaches fall short and get the axe, but nothing this putid has ever come around that didn’t reek of scandal and/or probation.

    TOB took over a sorry BC program that fell victim of point shaving allegations. He is just as bad off starting off in terms of personnel and depth but all we have for an expalaination is that he hired the grease monkey to run the car dealership. WTF!

  9. vtpackfan 10/19/2007 at 9:21 PM #

    “Yes, then Green will be covering his blind side, I’d take my chances with Vermiglio.”

    Laugh now but we won’t know if Vermiglio starts until kick off. For all we know, Green will line up at LT and Garret Kline will start at RT.

  10. packfanstk 10/19/2007 at 9:35 PM #

    >>>O’Brien has been able to take blue collar players and turn them into champions. <<<

    Well, no he has not. He has been able to take blue collar players and turn them into a winning team/program. Don’t overstate the man’s record. The biggest rap on him, and it is a VERY legitimate one, is that his teams have consistently had a way of gagging on championship games or late-season games that could lead to championships. BC under TOB was Big Least co-champs one season, and that was the one when VaTech and Miami moved out and into the ACC. They could have been champions outright, but lost to an absolutely pathetic Sorrycuse team at home 43-17. I believe TOB will eventually produce a winning program at NC State. I will be the most astonished human on the planet if he ever leads us to a championship, or even the Atlantic Division title. I hope I’m wrong, but we’ll see.

  11. RabidWolf 10/19/2007 at 9:51 PM #

    IMHO, this team will quietly get better and better as time goes on, kinda like the teams Sheridan had. Not great talent across the board, but a few good players. NCSU FB history has many examples of under talented teams winning big games (and losing small ones….FSU in ’98 AND Baylor in ’98). TOB and Sheridan have some similarities in style, but Sheridan had a couple of pretty good QB’s in Kramer and Jordan. Give TOB a QB like either one of those, and we are not talking about a team at 1-5, but possibly 4-2 or even 5-1. I mean we have the WR’s, and the RB’s (save for the injuries), but if the QB can’t get then the ball, it doesn’t matter.

    Time and recruiting, and State will be fine.

  12. redfred2 10/19/2007 at 11:20 PM #

    So, here is TOB, a man who is less than a decade from normal retirement age, a man who built the football program at BC and knew what he was leaving behind when he signed on here. Or did he?

    I think BC’s current ranking has got to be a surprise to TOB, and you gotta know that TOB is only human, he’s definitely kicking his ownself in the butt for abandoning years of hard work right at the time it is paying the most dividends. Adding even more salt to those injuries, I’d bet my house that he didn’t have the foggiest idea of how really bad things were in Raleigh when he signed on.

    He’s got to be second guessing his own decision for sure about now. I’m just damn glad he’s an ex-Marine, he needs the fortitude, I hope he hangs in there.

  13. VaWolf82 10/20/2007 at 12:43 AM #

    he’s definitely kicking his ownself in the butt for abandoning years of hard work right at the time it is paying the most dividends.

    TOB knew what he was leaving. The team may have a better record (right now) than he expected, but he knew he had a senior-laden team with a great QB.

    If you are not happy where you are working and who you are working for, then leaving for a new start (with a pay raise) is not a hard decision to make. How many rumors about TOB, the AD@BC, etc are true? I have no idea….but I suspect that at least some of them are true.

    Sometimes, what you are leaving is just as important as where you are headed.

  14. BoKnowsNCS71 10/20/2007 at 8:40 AM #

    I often hear people question why we are playing these home and away games with ECU. And though I wouldn’t go fishin with the man — TF caught a lot of unfair criticism on this too.

    This article in the N&O documents some of the political intrigue that put pressure on the schools to play. I caught a lot of grief from several reknowned boggers for saying what is now vindicated by this article.

    http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/ncsu/story/743409.html

  15. burnbarn 10/20/2007 at 10:43 AM #

    I bet the hotel industry does not like this series.

  16. noah 10/20/2007 at 2:29 PM #

    “In 1995, Conder and Warren co-sponsored a bill that would have required NCSU and UNC to play ECU. That year, the legislature also was considering major budget cuts for the UNC system, and there were pointed questions behind the scenes about whether lawmakers would pay for key university projects.”

    Political suicide.

    It’s been my experience that straw men playing with gasoline and matches should simply be allowed to do what they think is best. It won’t last long. And, hey…who doesn’t like toasted marshmellows?

  17. TopTenPack 10/20/2007 at 2:46 PM #

    CTC had everybody fooled and even himself. I thought we had the talent, just needed better coaching leadership. Looks like we didn’t have the talent.

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