Wanted to open this entry if anyone wanted to share thoughts & observations from Meet the Pack Day, et al.
ACCNow has some comments linked here. The key take-away from Coach O’Brien’s comments currently making its way around Twitter is that “We have enough weapons.” (You can click here to view SFN’s recent Tweets)
These two items were of particular interest to me:
Creecy, Greene impress. After performing well in the team’s second preseason scrimmage Friday night, freshman running backs Anthony Creecy and Mustafa Greene have a shot at earning the team’s No. 3 running back position.
“Mustafa Greene and Tony Creecy look to be pretty talented,” O’Brien said. “They’re in there trying to figure out who’s fighting for a spot on the team.”
Junior Curtis Underwood and sophomore James Washington still are competing for the No. 1 spot at running back. O’Brien plans to rotate two running backs and get playing time for a third back.
High praise for Crisp. O’Brien said former Raleigh Athens Drive offensive tackle Robert Crisp, the jewel of N.C. State’s 2010 recruiting class, is talented enough to be an All-Pro in the NFL some day.
O’Brien said Crisp’s head is swimming during his first preseason camp because of the complexity of the college game, but said Crisp is everything the Wolfpack coaches thought he could be when they recruited him.
“He has that makeup where he doesn’t get down and he gets back to the huddle and goes back out and forgets about the last play and goes on to the next one,” O’Brien said. “And that’s a good trait to have.”
Now for the bad news…Denzelle Good and Morgan Alexander are no longer a part of the program. We highlighted Good’s absence with some concern just a couple of weeks ago. Alexander appeared to be a ubiquitous defensive back whose name I never even knew…so, I can’t say that he will be missed. But, losing Good is more of a major blow than many people will notice simply because he is an offensive lineman that doesn’t get the kind of publicity as the skill players.
Good, from Gaffney, SC, was ranked as the #5 offensive guard in the country and a 5-star recruit by Scout.com coming out of high school a couple of years ago. He was listed at 6 feet 6 inches tall and 325 pounds. To be fair and balanced – it is going to be hard to talk about the ‘strong, young foundation’ that Tom O’Brien has been building when the absolute best players of his last couple of recruiting classes are no longer with the program.
With this attrition and some other recent changes in the program, it appears that NC State will have more like 20 scholarships available this recruiting season as opposed to the originally projected 16.
Another link of interest — WRAL: NC State players say no rust on Russell Wilson
