Florida State week

General61

It’s a big week in Raleigh!  NC State fans are still a little emotionally shell-shocked after the egg the Wolfpack laid in Greenville last week..but, the good news remains – the ECU game has very little, if any, impact on the Wolfpack’s potential bowl appearance.

NC State and Florida State have a little bit of a different/special feel to our games.  I don’t want to call it a ‘rivalry’ because I recognize that isn’t fair to FSU’s heritage and big games with Miami and Florida…but, I do think that the Wolfpack’s history of playing well against the Seminoles for such an extended period of time has bred a little respect for the Wolfpack program and annual match-up against the Noles.

This will be the third consecutive time that NC State will host Florida State for a Thursday night game to be played on ESPN in October.  We will have a lot of coverage heading into Thursday night to follow on the FSU-centric discussions our fans have already begun.

Coach O’Brien has kept it very close against the Noles in each of his three losses vs FSU as NC State’s Head Coach.  For a little pump-up…the following are a couple of videos from NC State’s last win over Florida State from October 5th, 2006 (also a Thursday night in Raleigh).  There are SO MANY interesting things that can be discussed from watching those videos; I will just leave it open ended and see what people choose to discuss.

 

Evans leads Pack over Noles #1

 

Evans leads Pack over Noles #2

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

General

61 Responses to Florida State week

  1. baxter 10/25/2010 at 12:21 AM #

    Dunlap’s corner… a tear in my eye remembering that game

  2. CylonWolf 10/25/2010 at 2:12 AM #

    Ice
    Fannies
    What Critics?

  3. Sw0rdf1sh 10/25/2010 at 8:12 AM #

    I successfuly made it through a weekend with no Pack football, thanks to attempting my arteries at the State Fair. I love waking up on Monday and having such a big Thursday night game ahead.

    Giggidy.

  4. Alpha Wolf 10/25/2010 at 8:17 AM #

    We’ll know Friday morning if NC State is a contender or a pretender. It’s really that simple.

    This should be a good game. Pack’s going to have to play their best game of the year to pull off a win, and if anything good can come from the ECU loss, it will be a tightening of focus on the players’ parts and the players will be rested and motivated.

  5. GAWolf 10/25/2010 at 8:22 AM #

    I’ve had the pleasure to meet and work closely with Dunlap. He’s a great guy. There are so many “almost famous” guys from the Amato era… and certainly football on Sundays of late has been riddled with the names of those who did make it to the big time. You just cannot help but wonder if guys like Dunlap would have flourished and found more success with even an average college QB under center. (Obviously JD had injury issues too…)

  6. ATLchick 10/25/2010 at 8:22 AM #

    The American Tailgating Tour is heading to Raleigh, NC! Stop by the pimped out Inside Tailgating RV to score some free tailgating shwag and play free tailgating games.

    The Inside Tailgating crew will be roaming around town hitting the best tailgating spots for the FL State vs NC State game on Thursday! Before the game, the American Tailgating League will be at Backyard Bistro hosting a FREE BT2 Bag Toss “Cornhole” Tournament. Win…ning team gets free entry to the 2011 MegaGate in Las Vegas over Super Bowl weekend.

    Love to tailgate? Join the traveling Inside Tailgating crew as the American Tailgating Tour RV travels the East and West Coast covering the nation’s hottest tailgate destinations. Click here to view the rest of our our 2010 American Tailgating Tour schedule:
    http://www.americantailgatingleague.com/?page=eventsTour

    Wanna go to Vegas?? The 2010 American Tailgating Tour crash lands in Las Vegas over Super Bowl weekend for the 2011 MegaGate. Don’t miss the ultimate tailgate experience! Join fellow tailgating fanatics, Inside Tailgating, and the American Tailgating League at the Rio Hotel and Casino to compete for over $100,000 in prizes. Get your tickets now! http://www.MegaGate2011.com

    If you need some help to cure that tailgating hangover, grab at Rebootizer! http://www.rebootizerusa.com/atl

    Viva la Tailgate!

  7. 12pack 10/25/2010 at 8:32 AM #

    When Evans was not running for his life, or being drilled into the turf, he sure did throw a nice ball.

  8. GAWolf 10/25/2010 at 8:41 AM #

    ^ True. But even in that clip you see one of his fatal flaws repeatedly and even on one of the TD passes… throwing off his back foot… which was likely the result of getting smeared more times than not.

  9. GAWolf 10/25/2010 at 8:43 AM #

    So is Ponder definitely playing Saturday? Return to practice doesn’t necessarily mean to the playing field… anyone? (I haven’t followed the links, mind you.)

  10. Alpha Wolf 10/25/2010 at 8:51 AM #

    If he plays he may not be 100%. That might be a tactical advantage for our defense if that happens.

  11. wvillepack 10/25/2010 at 9:14 AM #

    This is the biggest game in Raleigh in some time. Pack has put themselves in a position to contend for the league title, when was the last time that happened? Defence must show ability to stop the run consistently and not give up the big run. On another note…shame on anyone who doesn’t love Daniel Evans. I have been listening to his dad for years and I would cheer if one his girls was put on the team. Daniel Evans would probably not have started at any other ACC shcool. But he was one of our own. Look at the wins, BC, FSU, UNC, he even beat ECU in Greenville…something Wilson couldn’t do. I jumped all over Wilson after the ECU loss. I was wrong. We should never run down our own players. The only time we should turn on one of our own is if they acted like the boys in blue over in cheater hill. GO PACK!!!!!! Lets run the table and enjoy new years in miami!

  12. Scooter 10/25/2010 at 9:22 AM #

    For whatever reason, this game feels as big as the Thursday night matchup with FSU in 2002. If we can make a game out of it, this should be awesome.

  13. NCStatePride 10/25/2010 at 9:23 AM #

    “Coach O’Brien has kept it very close against the Noles in each of his three losses vs FSU as NC State’s Head Coach.”

    This statement embodies exactly what I dislike about TOB’s last three years. We start an article explaining how NC State has a good recent history with FSU, then start talking about how “close” TOB’s three consecutive losses were. I think we beat FSU under Amato because he was “one of them” and knew their playbook… not because NC State somehow has a special gift at beating the ‘Noles. As soon as TOB came in fielding his less-than-breath-taking teams (no comment on WHY they were as bad as they were) we start finding hope in “close losses”. Anyone else see a problem here?

    To me, this game is a “must win”, perhaps more than the previous. If we lose this game, I can see a end-of-the-season skid that finds the Pack finishing no better than was necessarily inspected by our optimistic fans (6 or 7 wins). This is a far, far cry from the team we saw fielded the first 4 or 5 games into the season when we looked to be an ACC champion caliber team. If TOB wins this, he can move on to have a legitimately “impressive” season and quiet the nay-sayers.

  14. section2chuck 10/25/2010 at 9:30 AM #

    Love those videos, is there anyway to get video of all those great wins over the ‘Noles? Like the 1998 game, 2002, 2003, etc….

    This is a “Must win”, no doubt, we lose this one and we may see 7-5 and a Tire Bowl in our future…

  15. packplantpath 10/25/2010 at 9:31 AM #

    When you suck, close losses against decent/good teams is as good as it gets. When it comes to talent FSU has had us out manned in all 3 of TOB’s previous meetings, so close losses are doing pretty good. I don’t mind close losses to decent teams.

    Now, big losses to BC, Duke, Wake, etc? That’s where one can reasonably complain about TOB’s performance, but complaining about close losses to decent teams is pointless.

  16. packplantpath 10/25/2010 at 9:37 AM #

    And I absolutely agree, for the season to go as we hope, this game is must win. It is also one that pre-season I thought we would lose. Then again, pre-season, I thought our record this season would be at best 7-5. We still have a shot at doing quite a bit better than that.

  17. section2chuck 10/25/2010 at 9:42 AM #

    That defense was a Beast, just look at who was in that group..Nasty

    There was no excuse for that team to finish the way they did, also this was Amato’s last win @ State.

    I also love the post game, when they ask Chuck about the critics about him, and he says “I have no idea, what your talking about” classic CTC

    I loved the passion CTC brought to us, I always felt like we were going to win with him, but too many penalties, games we lost with mistakes, asst. coaches coming and going, etc…

  18. section2chuck 10/25/2010 at 9:47 AM #

    I also remember how electric the crowd was that night, hoping the crowd is the same this thursday…

  19. NCStatePride 10/25/2010 at 9:55 AM #

    “but complaining about close losses to decent teams is pointless.”

    It’s NOT pointless when your goal is to be a respectable program. If your goal is mediocrity, than you are correct: no shame in touting your close losses to “good” programs three years straight. I expect more out of Tom than that.

    I also think that given the beginning of the season, you have to adjust expectations a bit. If you watched the Cincy game and still seriously felt NC State was a 7-5 team, I would call that a middle-of-the-road estimate for that squad. After starting 4-0, I think you can re-evaluate your “expectations” for what a team is capable of, especially given who we beat. It would be similar to pre-season expecting Lowe to be lucky to finish with 15 wins and re-evaluating your expectations to 20+ wins after seeing how the season began. Same goes for Tom. Extreme performance (positive or negative) begs a reassessment of expectations. In September, I fully expected this team to easily get 7 or 8 wins and I don’t think that is an unreasonable assessment.

  20. GAWolf 10/25/2010 at 10:15 AM #

    So to be clear: I love Daniel Evans and the entire Evans family. Both Evans brothers represented our University as we would hope all of our athletes would. They exceeded expectations on the field by becoming significant contributors, and from all accounts they are phenomenal people off of it.

  21. section2chuck 10/25/2010 at 10:29 AM #

    Scooter: the 2002 game was not a Thursday night game, it was a Saturday night game on ABC….

  22. VaWolf82 10/25/2010 at 10:31 AM #

    After starting 4-0, I think you can re-evaluate your “expectations” for what a team is capable of, especially given who we beat.

    At 4-0, State beat a I-AA team, a conf-USA team (picked 2nd in their division), a Big Least team expected to suck, and GT. We knew that the offense was good and the defense that sucked in 2009 got one player back and one new coach. I thought that throwing away what we already knew about our team based on those four games was silly…so I didn’t.

    7-5 was my absolute best case scenario and State is still in a fair position to exceed that. Anyone that expected substantially more (and there were quite a few) was destined to be disappointed and now they are. This scenario is repeated over and over again with State fans reaching unbelievable stages of giddiness after a little (often very little) sucesss. Much of the football talk this year reminds me of last year in BB, starting with the Duke win and the disappointments that followed.

  23. Sw0rdf1sh 10/25/2010 at 10:37 AM #

    Watching the vid now I remember that was Geron James coming out party. It was unfortunate that he really never kept that going and then ultimately left the team.

  24. packplantpath 10/25/2010 at 10:49 AM #

    “t’s NOT pointless when your goal is to be a respectable program.”

    Every team’s goal is to be respectable. Not everybody gets there. I certainly hope we do, but TOB started with a very bad team and has built us up to a very average team. When you are a bad team, it’s pointless to complain about close losses to average/good teams. They are better than you, so keeping it close is about all you can expect. Occasionally getting some breaks and winning would be nice, but certainly not expected.

    “After starting 4-0, I think you can re-evaluate your “expectations” for what a team is capable of, especially given who we beat.”

    You could do that, but considering who we beat has turned out to be generally unimpressive, I wouldn’t. Have you looked at Cincy’s record since that game? 3-4 with wins over Miami (Ohio) and Louisville is not that impressive. I saw, in the first 4 wins, the exact same team that played against VT. VT did too, and they were able to beat them. ECU was a bit of a surprise for me, but in a game where they were that pumped up, anything could happen.

  25. hball57 10/25/2010 at 11:19 AM #

    “7-5 was my absolute best case scenario and State is still in a fair position to exceed that. Anyone that expected substantially more (and there were quite a few) was destined to be disappointed and now they are. This scenario is repeated over and over again with State fans reaching unbelievable stages of giddiness after a little (often very little) sucesss. Much of the football talk this year reminds me of last year in BB, starting with the Duke win and the disappointments that followed.”

    VaWolf, I love so many of your posts but you always have me scratching my head on occasion. “Anyone that expected substantially more (than 7-5) was destined to be disappointed and now they are? First I felt 7-5 would be a minimum. Secondly, at 5-2, we still do have a chance to be substantially better, unless you consider 10-2 or 9-3 not to be substantially better. And while we all bring our personalities into our fandom, I don’t get what the reason is to be negative about the future. I don’t see a team we cannot beat on the schedule. Because of that I find no reason to predict a loss. Maybe we won’t win them all, but why do I have to be doom and gloom about the future?

1 2 3

Leave a Reply