http://www.backingthepack.com/2016/8/10/12426210/acc-athletics-directors-to-discuss-changes-to-football-scheduling-format

Quote :

"The league has two options: either go to a nine-game league schedule, or keep the eight-game schedule and require every school to play two non-conference power-five opponents each year. Either way, each ACC school will be playing 10 regular season games against power-five teams."

interesting...i'd prefer the 9 game ACC schedule. more chance to play teams from the Coastal that we only get once every five years now.

8/10/2016 4:45:01 PM

^ but then you either get an extra home game each year or you have to play an extra away game

8/10/2016 4:57:21 PM

yeah that's right...some years we'd have 4 home ACC games, some years 5. so sometimes we may only have 6 total home games. but you'd still probably have to go on the road roughly half the time to play that extra p5 opponent anyways.

8/10/2016 5:12:29 PM

I guess you would do 4 home / 5 away and schedule your OOC P5 at home that year for balance, then flip it the next.

8/11/2016 8:14:36 AM

I for one am super pumped for this year!

8/11/2016 8:58:29 AM

That's the spirit, champ!

8/11/2016 9:46:25 AM

Quote :

"I guess you would do 4 home / 5 away and schedule your OOC P5 at home that year for balance, then flip it the next."

ideally, yeah. but i gotta imagine that's easier said than done.

8/11/2016 11:55:40 AM

tru

8/11/2016 12:56:15 PM

either way, we probably won't be bitching about such shitty schedules anymore.

[Edited on August 11, 2016 at 7:23 PM. Reason : at least nothing close to last year, that is]

8/11/2016 7:22:51 PM

I'm in town bitches. We hitting up Mitch's, then Playmakers, then PB's, then wrapping things up at The Warehouse. First person to call me Jibbles to my face gets a shot

8/12/2016 7:33:53 PM

Wow, you really plan on cleaning out a lot of kitchens tonight.

Have fun jibbles.

8/12/2016 9:00:55 PM

Sounds like we're down to a 2-man race for the starting QB position with McClendon and Finley with starting QB to be announced next week.

8/15/2016 1:36:35 PM

^ is the other guy back to practice yet?

8/15/2016 2:06:16 PM

Yeah Meyers has been running with the 3rd team since he came back. Think he missed too much time, and it didn't help his ankle injury was apparently from a basketball game.

8/15/2016 2:36:30 PM

http://abc11.com/sports/qb-jakobi-meyers-returns-to-practice-after-ankle-injury/1464508/

Our true future of the position, Jakobi, just got back from an ankle injury that he suffered over the summer. He just started getting snaps with team again, so its unlikely he'll be the guy week 1. But expect McClendon to have a short leash if he struggles early... Couple missteps and Meyers will become the man (as it should be).

The rando white dude from out west is not getting the job, unless something catastrophic happens.

8/15/2016 2:37:23 PM

Quote :

" Overall, I think State's strength (at least early on) has to be their defense. They're going to have to lean on the defensive line to lead the team and keep scores down until the offense begins to gel. Offensively, for me it's simple. State has to run the football, keep the passing game simple (and perhaps short) and avoid putting whoever the QB might be in a position where he has to consistently come from behind and win football games."

#sources

It's going to be a long year

8/15/2016 2:52:48 PM

Wouldn't surprise me at all if Finley starts -- at least in the opener. DD knows he has to win this year, and Finley knows the offense better than anyone else at this point.

Finley's numbers suck, but there's obviously some talent there. He won the starting job over the all-conference QB at Boise State last year. You've got to think Drinkwitz had a say in naming him the starter last year. Might be the same case this year.

8/15/2016 5:30:09 PM

He was the starter and proceeded to put up awful numbers until he got hurt. Knowing the offense doesn't make up for sucking.

8/15/2016 7:17:52 PM

Quote :

"#sources It's going to be a long year"

that sounds like good news to me. good defense? sign me up!

8/15/2016 7:56:18 PM

Quote :

"Wow, you really plan on cleaning out a lot of kitchens tonight. Have fun jibbles"

I laughed really hard at this for some reason

8/15/2016 10:04:25 PM

of course, no one manned up

8/16/2016 12:24:20 AM

3/4 bars you mentioned don't exist anymore

8/16/2016 10:53:52 AM

lol

8/16/2016 11:11:44 AM

Why would the defense be any better?

The only thing we have is a decent DL...we have seen that our secondary is HORRIBLE.

Do you not remember wanting our DC fired before the OC?

Same thing will happen this year...teams know they can throw on us and will do it all day long.

Every play I've seen on video out of camp is the defense getting beat on easy balls and blown coverages.

8/16/2016 8:11:23 PM

^thats why i said it was good news if the defense was the best part of our team in practice

8/16/2016 8:22:23 PM

Quote :

"Why would the defense be any better?"

Bc we have experience, last year's players will be stronger and know the defense better, les blown coverages

8/16/2016 8:55:36 PM

Reasons to be optimistic about defense:
1. DL should be really good with great depth.
2. LBs have been getting good reviews in camp and are more experienced.
3. DBs are more experienced and are healthier than in the past.
4. Tons of positive numbers from the S&C program that our defensive players are stronger and faster than they've been in the past.
5. Last year our D ranked 29th in total yards allowed per game.
6. Last year our Rush D ranked 39th in yards allowed per game.
7. Last year our Pass D ranked 36th in yards allowed per game.
8. We're returning 8 starters from our D.

So our D was overall pretty solid last year, people just get too caught up in 3 games against top offenses(Clemson, UNC, and MSU). Yeah we played some poor offensive teams but we also were playing back-ups in large chunks of those games and giving up plenty of yards/points.

Problem is we're playing even more potent offensive teams this year(ECU, UNC, ND, Clemson, FSU, Louisville, Miami).

Obviously our secondary is the biggest question mark, but hopefully an improved DL and LBs will help mask some of their deficiencies.

8/16/2016 9:16:13 PM

Quote :

"Last year our D ranked 29th in total yards allowed per game. "

so the easy schedule we had early and getting blown out by acc teams washed out? gotcha


stats are stats. you can twist em all sorts of ways

8/17/2016 3:23:26 AM

Quote :

"so the easy schedule we had early and getting blown out by acc teams washed out? gotcha"

Yeah because every top 40 team was playing top 20 offenses every week.

We played 4 cupcakes, and our backups played a lot and they gave up plenty of yards, we could have finished much higher if we played starters against those 4 and then also against BC, Syracuse, and Wake. We gave up 29 points to Syracuse and half of those are after we pulled starters(hell 2 TDs were on the offense).

The #1 D in the NCAA in yards allowed per game was BC, and people talk about how good their D is, which is super misleading since teams basically just scored 10 points against them and then went super conservative because their O was garbage. I get stats are misleading, but we were playing pretty good teams, playing strong against Power-5 teams, and of our 6 losses I think only 4 can be attributed to the defense.

Hell against FSU we were up at halftime, offense sputtered and turned it over, defense got tired, we gave up 2 big plays in the entire 2nd half and lost.

Louisville we give up a total of 20 points, that's a W for the defense, but the offense was garbage that game, so we lost. Our defense was perfectly fine that game, they gave up a chunk play or two(track star QB) but that's a win for the D to only give up 20 points to an ACC opponent.

The only games you can really hang on the defense are: UNC, Clemson, MSU, and VT.
Those are 3 top 25 offenses, and VT. UNC was really strong offensively, they played strong against everyone outside of USC, Clemson was obviously sporting a Heisman candidate at QB and they were obviously a great team, and MSU had a really good experienced QB and weeks to prep for our D. Hell look at how good Prescott looked in his first NFL game, the guy is talented. The Offense handles it's business, we're looking at a 9-4 season instead of a 7-6 season, and I think most people would love a season like that.

8/17/2016 9:19:43 AM

also, the offense completely fell apart against VT after the first quarter, and as i recall the defense got some super shitty calls in goal line situations.

8/17/2016 9:38:29 AM

The defense fell apart in some of the games because of fatigue. They seemed to be gased from the offense getting off the field so quickly.

8/17/2016 10:23:56 AM

Let's be real here: There is zero reason for a non national title contender to make a hard schedule. Nobody cares that you went 8-4 with a soft schedule vs 6-6 with a hard one, but it will sure as hell be harder to recruit and build a program with 6-6

8/17/2016 10:36:23 AM

so obviously our defense will fare better this year, since they want to make the offense go faster.

8/17/2016 10:36:25 AM

^If the offense can actually put points on the board, our defense will definitely fare better.

Look at UNC last year, you think their D was actually improved? They were still AWFUL against the run, they just got leads with their offense and forced teams to be one-dimensional. That would be the best case for our team, score quick and early and then turn up the pass rush.

I do see some early pains from trying the no-huddle as we stall, but our D has better depth than last season, so hopefully we can stay healthy enough to handle it.

8/17/2016 10:45:21 AM

Quote :

"Louisville we give up a total of 20 points, that's a W for the defense, but the offense was garbage that game, so we lost. Our defense was perfectly fine that game, they gave up a chunk play or two(track star QB"

And I think that big TD run was specifically called out by a coach recently as a play that is less likely to happen with experience. Apparently the LB was supposed to do X but he did Y instead, the which left a huge gap.

8/17/2016 11:04:14 AM

Quote :

"Let's be real here: There is zero reason for a non national title contender to make a hard schedule. Nobody cares that you went 8-4 with a soft schedule vs 6-6 with a hard one, but it will sure as hell be harder to recruit and build a program with 6-6 "

right. it only matters for the fans. you can look at UVA for an example of an average to below average P5 team scheduling harder. no thanks. i'll take our shitty 7-5 seasons over their shitty 5-7 seasons.

8/17/2016 11:53:17 AM

You should play in the Ga Dome again

8/17/2016 2:34:24 PM

Quote :

"Look at UNC last year, you think their D was actually improve"

Umm, yes. They were smart enough to trade their shitty defensive coordinator for a better one. We still stuck with Huxtable, and I haven't seem much improvements in defense. In matter of fact, our defense was better when we went winless in the ACC. Don't forget that UNC hanged 35 points on us in 1 quarter on our home soil last year. I repeat 35 points.

8/17/2016 4:07:04 PM

8/17/2016 4:21:37 PM

Huxtable has run 2 defenses at State. The always horrible 4-2-5 that wasn't capable of stopping anyone and the 4-3 he started using later in the season with more blitz packages.

We started being WAY more successful when Huxtable said "fuck it" and started sending extra dudes up in that scrum

8/17/2016 6:21:47 PM

Quote :

"Umm, yes. They were smart enough to trade their shitty defensive coordinator for a better one. We still stuck with Huxtable, and I haven't seem much improvements in defense. In matter of fact, our defense was better when we went winless in the ACC. Don't forget that UNC hanged 35 points on us in 1 quarter on our home soil last year. I repeat 35 points."

UNC had a better overall season, but did you really watch their defense?

They were quite bad, their offense and weak schedule just made it look improved because of their W/L record.

UNC Defensive ranks:
Total D: 95th
Rushing D: 121st (out of 127 ranked teams)
Pass D: 18th

I'd say a large part of their high ranking against the pass is teams playing from behind and making it obvious passing situations, which is ideally what our team will try to do this year, but our run D has been better than them the last 2 years and will be better than them this year.

Yeah, UNC hung 35 on us, and we hung 34 on them, what's your point? They came out with trick plays and misdirection and hit us in the mouth, it's not like we didn't come punching back, we only lost by 11.

I'd MUCH rather have our defense than UNC's. I hate the 4-2-5, but we just have more talent/experience on defense right now than they do. Did you SEE that Baylor game? Baylor could have scored 90 the way they were embarrassing the UNC defense.

We'll see how UNC's D looks against UGA, they shouldn't have any problems running it down their throat.

8/18/2016 9:47:58 AM

my friend bet me $100 that UNC wouldn't lose a regular season ACC game this year.

8/18/2016 1:59:48 PM

...wow, that's going to be easy money for you.

Losable games:
VT
GT
@Miami

VERY losable game:
@FSU

Only upside to their schedule is dodging Clemson and Louisville. But they don't have the gimmes they had last year, even outside of those it wouldn't shock me if they lost to Pitt or @Duke. I'd be surprise if they lost to NCSU or UVA though.

8/18/2016 2:07:16 PM

^^I hope you took that bet. You should have made it 300.

8/19/2016 9:27:14 AM

now its just gonna hurt that much more if they do it lmao

8/19/2016 9:52:19 PM

I took the bet immediately.

8/20/2016 12:54:08 PM

Baylor just rushed for another TD

8/20/2016 1:57:44 PM

Anyone have the face value of game tickets this year? It's "premium" info on packpride.

8/20/2016 10:04:01 PM

Nevermind found it.

http://sidearm.sites.s3.amazonaws.com/gopack.com/documents/2016/4/7/2016_Football_Ticket_Brochure_Web.pdf?id=12668

8/20/2016 11:29:20 PM

Has Doeren named a starter at qb yet? Maybe we will play two qbs?

8/21/2016 1:23:11 PM