Now 3-3 vs Wake, Saturday’s win not necessarily a plus in O’Brien’s column

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On a gorgeous day this past Saturday in Carter-Finley Stadium, Coach Tom O’Brien’s NC State Wolfpack turned in one of the more complete performances of his six year coaching tenure in Raleigh. Both the offense and the defense exerted the kind of control over Wake Forest that, frankly, NC State teams SHOULD consistently exert over a Demon Deacon program that enjoys just a fraction of the resources as the Wolfpack.

State’s offense amassed 26 first downs and 428 yards of total offense – that doesn’t include 200 return yards – while the Wolfpack’s defense held Wake to just 9 first downs and 185 total yards from scrimmage.

With the win, Coach O’Brien improved his record to 3-3 against Wake Forest.

Take a moment.

Read that again.

With the win, Coach O’Brien improved his record to 3-3 against Wake Forest.

After six years of enjoying tremendous recruiting advantages over the likes of Wake Forest (and Boston College and Maryland and Duke), Coach O’Brien does not currently hold a winning record against a single one of those programs!

The inconsistency that has created a 3-3 record against the Weak Florist is not lost on observers. On Sunday, ACC-area sports radio host, Taylor Zarzour tweeted the following thought to his followers:

TOB’s program shouldn’t be this inconsistent in year 6. Yesterday’s performance makes UVA game that much more inexcusable

It is hard to argue with Zarzour. Let’s take a different look at this inconsistency through the lens of just Wake Forest —

On Saturday, State could’ve scored more points, but ultimately delivered a 37-6 margin of victory that was striking similar to the Wolfpack’s 38-3 dominance in Raleigh in 2010. But, sandwiched between State’s clear superiority and combined 75-9 margin of victory over the Deacons came a 34-27 LOSS in Winston-Salem in 2011.

Seriously? How in the world can NC State’s roster be so experienced, consistently comprised, and generally talented over the last three years, yet fail to be able to take care of business in a more consistent manner? If we are having a coaching debate at the end of the 2012 season, it will be the inconsistency exhibited by Coach O’Brien’s performance vs the Wake Forest-Boston College-Maryland tier of the Atlantic Division that may tilt the scales.

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28 Responses to Now 3-3 vs Wake, Saturday’s win not necessarily a plus in O’Brien’s column

  1. Gene 11/13/2012 at 12:07 PM #

    “Sheridan 51 – 29 – 3”

    I think the difference, to me, between Sheridan and O’Brien is I felt Sheridan was building towards something better.

    Sheridan had 9 wins his last two years here. We went 8-3 in the regular season in 1991 and won our bowl game. We went 9-2-1 in 1992 and lost our bowl game.

    I remember my roommate was a walk-on in 1992. He was miffed that we tied a then rebuilding (to put it nicely) Va. Tech. team in Blacksburg.

    If we’d won that game, we’d have been 10-2 and in pretty good shape to take a step up as a program. Our only two losses were to a Charlie Ward led FSU team and a ranked Ga. Tech team. We beat a ranked Clemson team.

    I just don’t see that kind of improvement under O’Brien.

  2. mak4dpak 11/15/2012 at 7:19 AM #

    For those who can’t accept the same old/same old, and expect more. I am on board with you. There is no reason why we can’t win a championship. We have the fans, and facilities, but just need a coach and staff to accomplish this. If we can beat the likes of FSU, and Clemson, we should contend for championships. Tired of mediocrity, and WTF bowl games!

  3. triadwolf 11/15/2012 at 9:10 AM #

    TOB is driving us mad in almost the opposite way HWSNBN did. Herb couldn’t beat anyone of substance and padded his record with wins against sub-par teams (although he did have his share of WTF losses). TOB teams tend to show up for the big games and struggle with mediocre/poor BCS teams.

    If we end up going to a bowl and winning, it will be almost impossible for DY to end this relationship this year. However, I don’t expect us to travel well to a bowl this year and an obvious lack of interest/enthusiasm may be enough to warrant a change – though I doubt it. It is likely we have a 6-6 or worse record next year which will help unite the fan base enough to support a change.

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