TSN: Ranking the ACC’s Best FBall Players

It’s always interesting to look at lists like these.

NC State only has two players – Anthony Hill and Willie Young – on the entire list. I think that is representative of what we all recognized a few years ago and expected to be the case as Chuck Amato’s recruiting was starting to suffer and wasn’t yielding players on the field that were living up to their recruiting hype and buzz.

I would take a little issue with the failure to recognize our strong stable of running backs.

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'08 Football Rankings & Lists

22 Responses to TSN: Ranking the ACC’s Best FBall Players

  1. McPete 06/04/2008 at 10:31 AM #

    TJ Yates the 3rd best QB? Sean Glennon has done way more up to this point in his career than Yates. that’s a sad list anyway at the qb position. no wonder the acc has been mediocre.

  2. RegularExpression 06/04/2008 at 11:01 AM #

    “Skinner isn’t the most physically impressive player…”

    Uuum, yeah, we noticed.

  3. newt 06/04/2008 at 11:41 AM #

    I can understand why we don’t have many players on there, but I pretty confused as to how UNC is figured to have so many.

  4. wufpaxno1 06/04/2008 at 12:19 PM #

    I don’t have any issue with there being no mention of our running backs. So far we have heard, mostly from ourselves, how great a stable of running backs that we have at State. But to date, none of them has distinguished himself as an elite back. I realize that that may be for a number of reasons, not the least of them being injuries and poor line play, but how many 1,000 yard rushers are among them members of our backfield to date? Until one or more of them steps up and makes a case for recognition, we aren’t going to get any props from the national media.

    As far as not having that many people on this list, that is just fine by me. It will serve as motivation for some of our football players and TOB is like Sheridan, he will develop players from this group of young men that many will not see before the season. We are becoming a team as opposed to a collection of individuals playing football. This will serve us well this year and in seasons to come.

  5. BoKnowsNCS71 06/04/2008 at 12:33 PM #

    To me this is old news. We all recognize past problems with recruiting if not basic training of recruits. I believe we have turned that corner and we will see people recognizing our “Skinners” — kids who don’t necessarily look good on paper but do their job and don’t lose games. I trust the coaching and teaching that TOB and his staff are bringing and while this coming year might be less then enjoyable — I think we will see the changes coming. ANd when our injured are back on their feet – I think there will be some writers saying “oops’

  6. graywolf 06/04/2008 at 12:43 PM #

    wufpaxno1 wrote :

    I don’t have any issue with there being no mention of our running backs. So far we have heard, mostly from ourselves, how great a stable of running backs that we have at State. But to date, none of them has distinguished himself as an elite back. I realize that that may be for a number of reasons, not the least of them being injuries and poor line play, but how many 1,000 yard rushers are among them members of our backfield to date? Until one or more of them steps up and makes a case for recognition, we aren’t going to get any props from the national media.

    I agree but I think the OL situation is going to be greatly improved this year which will enable our backs to do more than they ever have in the past.

  7. StateFans 06/04/2008 at 1:04 PM #

    The inclusion of Yates on the list speaks to just how weak the ACC’s quarterbacks are. Bad overall QB play and a dearth of strong QB prospects are probably the top reasons why the league has fallen in the last few years and why our profile amongst national conferences has also dropped.

  8. Oldwolf 06/04/2008 at 2:00 PM #

    the question is not how weak the qb’s are but why Yates is listed as the 3rd best QB.

    If you take a look at the QB efficiency rankings from last season (from theacc.com) then you find many returning QB’s rated as better ones:

    Passing Efficiency (minimum 15 attempts per game)
    Player, School NCAA G Att Cmp Int Pct. Yds. TD Eff.
    Cullen Harper, Jr., Clem. ……………. 22 ….. 13 433 282 6 65.1 2991 27 141
    Sean Glennon, Jr., VT ……………….. 31 ….. 13 235 143 5 60.9 1796 12 137.6
    Chris Turner, So., Md. ……………….. 36 ….. 11 241 153 7 63.5 1958 7 135.5
    Riley Skinner, So., WF ………………. 44 ….. 11 326 236 13 72.4 2204 12 133.4
    Matt Ryan, Sr., BC ……………………. 61 ….. 14 654 388 19 59.3 4507 31 127
    Thaddeus Lewis, So., Duke ……….. 67 ….. 12 360 199 10 55.3 2430 21 125.7
    Kyle Wright, Sr., UM…………………. 71 ….. 10 241 141 14 58.5 1747 12 124.2
    T.J. Yates, Fr., UNC ……………………. 73 ….. 12 365 218 18 59.7 2655 14 123.6
    Drew Weatherford, Jr., FSU……….. 82 ….. 11 318 181 3 56.9 2049 9 118.5
    Jameel Sewell, So., UVa. …………… 91 ….. 13 364 214 9 58.8 2176 12 114.9

    And when you look at RB’s – Greg Little was not even a starter and there are the 3 from State, along with Pearman from UVA,Antoinne Smith from FSU (is he back?) and probablu more.

    So this guy seems to think more favorably of some of these guys in baby blu than many others that have demonstrated better results on the field.

  9. b 06/04/2008 at 2:14 PM #

    I’ll take AM Cash over Marvin Austin, and any of our backs (Even Underwoord) over Greg Little.

  10. b 06/04/2008 at 2:24 PM #

    Good write up on foreign footballers, Kuhn is the feature of the article for all intents.

    http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=3425343

  11. vtpackfan 06/04/2008 at 3:12 PM #

    Everyone on all those list have actually succeeded in the past EXCEPT Austin and Little. Unx won none of their games last year due to the superb play of these two, this is just hype of how unwordly good these guys are based on prep days.

    The rest of the list looks good. ACC isn’t really featuring a TON of talent this year. There will probably be a reduction of 1st rounders and we should all know by now that no ACC school is primed this year to run away with BCS hardware. Clemson should be soooooo much better then they are, I can’t beleive that there isn’t another coach out there that could deliver a product more suitable to the talent. Bowden is just a down and out flake.

  12. oldflyingfarmer 06/04/2008 at 4:49 PM #

    If you believe that list, we may as well plan on getting whipped by Carolina this year. Just another chance for us to show them how wrong they are.
    HERE COMES THE PACK!

  13. redfred2 06/04/2008 at 5:14 PM #

    The ME, ME, ME, hey look at ME!!! is getting very tiring on every level of sports nowadays. I don’t really care who’s on the roster this season, I just want to see a football T E A M first and foremost. Playing sound football will draw the good players.

  14. wfpk99 06/04/2008 at 5:26 PM #

    ^ yeah, what he said!

  15. PackerInRussia 06/04/2008 at 10:16 PM #

    Probably our most successful running back (not just having 1 or 2 games, but several consecutively; also successful meaning we won games) of the heralded bunch has been Jamelle Eugene. He didn’t become successful until he was the featured back not having to split time with Baker or Brown. I don’t know what that means or anything, but just pointing out. Maybe it means that he runs better with a weak line and the others don’t?

  16. wufpup76 06/05/2008 at 10:38 AM #

    I agree in large part w/ what wufpaxno1 wrote about our RB’s, though I did fall in love w/ Eugene at the end of last season due to his stellar efforts …

    Eugene had some success even w/ our not-so-great line play and from what I remember didn’t celebrate himself EVERY SINGLE TIME he made a routine play like some of our guys still seem intent on doing … big plus for me 🙂

    It will be interesting to me to see how the RB situation starts out this season and how the staff will use them … some improved line play would also help 🙂 … Of course we’ve got a QB situation to resolve — um, ok – I’m going to stop now b/c I could be here for a while listing our potential shortcomings … Just want to see a hard-working, great effort giving group out there … haven’t seen one those in a revenue sport at State in a little while 😉

  17. SuperStuff 06/05/2008 at 10:38 AM #

    If our key players stayed healthy last year more would be been featured on that list. I wouldn’t sweat it. I just want the fellas to stay healthy and contribute this year. Go Wolfpack!

  18. Noah 06/05/2008 at 12:42 PM #

    I’ve yet to see Marvin Austin do a single thing that would make me include him on that list. And the inclusion of TJ Yates on it makes me think that it’s really a joke…or someone lost a bet or a web site got hacked.

  19. ncsumatman 06/05/2008 at 12:44 PM #

    I didn’t read the entire article, I just saw his top 5 quarterbacks and decided my time would be better served doing something else.

  20. sf59 06/05/2008 at 1:34 PM #

    but marvin does have an all acc rack…

  21. john of sparta 06/05/2008 at 6:03 PM #

    blocking and tackling.
    you could carry the ball.
    nothing to it.

  22. Trip 06/06/2008 at 7:42 AM #

    Tyrod Taylor >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> TJ Yates

    Taylor is one hell of a athlete. He was thrown into play his REAL freshman year and didn’t do too bad of a job considering how big of a difference in speed there is from high school to college. He’ll definitely be the #2/#3 quarterback this year in the ACC based just off his scrambling, and if he can get his long-distance arm going he’ll be #1 without a doubt.

    LOL@ Skinner … we’ve all (sadly) seen how much of a physical speciman he is.

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