“As I’ve already commented…where is Reggie Herring
when you need him????”
This is a joke, right? There’s a reason why you have to ask the question. For those who don’t know, he’s been an assistant in the NFL for a while now.
Reggie Herring was at NC State for one year. He did not recruit that defense, he did not build that defense, he did not develop that defense. The best thing he did was get out of the way. Giving him credit for that defense
is like giving Switzer credit for the Cowboys winning Super Bowl XXX, but worse.
That defense was good not because of Herring, it was good because of the one thing Amato did consistently very well – recruit stud athletes who could hit and play defense.
True, it had the best ypg average, but it was far from the best defense in the country, and it should have been better. Herring did little to add structure or maximize the effectiveness of the unit as a whole. He essentially just rolled out the horses and let ’em play.
Those who remember that season know the defense was gashed by several average offenses including one in powder blue. The TA TD that was, then wasn’t, only mattered because that Wolfpack defense couldn’t stop a slow white fullback. They couldn’t stop him because the DC was a one trick poney who couldn’t make simple in game adjustments. Once an opponent found a weakness to exploit in that defense, they kept going at it. The defense rarely countered.
