Spring Game

'09 Football Fans General124

I am out of town, but eager to hear the observations of SFN readers who do attend. Please post your thoughts below.

RALEIGH, NC – The Kay Yow Spring Football game drew 21,075 fans on Saturday afternoon to watch the White team win 10-7 over the Red team. The event raised over $28,000 for charity. Fans who packed Carter-Finley stadium on Saturday afternoon might have been expected a dual between First-Team All-ACC quarterback Russell Wilson and highly-touted freshman Mike Glennon.
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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.

'09 Football Fans General

124 Responses to Spring Game

  1. com state10 04/19/2009 at 5:15 PM #

    Sw0rdf1sh,

    Not tryin to be a dick here I promise, but people complained about the crowd only donating $2.80 per adult. You said you donated $7 for 3 people.

    I think the main point is that peoples budgets are extremely strained right now, and to give what you can give. People give to tons of causes all year round and I think 28,000 is a pretty great one day donation! I wish we would have done this kind of thing every year, and hope this continues to next years spring game, maybe even basketball’s Red/White game?

  2. TheCOWDOG 04/19/2009 at 6:13 PM #

    McCallum:
    “State has no finishing touch…”

    Ya know, there were 5 of us sitting in the “ex” section verbalizing the things we see apparent.

    Not a single one of us formed an expression such as (The one and only)just did.

    Mc, your words reflect something a few of us beleive the planners at State lack.

    Class.

  3. redfred2 04/19/2009 at 6:19 PM #

    Noah, you mentioned that you heard positive recruiting things. Can you elaborate?

  4. ppack3 04/19/2009 at 7:04 PM #

    First things first. I do appreciate having a place to convene with other Pack fans. All observations are taken into account, and with a grain of salt.
    On the subject of the game, I believe that the Spring Game is a tease, and not much (some, but not much) can be truthfully assessed from a scrimmage against themselves. For God’s sake, Glennon played for both squads in the second half. Half of our starters played for one team and the other half were on the opposite sidelines. Generally speaking, you should be a bit worried if your offense is ahead of your defense at this stage. So, a ‘boring’ game is probably the most you can ask for. We saw some good plays on both sides of the ball, and we got to wet our appetites for next year.
    The fans showed their support in droves. I remember when the spring “game” was an organized practice that nobody cared about. The donations were actually impressive. I thought that there would be below $1.00 average gift, due to children and cheap skates (along with those hit by the economy). I thought that it was a generous crowd. My wife, my two year old daughter and I contributed $5.00 ourselves. Not that $5 is setting the world on fire, but it was a little to make up for some folks who didn’t give, and I’ll bet you there was a lot of that going on yesterday. Great point about not expecting that sort of turnout. I actually brought my own refreshments, telling my family that there wouldn’t be a way to buy a drink. I also told them that there would be no ‘gear’ booth to buy State stuff. I was wrong on both accounts, as these are the things that I remembered from past spring games. I was told that our crowd was larger that UNC, ECU, Wake and Duke’s Spring Games combined. That is relatively impressive in my book. And, nobody paid to get in the gate, at least not to the University (unlike other Spring Games around the country). I went to NC State(ACC) games in my childhood that didn’t have as large a crowd as yesterday. It was hard for me to complain about anything. Even when I was too late to get the roster sheets that they ran out of, I just dialed up rosters on my BlackBerry, and it was all good.

  5. choppack1 04/19/2009 at 7:35 PM #

    Made to the game yesterday, here are my thoughts:

    1> Great crowd. I’ve been to several spring games for 3 different coaches and this was by far the biggest crowd. However, I expected this. Crowds have been getting better over time – and we had a “perfect storm” this year. It’s worth noting that in TOB’s last year at BC, they had a game late in the season vs. Buffalo, where they drew 18K.

    2> Glennon was very impressive in the first half. Against our first string D – not as much so. Still – he has an absolute cannon -and for the most part, but the ball in good areas.

    3> Wilson was really hurt by the “sack” rules. However, he looked much better this year in the spring game than he did in last year’s spring game where he was basically outplayed by Beck and Burke.

    4> I thought our wideouts did pretty well. I think we may have one walk-on in our two deep – but I’m not sure.

    5> The running game struggled, but Washington stood out.

    6> Our D looked pretty durn good.

    7> PP3 is right – it’s foolish to make a lot of judgements in a spring game. It’s a little like hitting golf balls at the driving range – it’s much better than nothing, but ultimately NOTHING like the real thing.

    Finally, if for some reason you needed the evidence, you can chalk this game up to more evidence that NC STATE IS NOW A FOOTBALL SCHOOL. For 21,000 people to show up at a game for a school that has never been to a BCS game, routinely draws about 54K to their games in the regular season and whose best conference record in the last 15 years is really quite impressive.

    Hopefully, the university won’t screw this up. I mean, there was a lot of alcohol drank out there yesterday, so I’m sure someone got their panties in a wad. But what I saw was a large group of people who have found something relatively special and unique in our fine state, trying to enjoy “the last rain before the dry season.”

    As for NC State and the way the do things. On the whole, I definitely agree. And more than any other event, I feel the spring game in football really drives home the NC State “experience.”

    It’s the biggest spring game in our state. It’s almost entirely a grass roots organization. The university doesn’t market the game the way they should.

    Did anyone watch the highlights on the news? Could you see the packed lower and upper levels of the west side. Our local paper didn’t mention the crowd, I know that the N&O did…and the photo I saw showed a big crowd.

  6. Wulfpack 04/19/2009 at 7:51 PM #

    I’m curious if RW will be dropping baseball with his struggles in the sport and Glennon’s emergence as a real force under center. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/423/story/672771.html

    Remember that RW is on a football scholarship.

    And yes, I agree we are officially a football school. We didn’t draw 20,000 for most ACC basketball games, and we eclipse that in the spring FB game that isn’t even marketed. All I can say is I’m stoked for the fall.

  7. Sw0rdf1sh 04/19/2009 at 8:17 PM #

    Well said Choppack!

  8. ADVENTUROO 04/19/2009 at 9:49 PM #

    I skimmed a LOT of the posts….and did NOT see the PUNT word…

    The PUNTS looked like HIGH SCHOOL KICKERS…

    Did anyone ELSE notice that?

    The crowd was great this year. THere was a LOT of enthusiasm….

    Should be a GREAT SEASON…for a change.

    Only gripe about the ADMIN was the fact that the WEST GATES were the only ones open…those of us that parked on the EAST got our daily exercise…

    I ALSO READ ALL THE STUFF ON JED or Whatever his nickname is…

    IS THERE ANY REAL SUBSTANCE TO HIM LEAVING…or is this ANOTHER SFN TEASE?

    GO PACK

  9. coppertop 04/20/2009 at 6:53 AM #

    I’ve been visiting this blog for a long time now, its by far my favorite place to catch up on all things NCSU sports related. Honestly I don’t read the discussions that often, the content is what draws people in and keeps them coming back. Comments are one step better than message boards sometimes and often thats all you can hold them to despite some of the others who come here.

  10. haze 04/20/2009 at 7:05 AM #

    This would be the reason why some folks don’t want to have children.

  11. choppack1 04/20/2009 at 7:54 AM #

    “Only gripe about the ADMIN was the fact that the WEST GATES were the only ones open…those of us that parked on the EAST got our daily exercise…”

    Adventuroo – It’s been this way for the last few years. I have to give my wife credit, she was very clear that we needed to park on the “correct” side to avoid the hike you mentioned.

    The good news is if this game keeps growing, they’ll eventually open up the other side.

  12. Classof89 04/20/2009 at 8:45 AM #

    I completely understand them opening only one side…they wanted folks to sit on the one side they opened, instead of spreading out around the stadium. How does that reflect a lack of organization?

  13. PackBacker001 04/20/2009 at 8:56 AM #

    I don’t post that much around here. More of leech you might say. As an observer, I can remember a time when things were this bad in the comment section. It was when Herb was in his last year, and for a considerable time after it.

    I think it is indicative of exactly how divided the fan base has become again. Back then, the division was caused by having a decent coach who was getting mediocre results. This time it is caused by a coach who played ball here and has gotten pretty bad results. I will make no determination on his coaching ability here – some feel he is a terrible coach, others feel he hasn’t had enough time to learn. Noticeably, I have seen no one on here claim he is a great coach.

    One thing is strange to me, though. This didn’t seem to happen with Amato. Maybe that’s the difference between begin given 6 years to get the job done versus only having had 3 so far. By the time 6 years was up, no one was claiming he was the right man for the job.

    My point here is that right now we are divided as a fan base. There is justifiable negativity, though these people would say it’s realism. There is also a justifiable call for patience, and these people would also call it realism.

    Noah, Red, Grey, et al: You all have good insight and I’m sure you want NC State to succeed. I would say it is safe to assume that Noah sometimes simplifies his point of view with a one-liner. Some people interpret the statement to its logical extreme. Obviously it upsets some people. But Noah is not always negative, you just have to read his posts on this thread to see that.

    I would prefer it if no one was banned, because the 4-5 of you who are in this comment war all bring some interesting points to the table. It would be nice if each of you could not take comments here so personally so that the rest of the readers here are not denied access to some great insights.

    Sorry for the long post.

  14. choppack1 04/20/2009 at 9:06 AM #

    packbacker001 – the reason you didn’t see the division w/ Amato is because how quickly it all fell apart.

    It’s easy to forget, but Amato started out very well. He improved on the record of his predecessory, and brought plenty of enthusiasm…and things looked pretty good until Rivers left. Even the next year, it looked like we were just a good QB or OC away from being a national power since we had one of the best D’s in the nation.

    The year after that, we went to a bowl game w/ a late push, but had a losing record in the ACC.

    In Amato’s last year, at one point, we were 2-1 in the ACC – we lost a heartbreaker to Wake Forest, and we got worse w/ each progressive game. We were lucky in one sense, the collapse was so quick, complete and so thorough, that it was painfully obvious to our decision makers that something had to change.

    This could very well be the case again next year in basketball. Remember, the voices calling for Sid’s head now are definitely not in the majority. That will all change if we stink again next year.

  15. Wulfpack 04/20/2009 at 9:14 AM #

    One thing is strange to me, though. This didn’t seem to happen with Amato.

    Amato won in his first three years. He went 8-4 (4-4 ACC), 7-5 (4-4 ACC) and then 11-3 (5-3 ACC) with a Gator Bowl WIN. The facts are Sidney hasn’t sniffed that kind of success here, and it isn’t even close.

    I agree with all of your statements regarding the decorum around here, PackBacker. Thanks for offering them.

  16. mafpack 04/20/2009 at 9:23 AM #

    Didn’t have a chance to post yesterday but did want to drop a few comments before this thread leaves the main page.
    ‘
    Personally I had an absolutely fantastic time at this years game. The wife and I met some friends and tailgated for several hours before heading into the game. Because we attended last year, we knew that only the West Gates would be open (same as last year) so we planned accordingly with where we setup to tailgate – short trips to the field/car are nice 🙂

    ‘
    The game it self was organized and well run. Good to see a TOB style team that knows when/where they’re supposed to be even during a spring practice (except on the very last play of the game, I definitely chuckled at that). Good to see our starters making big plays and playing with a level head. Also good to see some of the young men on the two deep make smart/effect plays (I actually said,”wait, who was that? that was a nice play!” several times during the game).
    ‘
    One thing that did bother me, well actually two, are the same issues I brought up in this thread last year.
    ‘
    The first is that while I understand wanting to sit everyone on one side of the field for security/facility reasons, having the media take all of their photographs from that SAME side is asinine! I caught the WRAL report of the event and every video clip showed the players with totally empty stands behind them. The report didn’t mention the total number in attendance either, so when the follow up report for the Duke Spring game came on right after, it actually looked like they had MORE fans in attendance than we did… that made me mad. I’m not sure on the numbers for last year, but we came in at game time last year and sat mid-way up the lower bowl. We came in the same time this year and had to sit at the top of the upper bowl (not that it bothered me, there was shade from the massive Vaughn Towers, which was nice).
    ‘
    The second is just a suggestion that I made last year to ‘split’ the fans into Red and White Team Fans (just split the stadium in half on that one side) so that we could actually cheer for good plays made by one of the teams. Its difficult to cheer for a tackle made by a red player in the backfield, knowing that the running back that just got pummeled is ‘yours’ as well. Anyways, just thought it could be one of those things that could add to the experience. Heck, next year, if there are enough fans, they could do the whole bowl and have each side of the field cheer for the team on their sidelines, much the way the Alabama/SEC games are done.
    ‘
    All in all, we really enjoyed the experience and the absolutely beautiful day to watch spring football before the long dark that is summer athletics. Can’t wait for Fall to get here, go Pack!

  17. choppack1 04/20/2009 at 9:35 AM #

    mafpack – have you been reading my posts on the spring game? I’ve made the same comment the last 2 or 3 years.

    I will say this – I did notice fans in the N&O’s shots.

  18. mafpack 04/20/2009 at 9:46 AM #

    Hey Chop, I did indeed see/remember those comments. I’ll have to check on the N&O shots, as I’d love to use one of them as a background for my PC here at work.
    ‘
    Also, I really like the free posters they give out each year, they take up residence in my office the Monday after each Spring Game 🙂

  19. Wolf Dog 04/20/2009 at 12:22 PM #

    My only complaint is the same one I have had for years. We do a horrible job of putting the crowd in front of the camera in basketball and football.

    You watch a duke b ball game on TV, the camera is opposite the students so you see them yelling the entire game, you don’t see the old farts still sitting in their seats. You watch a UNX football game same thing. They could have only 10,000 people in the stands but they will all be on camera and crowd noise piped in.

    Just like last year media shots of our spring game and UNX spring game they made it appear they had a bigger attendance. That was not reality though.

    Seems this is something that could be addressed. Perception can be reality on TV. Wonder why our media dept didn’t get a photo of the spring game out to all the media/newspaper outlets? We don’t promote ourselves.

    EXCELLENT POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  20. Alpha Wolf 04/20/2009 at 12:46 PM #

    “You watch a duke b ball game on TV, the camera is opposite the students so you see them yelling the entire game, you don’t see the old farts still sitting in their seats.”

    Seems like I see the Student Wolfpack Club on TV for home basketball games all of the time.

    As for “old farts” you seem to mistake frenzy and passion. If you think we don’t care as much as you, I would say you are sadly mistaken. It certainly seems like my cumulative donations to the Wolfpack Club contradict that. And I could probably teach you students a thing or two about heckling the referee. 😉

    At the same time, I would like to see the students get another section downstairs for football because I believe firmly that as a student you deserve every opportunity to experience every single game in person if that’s what you desire.

  21. VaWolf82 04/20/2009 at 2:11 PM #

    This would be the reason why some folks don’t want to have children.

    In case anyone is wondering, I am the board Nazi that deleted a whole host of comments that led to this particular comment. It would behoove everyone to go back and read the comments in bold from Alpha and myself in this comment section.

    Alpha and I have not talked about this issue, but the childish baiting and cyber-stalking are disrupting my enjoyment of this site. I don’t necessarily agree with every entry or every comment that is made here…but I will not let a small handful of people ruin my favorite site on the internet.

    If you have issues with anything that I deleted, either send an e-mail to the admins here or send me a PM at PackPride.

  22. BJD95 04/20/2009 at 4:06 PM #

    I heartily endorse what Alpha and VAWolf posted. I deleted my fair share of items from this thread, too. It’s a handful of posters who are doing this the most, and I think I’m being a nice guy by not banning people (because I actually DO want dissenting points of view). But if the stalker-like stuff and the “bad fan” nonsense continues – well, I’m not letting you guys ruin the site.

    We do want dissenting opinions, but expect you to back them up with logic and reasoning. But we don’t care if you think we should be “positive.” We also don’t care if you don’t like how we run the blog (although constructive criticism from posters who make significant contributions to the SFN community are certainly welcomed). Our site traffic numbers certainly back up the notion that we know what we are doing. And we certainly don’t need mini-Bob Kennels running around wagging their finger and telling people how to be a “good fan.” There are plenty of Wolfpack sites that will tell you it’s raining when your leg is being pissed on. We even link to many of them on the blogroll.

    Basically, your posts should contribute value to the site, or you should stay quiet. We think that the SFN community is easily the best on the Wolfpack internet, and we work hard to keep it that way. And always remember that this is not a freaking message board.

  23. redfred2 04/20/2009 at 4:09 PM #

    VaWolf82, could you give me an e-mail address please?

  24. Rick 04/21/2009 at 7:18 AM #

    “Alpha and I have not talked about this issue, but the childish baiting and cyber-stalking are disrupting my enjoyment of this site. I don’t necessarily agree with every entry or every comment that is made here…but I will not let a small handful of people ruin my favorite site on the internet.”

    I did some deleting as well. Sounds like we have all been busy.
    I do not like the direction this is heading. IMO we need to be even more proactive in stopping the squabbling.

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