State to battle Pirates without NINE injured starters (Updated for attrition 10am)

'08 Football64

Tom O’Brien discussed injuries today in his press conference.

So, NC State will enter Saturday’s game without the services of our best tight end and his back-up; our starting running back and his back-up; our best defensive tackle; our best wide receiver; our most experienced wide receiver; our most experienced offensive linemen; and our two starting safeties.

For the record, the following is our current list of absentees:

Alan-Michael Cash, DT (starter)
Anthony Hill, TE (starter)
Matt Kushner, TE (#2 on depth chart)
Donald Bowens, WR (starter)
Clem Johnson, S (starter)
Javon Walker, S (starter)
Curtis Crouch, OG (co-starter)
Geron James, WR (co-starter)
Jamelle Eugene, RB (co-starter)
Toney Baker, RB (co-starter)

Last week we ran a very interesting entry that was accompanied by a fantastic conversation (seen by clicking here) focused on the impact of excessive recent attrition on the Wolfpack’s program. As a follow-up, some posters at Pack Pride have broken-down the Wolfpack’s current roster and comprised the following:

Players that didn’t qualify that signed with NC State
1. Tobias Palmer
2. Roy Mangram
3. Marty Everett
4. Thomas Lucust
5. Sam Jones

Transfers
6. Ahmad Jaradat
7. Justin Burke
8. Kyle Linney
9. Thomas Barnes

Incoming recruits sidelined due to season-ending injuries as seniors in HS
10. Terrell Manning
11. Colby Jackson
12. Mario Carter

Players sidelined due to injury
13. Toney Baker
14. Javon Walker
15. Clem Johnson
16. Jamelle Eugene
17. Donald Bowens
18. Curtis Crouch
19. Alan Michael Cash
20. Geron James
21. Anthony Hill
22. Matt Kushner

Medically unable to play
23. Mike Golder

Academically ineligible
24. John Ware

Attempting to Redshirt
25.Zach Allen
26.Brandon Barnes
27.William Beasley
28.Akeem Cunningham
29.Mike Glennon
30.Gary Grant
31.RJ Mattes
32.Andrew Wallace
33.CJ Wilson
34.Earl Wolff

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'08 Football

64 Responses to State to battle Pirates without NINE injured starters (Updated for attrition 10am)

  1. SidtheKid 09/15/2008 at 3:55 PM #

    When did the status to Hill and Eugene change, I thought they were on the verge or returning?!?!

    ECU is missing their LB and LT for the game – for those who have seen ECU play, what type of impact will this have?

  2. pakfanistan 09/15/2008 at 4:00 PM #

    I wonder if Hill is done. His chances of getting a hardship redshirt are improved by the fact that he redshirted last year due to injury.

    He can be the football version of Illian Evtimov.

  3. wesley 09/15/2008 at 4:03 PM #

    LOL, this is just becoming almost funny now, like a bit of an insanity laugh. I mean could there be anything besides bad luck that is causing so many injuries? Do these guys not know how to fall right or something? The other amazing thing is that these are all our most talented players, unbelievable.

  4. Ismael 09/15/2008 at 4:03 PM #

    i saw Desmond Roberts is on the 2-deep now, didn’t want him to get in this way, but, oh well.

    Did anyone notice TOB’s tone in the news conf – it sounds like Butch Davis left a flaming bag of UNC on his front porch. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him the rest of this week.

  5. jasondeans 09/15/2008 at 4:05 PM #

    april fools? I’m so not

  6. jasondeans 09/15/2008 at 4:06 PM #

    …not looking forward this game. ECU fans are so annoying when they’re winning.

  7. Noah 09/15/2008 at 4:08 PM #

    And some people will continue to blame the coaches.

    Sh*t happens. And when you are a state fan, a whole bunch of sh*t happens.

  8. john of sparta 09/15/2008 at 4:26 PM #

    do the “modeling”….if the current trend continues:
    who will be the player that has to play both ways
    in the last game?

  9. redfred2 09/15/2008 at 4:29 PM #

    I’m not even thinking about ECU at the moment, I’m just trying find something, somewhere, to keep me halfway interested in Wolfpack athletics in general.

    You see, in my lifetime, and I’m really not even that old, NC State has won 21 ACC championships combined, in the three major sports of football, basketball, and baseball. So, if there are ever times when I might sound a little pissy about the current goings on, then I hope the rest of you can find it your hearts to please forgive me.

  10. SidtheKid 09/15/2008 at 4:51 PM #

    http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/wolfs-not-the-only-ones-with-injury-woes

    I’ll trade situations with ANYONE on that list.

    The FREAKING N&O can’t even let us be the most injured team around, ahhhh it makes me furious!

  11. SEAT.5.F.2 09/15/2008 at 4:51 PM #

    I think there is another RS Freshman from the scuttle the boat class of “07” to play some back up DL, a shot put guy if I remember correctly.

    Try to keep the silver lining that whenever a starter goes down, and we suck more, a younger underdeveloped guy gets thrown into the fire. This is suppossed to make you better over the long haul, right?

    Nope. If the players were not very good to begin with then they are just experienced guys who can’t make plays.

  12. BoKnowsNCS71 09/15/2008 at 4:53 PM #

    Don’t you mean with 9 starters out? Not “without 9 starters out” — that headline actually sounded good.

  13. StateFans 09/15/2008 at 5:02 PM #

    ^ LOL! Good call

  14. Old School Wolf 09/15/2008 at 5:14 PM #

    Good one Noah. The injury monster is having his way with us at the moment. No silver lining to any of this news, but this year’s team ( as well as TOB and staff) has shown a determination to play to the final whistle. I stood up and cheered when TOB called those last minute time outs against Clemson. The timeouts came when the outcome of the game was not in doubt but in keeping with a guy that expects his team to play hard for 60 full minutes. Surely we will earn some good luck soon.

  15. wufpup76 09/15/2008 at 5:19 PM #

    “ECU is missing their LB and LT for the game – for those who have seen ECU play, what type of impact will this have?”

    I saw most of the VT game, and all of the West Virginia game … These injuries may have some impact, but in both of the aforementioned games depth along the lines was definitely not an issue for the Pirates … They are strong up front on both sides of the ball – run blocking was good for them in those games and run stopping was excellent against both VT and WVU … The WVU game was a massacre along the lines – no contest … Did not see the Tulane game …

    ***

    “And some people will continue to blame the coaches.

    Sh*t happens. And when you are a state fan, a whole bunch of sh*t happens.”

    Yeppers … a whole LOTTA sh*t indeed

  16. WTNY 09/15/2008 at 5:42 PM #

    Can anyone add these injuries together with the losses due to academics / the coaching change and give a picture of how many scholarship players we will dress?

  17. CStanley 09/15/2008 at 6:40 PM #

    I’m only 28 years old, and I have NEVER seen an injury situation like this for any team at any level.

    I seem to recall Carolina having a bad situation a few years back, but NOTHING like this.

    Good God.

  18. packpowerfan 09/15/2008 at 6:56 PM #

    I was wondering if anyone has a hotline with which I could get in touch with the devil and sell my soul in order to right the shit ship that is NC State athletics.

  19. b 09/15/2008 at 6:56 PM #

    I’ve seen SEC teams have these kind of problems, but never two years in a row. The silver lining is at least there are only four knee injuries, and two of them may not be season ending.

  20. highstick 09/15/2008 at 8:23 PM #

    “I’m not even thinking about ECU at the moment, I’m just trying find something, somewhere, to keep me halfway interested in Wolfpack athletics in general.

    You see, in my lifetime, and I’m really not even that old, NC State has won 21 ACC championships combined, in the three major sports of football, basketball, and baseball. So, if there are ever times when I might sound a little pissy about the current goings on, then I hope the rest of you can find it your hearts to please forgive me.”

    I’m with you on this. But, it does happen and for some reason seems to be happening on a more frequent basis lately. This is what killed South Carolina last year. The injuries kept mounting until it wore out the remaining guys in the North Carolina game. Then it was downhill for the rest of the year. Now they’ve got those players back and they are making a difference, but now they don’t have any offense.

    Recruiting and depth is what separates the “haves and the have nots” anymore. You can have the greatest starting line up on paper, but a few key injuries without the depth is a death knell for the season.

    We don’t have any depth and haven’t for several years so it just keeps getting worse with the injuries. Can’t explain them, but these knee injuries just keep haunting us.

  21. Dogbreath 09/15/2008 at 8:23 PM #

    Two years in a row with these types of lower extremity and “stress-related” injuries, with a stated emphasis on “flexibility,” with nary a mention of strength and conditioning.

    All signs point to systemic problems with our offseason programs.

  22. RAWFS 09/15/2008 at 8:30 PM #

    ^ that just begs for an analysis of BC’s injuries under O’Brien’s strength and conditioning coaches.

    But…hmmm…they managed to be a consistent winner no matter the results.

    This is starting to sound like the first few years of HSNBN.

  23. redfred2 09/15/2008 at 8:31 PM #

    wulfpup, I watched the VT and WVU games also, and ECU does have talent on both sides of the ball. Maybe more importantly though the Pirates acted like they knew they could compete with both of those highly ranked programs from the very beginning, they played as if they were the favored in both.

  24. PhilipRiversWannabe 09/15/2008 at 8:37 PM #

    Does anyone know the link to our updated depth chart? I wanted to see the changes for this week.

  25. Scooter 09/15/2008 at 8:46 PM #

    I think we’ve looked at this from every angle we can. We might as well laugh as we stare into the void.

    On the brightside, I’ve still got four years of eligibilty left, I’m in decent shape, and I always wanted to play D-1A football….

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