I agree with you in principle, Grey’. I’m not really upset either, more irritated, spawned from disappointment. I keep it plain and direct.
Yes, football IS a sport of emotion. Probably more so than any other. But it’s impossible for a team to carry a full tank throughout the season. It must be cultivated and managed. Throw in the age of the players and it’s easy to understand why there’s such a high premium on program culture and leadership in college football.
Team still has lots of learning to do. As with TOB, I suspect this group will be ok in handling adversity. But it’s been many years (have to go all the way back to Sheridan) since this program has known how to handle ‘success’ – relative, perceived, or otherwise.
It’s a HUGE step, and probably no other program has demonstrated it more clearly that the rollercoaster Wolfpack, where even Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson couldn’t adequately compensate for a program that did not know how to handle success.
Anyway, that’s probably what’s gotten me so annoyed. I saw signs of the same old, same old in Saturday’s game.
But as I wrote above, the team is still on schedule.
