Hello Mr. Wilson!!

Russell Wilson, a redshirt freshman, was named the starting quarterback for North Carolina State's season opening game against the University of South Carolina. The game will be played in Columbia, SC, Thursday night, and will be televised nationally on ESPN.

Wilson beat out senior Daniel Evans for the starting spot, but NCSU coach Tom O'Brien said that Evans is likely to play in the game as well. Wilson is thought by most to be a run-first quarterback, but actually played in a very pass-oriented attack in high school.

With the announcement, State fans generally broke into two groups: Optimists and pessimists. State fans generally belong to one of these two groups, as I guess most fanbases do. These two groups can take the same set of quotes, and from them derive totally opposite meanings.

The following quotes are all from Coach O'Brien's press conference where he announced Wilson as the starter.

"It's just a situation where we need what he brings to the table right now."

The optimist thinks that means Wilson has a strong, accurate arm, with athleticism to move the pocket and create opportunities for the team. The pessimist thinks this is O'Brien acknowledging that the offensive line is going to be horrible, and the QB needs to be able to run for his life.

“The decision always came down to who we thought would give us the best opportunity to win a football game. Right now, our offense and the way we are structured it will be Russell Wilson. That was the deciding factor.”

The pessimist thinks...well, basically the same thing as above. That's what the pessimists always think. The optimists (I admit, I am one) think that Wilson brings an exciting new cache of talents to the offense. The playbook can be opened up a little more (maybe even expanded) to take advantage of his skill set.

I like the decision to start Russell Wilson. I think that since most State fans "know" Daniel Evans, the idea that Wilson beat Evans out for the job is a reason for optimism. He was chosen to replace a known commodity, so it is only natural for us to believe that he will significantly upgrade the quarterback position. In reading about Wilson's family and background, I think that he will be mature enough to handle the "bright lights" that accompany being the starting QB for a BCS team, even though he is relatively young.

I expect this year's N.C. State team to be quite a bit better than most preseason media polls suggest. I believe that several young players will be able to step into their new roles and produce solid results, and I believe Russell Wilson will be leading the way.

Go Pack!!

Is Glennon The Answer?

The 2008 North Carolina State football team held their first scrimmage Wednesday night, and as could be expected, the coaches were not exactly thrilled.

Ball control and penalties were problems, but Coach Tom O'Brien seems confident that the players can fix the issues. He pointed out that the team was still early in preseason camp, and stressed that a review of the scrimmage on videotape would tell more of a story about the team's performance than any available statistics.

"Statistics are statistics, and when you play yourself you don't know who's in there doing what," he said.

The most interesting (and important) position battle for the Wolfpack this season is the ongoing struggle to determine who will start at quarterback. In last night's scrimmage, Harrison Beck was the most productive, passing for 111 yards, with 5 completions in 6 attempts. Daniel Evans was 4 of 7 for 40 yards, Russell Wilson was 3 of 6 for 20 yards (with an interception), and Justin Burke was 3 of 6 for 52 yards.

The most interesting stat line of the night, however, belonged to true freshman Mike Glennon. He was 9 of 13 for 101 yards, and he also threw an interception. This is interesting because he threw twice as many passes as any other quarterback. Future scrimmages will determine if this was just a quirk in the playcalling, or if the coaches are giving Glennon a chance to prove himself capable of being the starter on opening night.

No matter who is chosen, the opening night starter will face the tough task of handling a road game in Columbia, SC against the Gamecocks of South Carolina...on ESPN...on Thursday night. Definitely not an easy task for any QB...but it will give the guy who starts the game a chance to cement himself as "the guy" to lead the team this season.

Who will it be? Stay tuned...

Brett Favre To The Jets

The Green Bay Packers have traded Brett Favre to the New York Jets for....oh who cares?

The Jets are still going to be average, at best, and the Packers are still going to have to deal with Aaron Rodgers learning how to play in the shadow of a legend. The Jets are paying an extra six million dollars ($12M for Favre vs. the $6M for soon-to-be-cut Chad Pennington) to be in the news a little more, but they won't be a serious contender in the AFC. The Packers have hitched their wagon to the untested Rodgers, who has arm-strength questions and a lack of in-game experience.
The best part is that the "saga" is over, and hopefully now the "Favre" ticker can go away from the ESPN crawl.

I have to say that it just doesn't seem scary to think of "Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers" coming to play your favorite NFL team. If Rodgers is unable to make "all the throws" as I have heard, that could explain why Ryan Grant held out of camp to get a new contract. If the deep ball is removed from Green Bay's arsenal, then Ryan will not enjoy the success he had a year ago. With Favre at QB, teams had to defend down the field, because he had the arm (and the mentality) to stretch the field. Does Rodgers?

Jerricho Cotchery (NCSU guy) has to be ecstatic today. He is the type of receiver that Favre will love...a guy who will make the tough catches in traffic.

Good luck to everyone involved. They are all going to need it.