Wow...

I haven't posted anything since August 25. At that time, I was quite excited by the fact the Russell Wilson was taking over as quarterback at NC State. I announced it by saying "Hello Mr. Wilson!" in the post just below this one.

As I write this, NCSU sits at 1-2. They have sandwiched losses to South Carolina (34-0) and Clemson (27-9) around a relatively lackluster victory over William and Mary. The defense has actually looked pretty good, and has been getting the turnovers that defensive coordinator Mike Archer and head coach Tom O'Brien talked about last year and over the summer. The problem has been that the offense has been inefficient.

That's really the nicest thing I can say about the offense.

Some of the ineptitude of the offense I attribute to Russell Wilson getting knocked out (literally) during the South Carolina game. The team had seemingly found a groove, and was moving the ball down the field, when Wilson got his bell rung. Daniel Evans entered, and you could literally hear the air come out of NC State's sails. Before you knew it, a 0-0 defensive struggle was a 34-0 blowout.

After missing the William and Mary game, Wilson played OK against Clemson. He didn't light the world on fire, but he did show an ability to avoid "big negative" plays. He may actually be too quick to throw the ball away. But, he is a redshirt freshman...I expect that as the season progresses he will learn when to challenge defenders and when to throw the ball away. Right now, he's a little timid about throwing the ball to receivers who aren't wide open.

So, going into this week, here's the story: NC State, decimated by injury, is getting ready to host the 15th-ranked team in the country. They are down to the 3rd string TE, have no receivers who made any significant contributions last year, have two converted defensive linemen starting on the offensive line, have lots of freshman and sophomores in the two-deep, and their quarterback is a RS-Fr. who has already been knocked cold this season. Recipe for disaster, right?

WRONG!!

That 15th-ranked team is from Greenville, NC. The East Carolina Pirates.

NC State's "get right" opponent.

Remember last year? 1-5 NC State went to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and thumped the Pirates.

This year, ECU is riding high. Their fans are talking about going undefeated and making the a BCS bowl. Tickets for the game are selling on the "black market" for ridiculous prices. The Pirates and their fans are hyped and ready to come to Raleigh. They have something in store for the Wolfpack.

Whatever. I do not and will not believe it until I see it.

I think that the ECU team that played Tulane is much closer to the real thing than the team that beat West Virginia. I don't think the Virginia Tech victory means much, because Virginia Tech with Sean Glennon at QB is not much better (if any) than NCSU on offense. I think that Russell Wilson will be much more comfortable this week, and will begin to put things together. The Wolfpack offense doesn't necessarily need to score a ton of points. They just need to string together a few first downs, so that the defense can stay off the field for a while. I think that happens this week.

I don't care who they have beaten. I don't care where they are ranked. They are still East Carolina.

North Carolina State will win the game.

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.

Survey Says...

850 the Buzz's Bomani Jones posted a blog entry on Sunday that referenced a recent survey of North Carolinians. The survey found that 18% of North Carolina residents don't know that the Carolina Hurricanes exist. Also, only 10% of 500 residents polled said that they'd accept free tickets to a Hurricanes game.

The story quotes Mike Sundheim, director of media relations for the Hurricanes, as saying that "in the Stanley Cup finals, a guy for ESPN that was based here in Durham basically ripped us and said nobody cares about us. Well, that guy must have literally not left his house during the two months of the playoffs that year to say that nobody here cares."

That article was written by....Bomani Jones. How convenient.

The poll was done by a "summer fellow" (intern) of Public Policy Polling, Curtis Labban, who is from the University of North Carolina. Looking at the in-depth statistics, I find that Mr. Labban's survey is seriously flawed. Let's hope he was an unpaid intern.

10% of respondents to this automated phone survey would have chosen a ticket to a Hurricanes game. Well, they had SIX choices: the Hurricanes, Carolina Panthers, NASCAR, Charlotte Bobcats, UNC basketball, and Duke basketball. Only 16% chose NASCAR...does that mean that NASCAR's popularity in NC is falling? No, it means that people like football (29%) and UNC basketball (28%). Duke basketball came in at 13%, the Bobcats at 5%. Oddly enough, that adds up to 101%. Somehow, I think Mr. Labban should have rounded someone's number differently so that his poll showed results for 100% of respondents.

I like the Hurricanes. A lot. I normally go to a few games each season. However, in this survey, I would have chosen the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers, for me, are more of a TV phenomenon. I understand that they are only a few hours from my house, and I've been to a few games, but it's expensive to go, and it would take all day, if not parts of two days. I just don't organize "Panther weekends" very often. However, for this phone survey, you're ranking teams in order of importance, not making "real world" decisions. For me, it would be Panthers, Hurricanes, Bobcats, and then NASCAR, UNC and Duke tied for last (unless the games happened to be against NC State).

I would have taken the Panthers tickets, but by the time the game came around, they could very well be on Craigslist. The appeal of "being there" is not that great to me, especially when I factor in all the time involved in getting there and getting back home. I know that the Hurricanes have well-managed traffic, and I can be home 30-45 minutes after the game ends. For a 7pm faceoff, I could leave home at 6:15 and be there.

The 18% that didn't know the Hurricanes existed is laughable. Could they name any hockey team? Do they follow any sports? You could have someone who knows the number and major sponsor of every NASCAR driver, but couldn't name a current NHL player for a million dollars.

There are over 1.5 million people in the Triangle. 23% of the people in the Triangle chose the Hurricanes tickets, second only to UNC basketball (27%).

If Mr. Jones wanted to talk about troubling statistics, he could have mentioned the Bobcats. They were only chosen by 5% of respondents as the free ticket of choice. In the mountains (828), 4% would go see the 'Canes, only 2% would take the shorter drive to Charlotte for the Bobcats. The only area code where the 'Cats reached double digits was 704, their home area code. And they only had 10% there. In the 910, NO ONE picked the Bobcats.

I guess everything doesn't really stop when the Bobcats play.

Greg Freakin' Norman

Greg Norman has a two-shot lead heading into tomorrow's final round the British Open.

That's the 2008 British Open. 53-year old Greg Norman leads Padraig Harrington and K.J. Choi by two shots.

Fifty-three.

It is an amazing accomplishment. No matter what happens Sunday morning (EST), this has been a phenomenal show by the Great White Shark. The Open Championship has been played under increasingly brutal conditions, and he has answered the challenge. The feat is made more impressive when you take into account the fact that he's been honeymooning for three weeks with his new bride, Chris Evert. Playing golf hasn't been his focus for some time now, and it has probably been even farther back on the list since the wedding.

I have read several articles claiming that this is a chance for Norman to "exorcise the demons" of his many failures in major championships. I don't necessarily think that is true. If he wins the Open, it won't change the fact that he lost the Masters even though he carried a 6-shot lead into the final round.

A win tomorrow, and he's the oldest player to win a major. A win tomorrow, and the first thing people talk about when they mention Greg Norman won't be the losses, the $100M+ divorce, the tennis legend new wife, or any of his business ventures. If he wins, the first thing anyone will say will be that he won the Open Championship at age 53. And that is all there needs to be to the story. No exorcism is needed.

Catching Up...

JJ Hickson was drafted 19th by the Cleveland Cavaliers. So, his decision to leave proved to be a good one. I don't think anyone should expect to see too much of him in the next couple of years, but I expect he'll be a contributor at some point. I wish him the best of luck.

Brandon Jennings is going to Europe to play. He was awaiting a third SAT result, attempting to meet NCAA qualification guidelines, but before the results were returned he decided to forgo college basketball. He is planning to sign with a European team for a year, then return to the US for next year's NBA draft. Jennings' success or failure will be an interesting case-study for future high school stars who may decide to take the same route. NBA and NCAA executives will all have interests/concerns about the outcome of Jennings' overseas adventure.

NASCAR had a race last week. They have another one this week.

The British Open is coming up soon, and for the first time in a long time, it's an absolute certainty that Tiger Woods will not win.

In other news, football starts cranking up at the end of this month. Most, if not all, NFL training camps open in late July, and most college camps open in early August according to the limited information I could find. Football is my favorite spectator sport, so I'm excited for the beginning of a new season. Both of my favorite teams (Carolina Panthers and NC State Wolfpack) are currently undefeated.

One other thing:

Josh Hamilton is the man.