Flying under the radar – Wilson to return? Baseball’s struggles

'10 Football Non-Revenue14

NC State’s unexpected success on the hardwood in the Atlantic Coast Conference and National Invitation Tournaments served to drive a lot of focus away from a couple of developing stories that we didn’t want to ignore.

(1) Russell Wilson returning to the gridiron?
Buried in this little recap in the N&O/Charlotte Observer a couple of weeks ago was what I thought was very interesting news that didn’t get much publicity:

O’Brien sounded optimistic that quarterback Russell Wilson will return to the football team in the fall instead of turning pro in baseball over the summer. Wilson talks weekly to offensive coordinator Dana Bible about plans for next season. “If Russell doesn’t come back, that would be very surprising,” O’Brien said.

Since that (potentially) good news was reported, the Wolfpack football program has dealt with a couple of unfortunate losses at very key positions when defensive tackle, JR Sweezy and projected starting punter Chris Ward were both suspended from the football team.

Both of these positions represent key potential weak spots for the Wolfpack heading into 2010.

Of course, our message forums were talking about these suspensions in real time. You can click here for the thread on Ward and click here for Sweezy.

(2) Baseball Season
Also flying under the radar a couple of weeks ago was Clemson’s three game sweep of the “Pack Nine”. The Baseball program continues to appear to be stuck in neutral and currently is 15-9 overall and 3-6 in the ACC after a miracle comeback on Saturday got us one win in our three game series with Miami.

Admitting to not following baseball as much as I would like, we opened this thread on the message boards over the weekend to solicit some perspective and discussion on the topic.

One poster said, “3-6 is not a disaster at the point in the season, but we need to turn it around over the next month or the promising start will be for naught” while another observed a long term trend, “Sounds like same old, same old to me. Walks, errors, and horrible bullpen play.”

Every single year we hear about how difficult the ACC is in baseball and that the conference legitimately has six “Top 25 teams”. I just want to know (a) how 50% of the conference could become so good? and, (b) exactly when might we hope to be one of these Top 25 programs (for more than one out of every 5 or 6 years)?

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'10 Football Non-Revenue

14 Responses to Flying under the radar – Wilson to return? Baseball’s struggles

  1. NCStatePride 03/29/2010 at 12:27 PM #

    As thrilled as I am to hear this, I hope Glennon still gets some minutes. I think looking forward he’s going to be a great athlete and fill into the hole Wilson leaves pretty well.

    IMO, Wilson staying with the program is essential, if for no other reason, to maintain some level of stability to the 2010 squad. With Bible falling ill, the listing of two players on the “DL” (we’ll call it that to be nice), and an almost completely re-arranged and manned defense, my worries are that so many changes will/have taken place that we’ll play like a freshmen team again. In TOB’s 5th season, he needs a squad that plays with consistency and confidence to land big OOC wins against Cinnci and UCF as well as our conference and instate rivals.

    Unfortunately for TOB, we have a lot of tough games before the BYE week so he can’t wait until October 23rd to get the team together.

  2. BJD95 03/29/2010 at 12:51 PM #

    I wouldn’t call Glennon a “bust” – but everything I’ve heard indicates that he’s nowhere near Wilson, in terms of readiness to play. Glennon is definitely the backup, nothing more – as long as RW is available.

  3. tvp1 03/29/2010 at 12:57 PM #

    Not sure why baseball isn’t a top 10 program. I mean, we do have brand spanking new fuhcilities after all…and surely those fuhcilities are state of the art, right????

  4. old13 03/29/2010 at 1:12 PM #

    Same ol’! Same ol’! My only desire at this time is a clear statement from Dr. Woodson AND other of the NCSU administrative heirarchy of commitment to putting NCSU on the map nationally both academically and athletically followed by STRONG ACTIONS in that regard. Any other discussion at this time is completely moot IMO.

  5. sbas2 03/29/2010 at 2:15 PM #

    i am perplexed as to why State’s baseball team cannot step up. is it the head coach? recruiting has been pretty good lately with some highly ranked classes, but for some reason State can’t win enough games against the top rated teams in the conference to move up. Holliday, as assistant and pitching coach, has been instrumental in moving other college teams to the world series, but has had no real luck in doing so here at State.
    i have been wanting to make a comment about the new scoreboard. i attended the opening day game, and i was very dissappointed in the new scoreboard. way too small and located in the wrong place. others i spoke with had the same opinion. i was sitting behind the team’s dugout and still had a hard time reading somethings on the board which is in right field. my question is why not have waited a few more years in order to obtain more money so as to build a bigger and better board, then tear the old board down and put the new board in center field instead of in right field?
    i note that the softball team took two of three from UNC in Chapel Hill this past weekend. after the team’s earlier success, they dropped a bit, but maybe they are back.

  6. RegularExpression 03/29/2010 at 3:07 PM #

    A quick glance at the stats from theacc.com site indicates that we lead the league in BA, but our pitching and defense is pretty poor. We are 10th in fielding percentage and have allowed an amazing 38 of 42 runners to steal successfully. In comparison, the league average is 72%.

    Also, there have been mentions of problems with the baseball facility and that upgrades will need to be made due to shoddy workmanship/cost cutting the first time around. Does anyone have specifics about what has gone wrong with the facilities? The scoreboard was mentioned above but I’ve heard of problems with the field?

  7. 61Packer 03/29/2010 at 5:29 PM #

    I’m not putting in a plug for better baseball fuh-cilities, but seems to me that a previous coach left NCSU for this very reason, and baseball hasn’t been nearly as successful since he left.

    NCSU baseball seems to be stuck in the mud like basketball. Run up a lot of wins against largely inferior non-ACC competition, then get hammered in conference play. I’m not questioning the current baseball coach’s expertise in that sport, but I question his judgment of players when he states publically that he thinks Russell Wilson is at least the equal of Philip Rivers on the football field.

    As far as Wilson is concerned, I didn’t like the way Wilson was used on offense last season. It just looked to me like our coaches didn’t want Wilson to run any, compared to what he did the previous season. If Wilson is going to be used the same way this coming season, I think we’d be a better team in two seasons if Glennon plays QB next season.

  8. StateFans 03/29/2010 at 8:30 PM #

    Ray Tanner left because he hated Todd Turner. Part of that reason was because Turner would not agree to put money into the baseball program.

    However, that ‘problem’ was supposedly taken care of as Lee Fowler was very excited and had no problem taking credit for the ‘new baseball facilities’ that he was delivering. Problem is…the ‘upgrades’ generally suck and it is becoming more and more clear were done on the extreme cheap.

    Of course, Turner is now no longer and Athletics Director as two schools have since run him out of town.

  9. Sw0rdf1sh 03/29/2010 at 10:02 PM #

    I think Glennon has what it takes. He might not be Wilson, but really, if you look at stats there aren’t many who are that much better in the past two years(Wilson)…like mentioned RW is the starter. MG has accuracy and a different delivery. He will be our QB for the next few years, if not this year the next.

    The snaps MG is getting during the Spring can only help, as long as he can stay healthy and be ready to go.

    I’m not as concerned with DT and Sweezy as (hopefully this will pass) punting and Kicking. Both kicking and coverage were piss poor to be kind last year, we must make strides here or we are playing behind the 8Ball every time.

  10. Wolfy__79 03/29/2010 at 10:21 PM #

    i’m not a fan of rw running around too much. it is very helpful, but i think the offense is more versatile with a pocket passer. we’ve got the wr’s to make plays, little light in the rb area but should be improved this season.

    glennon is a promising style of qb. but what was evident to me last year is that his field maturity was kind of poor. granted, his playing time came in the worst situations.. but he definetly needs more playing time. it’s got to help getting all the snaps with the first team. i actually feel sorry for the kid in a way, if russell is back… which he is, glennon will have what two years of eligibility remaining. and who’s to say that rw won’t run the show for four years. i could care less if that were the case. in the future i think glennon gives us the highest upside… but it’s hard for me to make that argument over russell wilson.

    ^agreed, our special teams were piss poor last year and we can’t afford to be that bad anymore.

  11. Daily Update 03/30/2010 at 8:53 AM #

    RW is one of the best players in the country. We might not win a game without him. He is going to play as long as he is part of the football program.

  12. Sam92 03/30/2010 at 9:30 AM #

    to be honest, i don’t really know how good Glennon is, i just know a lot of people think he’s very talented with a great arm — i’d like to see him get a chance.

    i suppose i want to see glennon start just because i think we need something really different – what we had last year clearly did not work

  13. Wolfy__79 03/30/2010 at 10:21 AM #

    RW is one of the best players in the country. We might not win a game without him. He is going to play as long as he is part of the football program.””

    sure he’s going to play… i don’t think anyone would question that. but the rest of the team is not chopped liver! i guess you will be pleasantly suprised this season from that outlook..

  14. Classof89 03/30/2010 at 12:12 PM #

    Not trying to be argumentative and certainly not defending Fowler, but didn’t the renovations at Doak have three primary purposes: (1) permanent restrooms for fans; (2) team locker rooms on site in a clubhouse, and (3) fix the tremendous slope in the outfield?

    And didn’t the renovations adequately address all three issues? Can’t speak for 2 and 3, but the fan restrooms seem perfectly adequate.

    I mean, the fact that we don’t have as many permanent seats as other baseball stadiums in the ACC doesn’t mean that the renovations five years ago somehow failed to meet those original purposes?

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