Grey:
I think we are in agreement about the state of things today. Let’s agree to keep things there and we’ll be good. 🙂 I admittedly opened a can of worms but wasn’t going to take that “NC State fans ran off DD” garbage. The media will pick that up and run with it.
In my lifetime the NC State fans have run off exactly one revenue sport coach — HWSNBN. Goodness knows Fowler was never going to fire him, but he was a survivalist enough to know that if raised HWSNBN’s salary to match or exceed ASU’s offer, then he’d have quickly been shown the door. He chose self preservation. Can’t say I blame him as he was never again getting a job that good (just like HWSNBN won’t either).
The spot the narrative could hold up is if DD’s on field performance continues at its current clip (5-7 to 8-4) for another 3-4 years. At that point we’ll push towards a decade with mediocre results, with a coach that doesn’t really connect with the fan base, whose admin support will be getting shaky (Yow will be retiring) but who has what some insiders think are “seeds of greatness.” All this stuff about DD and Bilechek and structure, etc. all remind me of how some close to the program spoke of HWSNBN. The reality is that the Desert Buddha didn’t have “it” and never was going to. In the next 3-4 years, DD will show if he does.
I do think there are a couple of things that are different. The first is that this is football at NC State, not men’s basketball. The inputs are different, as are the reasonable expectations. We are a .500 football program historically. If DD keeps it clean, connects with the fans and goes 6-6 to 8-4, then he can be here as long as he’d like.
The second is the coaches under and around him. If he actually turns into a CEO, lets these guys do their jobs, and manages to keep them around, we should be in good shape. Hux and Roof are both seasoned, upper third DCs on their own. If they can mesh, they should put out a good product. Drink is young and pass happy, but as long as Ledford is giving him the OL, Des some RBs and DD gives him a a high level metric like “50/50 play distribution” or “50/50 yardage distribution” or “75% TD % in the red zone, don’t care how many downs it takes” then that should be enough to keep him grounded and pointed in the right direction. This is the best staff we have had since Amato’s early years, so I hope we can keep them around. The right staff can turn NC State into a solid, consistent top 25 team, which would far exceed our inputs.
