Tudor: State can cash in with a bowl win

I like Tudor’s perspective in this article (and quoted below).

While a lot of positive can come from the Wolfpack win tonight, a loss will very little impact on the direction of the program and on generally how positive the air around the program will be. Basically, we are playing with house money.

Caulton Tudor always does a great job of embedding some points/thoughts without explicitly stating them. In this article, his references to defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable – and the many stops he has had in his coaching career – serves to remind Wolfpackers that it was only a couple of months ago that Huxtable and his defensive coaching staff were on super thin ice inside the walls of the Murphy Center.

Has the last month of the season changed all of that? Is tonight’s game still relevant in the assessment of the defensive coaching staff for the entire season?

Depending upon the opponent N.C. State faces on Sept. 12, 2015, the Wolfpack has a chance to begin its next ACC football schedule in October riding a seven-game win streak.

That would be an impressive accomplishment for a program that staggered through a 12-game league losing streak until finally posting a 24-17 win at Syracuse on Nov. 1.

The key to making that now-and-then win streak possible is winning the Bitcoin Bowl on Friday (8 p.m., ESPN) in St. Petersburg, Fla.

[snip]

UCF’s defense was among the best anywhere during the final several weeks of the season. Opponents have averaged 17.9 points – 9th best nationally – and the majority of those points were posted by the Pirates (who average 37.7 points per game), Missouri (27.4) and Connecticut, which got a 37-29 win thanks to four Knight turnovers.

[snip]

Three Knight defenders were voted first-team all-AAC and three more landed on the second-unit defense. Safeties Clay Geathers and Brandon Alexander are likely to be on NFL rosters a year from now. Down linemen Jaryl Mamea and Thomas Niles have a shot at the pros. Ditto for linebacker Terrence Plummer, a 240-pounder who has enough quickness to cover backs while still being strong enough to disrupt a passing pocket.

Parts of the UCF defensive scheme were put in place during Dave Huxtable’s long stay – 2004-10 – on O’Leary’s staff. Huxtable previously worked at ECU (twice), Georgia Tech and UNC. He left the Knights after the 2010 season for Wisconsin and then was lured to State as defensive coordinator when Doeren got the Wolfpack job after the 2012 season.

O’Leary still rates Huxtable among the best defensive minds in the game, but it wasn’t until the past two games that the Wolfpack defense began to show progress under his guidance.

Even after holding the Tar Heels to seven and Wake Forest to 13, 2014 opponents still averaged 27 points on Huxtable’s unit.

How that defense responds to Central Florida’s running back William Stanback and wide receiver Breshad Perriman (6-4, 220) will be as much of an indication of where the program is heading in 2015 as anything quarterback Jacoby Brissett does.

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Home Forums Tudor: State can cash in with a bowl win

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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  • #66674
    StateFans
    Keymaster

    I like Tudor’s perspective in this article (and quoted below). While a lot of positive can come from the Wolfpack win tonight, a loss will very little
    [See the full post at: Tudor: State can cash in with a bowl win]

    #66683
    Texpack
    Participant

    By getting to 7-5 with the thrashing beatdown destruction domination obliteration ownership of “The Branch Campus”, we have turned this into what is almost a house money game. I’m sure that the coaches and players want to continue to build on the late season wins and take advantage of the national exposure to cast our program in the best possible light. A win by any margin would be a very nice end to season two of the DD rebuilding process. I’m looking forward to the game. UCF was extremely fortunate in two of their AAC wins so they may not be quite as stout as their 9-3 record would suggest.

    #66687
    PackFamily
    Participant

    I am hopeful we win today and think we will. But I am also concerned that a win will be extrapolated to something like a 10-win expectation for next year. We may actually win that much next year, but it is not to be expected at this point, even if we win big. We aren’t as good as the 35-7 beatdown of UNC nor as bad as the 41-0 beatdown by Clemson.

    I think DD is our best chance to get us to the next level. But it’s still a ways to go to get past UL, CU, and FSU.

    In any event, pulling hard for the Pack today!

    #66689
    13OT
    Participant

    Cash in what? Bitcoins?

    #66690
    choppack1
    Participant

    Ok – I am confused we are either playing with house money or we aren’t.

    Let’s face it, sans the gatech game, our d was pretty damn stout in the 2nd half of our acc season. However, its also true that the offenses of wake and Syracuse were sorry.

    Still, I think our d played well enough in 4 of our last 5 conference games to give us a “w”…and for this program, that’s huge. Now, the bigger question to me is how we replace the 3 key seniors on our DL who really upped their game in that same span.

    #66691
    Tau837
    Participant

    ^good post, chop. I am optimistic that next season will be another step forward if DD & key staff stay in place.

    #66696
    tjfoose1
    Participant

    ow, the bigger question to me is how we
    replace the 3 key seniors on our DL who really upped their game in that same span.

    For the answer to that question, note the play of the freshmen on the DL and those in the pipeline.

    #66702
    VAWOLFPACK
    Participant

    Just flipped to ESPN to see what was going on in the Quick Lane Bowl. Even with UNCheat offering degrees to the first 1,000 attendees … they still have over 600 left … the stadium is EMPTY. Rutgers score on first drive in 2 minutes.

    #66703
    bill.onthebeach
    Participant

    … we’re playing with BitCoins…

    In the Motor City…

    Rugters – 3 plays – 1TD
    Holes – 6 plays – 1 first down – 1 fumble lost…

    Hole Defense is just that … a BIG HOLE..

    #NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!
    #66704
    bill.onthebeach
    Participant

    ^check that…

    Rutgers – Two THREE Touchdowns…
    Holes = Two Fumbles…

    … with 11 10 minutes left in the Second Quarter…

    We must have hurt them Bad, it’s been a Month and they ain.’t recuperated yet…

    #NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!
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