Quote :

"Why is anyone even talking about going 12-0......we haven't even had our first game yet, isn't it a bit early to even amuse ourselves with that kind of thinking? "

Saying we can win every game and saying we will win every game are two different things. We all know NC State shit is bound to happen.

Still, with our moderate schedule, and with a team that's solid in nearly every area (assuming our secondary and OL comes together), I think 10-2 is a great year. 9-3 will be a good year. Yes, I probably have my expectations set a little high. But admit it -- in the back of your mind, you do too.

[Edited on June 16, 2009 at 12:43 PM. Reason : ]

6/16/2009 12:39:53 PM

I'm just cautiously optimisticly looking forward to the season. I'm not saying I'll be disapointed with an 7-5 season, or ecstatic with a 10-2 season. I think we have the potential to be better than we've been in a while, but I'm just hoping we have a good team that's fun to watch and makes us proud. Plus, I'm really looking forward to tailgating.

6/16/2009 1:18:03 PM

i'll go on the record and say i'll be disappointed w/ a 7-5 season.

6/16/2009 1:22:33 PM

Quote :

"i'll go on the record and say i'll be disappointed w/ a 7-5 season."

agreed, and anything worse will be a failure

6/16/2009 1:35:38 PM

yeah, with that schedule and how solid State has become anything less than 8-4 will suck

6/16/2009 2:09:39 PM

I mean, I'd be dissapointed with 7-5 too, we should do much better than that. I'm just not going to say that on record.

6/16/2009 2:38:42 PM

I said I'd be satisfied with 7-5 on the last page, but with 2 FCS teams, thats really the equivalent of 6-6 with a normal schedule; bowl eligible by the skin of our teeth

So year, 8-4 seems more like the threshold for satisfaction

6/16/2009 2:40:31 PM

i mean, 7-5 is only one game better than last season, when we had beck and evans both see time at qb.

we're returning a good number of players, including a guy who developed halfway through the season into the best qb in the league. if we only improve by one game that is a huge disappointment.

6/16/2009 5:18:52 PM

Last year 6-6 was what I hoped for.

This year, yeah, at least 8-4, preferably staying in competition for the division title.

6/16/2009 5:25:25 PM

I just want to defend our STATE TITLE

last year we might have won the NORTH CAROLINA STATE TITLE by beating ECU, Duke, Wake and UNC

but South Carolina beat every team from North Carolina that they played, so they, too, won the NC State Title

so this year...in addition to defending our state title...we need to knock off the gamehens, and the tigers, and sweep NC

CAROLINAS CHAMPS

6/16/2009 5:41:57 PM

Increasin' the royal demesne 'n shit

6/16/2009 5:46:13 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otgKKqUcWhU

6/16/2009 10:25:29 PM

that dude only had like 5 clips that he somehow made into a 2 1/2 min long video

surely there's more material than that on Nate

6/17/2009 12:32:43 AM

4 game mini packs go on sale today:

$177 each.

Wolf Plan
South Carolina
Murray St.
Duke
Clemson

Pack Plan
Gardner-Webb
Pitt
Maryland
UNC

6/17/2009 7:38:10 AM

Does that have a parking pass? We got 4 season tickets and a parking pass for $1500. W/ parking pass included it comes to about $47 a game. Looks like the mini packs work out to be about $44 a game (not counting any taxes/fee and not sure on the parking pass). It's good the mini packs give people a competitive rate for tickets.

6/17/2009 8:34:27 AM

No parking pass

6/17/2009 8:36:21 AM

i bought 2 season tickets with TX lot pass for $894.

I was at a bar last night here in Greensboro and started talking with a guy next to me who was wearing an Elon Football collared shirt...obviously he couldn't be just a fan because they 1) don't have any and 2) probably don't sell merch like that outside the walls of Elon.

Turned out he's the recruiting coordinator and coach for the Phoenix, which was cool. We talked for a few hours about recruiting in NC, SC, GA, FL, VA, and one of the things that I asked him was about the talent gap between I-A and I-AA. Obviously, we all know about what Appalachian State has done over the past few years, and I asked him if he thought a team like that could compete in the likes of the ACC.

He said, "No way." Their really is a ginormous talent gap between I-A and I-AA, and he said that where you see it is through the course of a grinding game. Sure, you can hang with a team for maybe a quarter or two, but eventually the skill and speed of ACC caliber athletes take over the game.

Anyways, he was also the starting center for South Carolina from 1996-2000, which of course I got a kick out of (being a clemson fan) and having pounded them 3/4 of his years there. It was neat to hear him describe what it was like to be on the field when they scored in 2000 to go up 14-13 with 1 minute left, and then in within the next 30 seconds experience one of the storied plays in the rivalry, "The Catch II" (to clemson fans) and "The Push-Off" (to gamechicks) and the field goal to lose 16-14 to Clemson.

After talking about his years as a player, he told me that he just came to Elon from the South Carolina coaching staff (he was a grad assistant under Lou Holtz, and then remained on the staff for the first two Spurrier years). His thoughts on Steve Spurrier is that he's a cool guy off the field, but does not seem to have control of the game on the field- ever. He puts the blame on other coaches for what should be his responsibility, and should really retire because he just doesn't "have it" anymore.

Good to hear that my opinion of him is shared by a fellow USC coach himself.

Anywho...it was an interesting night of talkign football that has only jacked me up even more for September vs the Chickadees.

GO PACK!

[Edited on June 17, 2009 at 8:49 AM. Reason : .]

6/17/2009 8:49:08 AM

You're from Charlotte, are a Clemson fan, and have NC State season tickets. I'm really lost.

6/17/2009 9:12:40 AM

it is the split path i've walked since i grew up clemson and then graduated from NC State.

but i take NC State over Clemson.

does give me some extra leverage though having been around Gamecocks for as long as i can remember with regards to smack talking them, especially with Sept. 3rd looming. a lot of people don't realize just how futile their program is historically. but they THINK they are awesome.

6/17/2009 9:25:16 AM

Happy Matt McKeon/Andrew Cobb Day! (78)

6/17/2009 9:30:05 AM

^^ ah ok. I think I took a different route. I grew up in Maryland and was a Terps fan for the first 18 years of my life. Now I only dislike UNC and Duke basketball more than UMD. For a while BC was ahead of Maryland. But that was for the short time after we got TOB and they were talking a ton of shit over on their Scout board.

[Edited on June 17, 2009 at 9:35 AM. Reason : df]

6/17/2009 9:35:29 AM

Those mini plans suck

Why can't we just pick 4 games

I want USC, Clemson, Maryland and NC

6/17/2009 9:43:36 AM

Probably because if they did it that way, no one would buy the FCS or Duke games

Good thinking, Fowler

6/17/2009 9:46:03 AM

is matt McKeon related to John McKeon?

6/17/2009 10:09:20 AM

Southern Pigskin picks us as having the 2nd best special teams in the ACC:

Quote :

"2. NC State - Kicker John Czaijowski converted 16 of 19 field goal attempts last season and was one of the ACC's best. As a freshman, T.J. Graham had a very nice year returning kicks and punts. He was one of only four league players to return a kickoff for a touchdown las fall. Look for him to become a household name as a return man. The Wolfpack will be breaking in a new punter."

http://www.southernpigskin.com/index.php/site/acc_special_teams_rankings/

6/17/2009 1:38:57 PM

SO FUCKING PUMPED

6/17/2009 1:39:49 PM

Hell yeah, just got my mini-pack! Can't wait for the season.

6/17/2009 2:32:08 PM

someone find another pumpalicious youtube or something

6/17/2009 10:56:31 PM

anyone know when the wolfpack club mails our tickets out? i am assuming August sometime...i just want to know where I'm sitting and i cant stand the wait

6/18/2009 8:28:30 AM

6/18/2009 9:10:19 AM

Quote :

"The Wolfpack will be breaking in a new punter."

Seems kind of a strange thing to pick us as the 2nd best special teams in the ACC when we have an untested punter. Then again, I remember sitting through the 17 yard punt days (not factoring in the return). We could barely punt to the first down marker.

I guess untested is better than that.

6/18/2009 10:02:45 AM

i often wonder how bradley pierson was even allowed to be on a football field. god he blew

6/18/2009 10:08:41 AM

there's no way a new punter could possibly be a downgrade

that's why we're #2!

6/18/2009 10:18:32 AM

although pierson COULD tackle people

6/18/2009 10:38:56 AM

pierson couldnt kick for shit, but it was comforting to know he was a safety valve and no one could run past him, i will miss that

6/18/2009 10:45:18 AM

I seem to recall an article posted in the recruiting thread, last year i beleive, about how bad-ass chris ward (punter) is. Anybody remember that?

6/18/2009 11:00:23 AM

pierson was actually pretty solid. not great, but generally consistent.

6/18/2009 11:03:36 AM

great post by wolfpack fan on their scout board

Quote :

"I love how you guys think you are great because you play in the mighty SEC. I went down to Columbia last year and that's all I heard - SEC, SEC, SEC..... Exactly how many times has it been that the cocks were SEC champions in football. I lose count. How many times have you finished in the top 2 in even your division? What's your record in that conference? Let the debate start about what would State's record be if we played in the SEC. It doesn't matter because the cocks think they're great because they're in the SEC, but you don't acknowledge that you suck at it. "

6/18/2009 11:09:03 AM

pierson was fine as long as he had a while to kick it. he seemed to take forever to set up though, had you on the edge of your seat every time.

6/18/2009 11:09:41 AM

i'll post this again for laughs:

Quote :

"Given one century to attain the sheer, magnificent power of breaking even, South Carolina proudly maintains a tradition handed down from one generation to the next. Plumbing new depths in futility the University of South Carolina Athletic Department forges into a new century, one that promises to be as desperately hopeless as the last. Entering the 2008 season, South Carolina can point to an all-time winning percentage under .500 (521-523-44), which ranks 88th all-time in D-1A football. Only 29 programs have bested this profile in sub-mediocrity. Walk with us along this corridor of pigskin failure: Duke, Western Michigan, Toledo, Navy, UAB, Central Florida, Ball St., North Texas, Nevada, East Carolina, Houston, Northern Illinois, Utah St., San Jose St., Vanderbilt, Akron, Baylor, UNLV, Kansas, and Rutgers. None of these names, however, say the word LOSE like the University of South Carolina football. This, then, is Carolina Gamecock football. Carolina, whose stadium perches in Columbia, the New Jersey of the South, and resembles a dead and decaying cockroach. Carolina, where the players run onto the field under a sign that says, “Abandon Hope, All Ye Who enter Here.” Who run onto the field under a cloud of smoke for protection from insanely angry fans; who listen to the piped-in strains of “Also Sprach Zararthustra,” which is in fact a German anthem about the Persian founder of Zoroastrianism. Then they hear their fight song, a flopped Broadway Show Tune imploring the listening fans to “Step to the Rear.” This is Carolina Gamecock football. Like a band of wandering gypsies, Carolina has never been welcome in any athletic conference. In the 59 seasons Carolina has been affiliated with anyone who would take them, however, they have won one championship. Yes, the ACC in 1969, achieved with a 7-4 record. Since the Associated Press began ranking football teams in 1936, the Cocks have finished in the Top 20 of the rankings only five times in the 71 years. Carolina has never finished in the Top Ten of a major recognized poll. Let us contemplate that word again: NEVER. Carolina took its first inept shot at the new game of “Foot Ball” in 1892. Only one hundred and three years later, the program achieved its first bowl game victory. In 115 seasons of spectacularly, mind-numbingly unimpressive football, Carolina has yet to participate in even one Major Bowl (now known as BCS bowls: Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, or Cotton). This is Carolina Gamecock football, where ten or more football games have been won in a season only once; where six or more victories have been logged in a season only 37 times. Thirty-two men have come to the fore as head coach for South Carolina football, and thirty-two have left in abject failure. Only five survived for more than five seasons. Each one has been hailed as a genius at the entrance door, then cursed as the devil at the exit, blamed for all the accumulated despair that in reality transcends any single avatar of ineptitude who takes on the mantle of scapegoat at the moment. This Carolina Gamecock football, bigger than any of them; Carolina Gamecock football, the Mount Everest of Losing. Three coaches have won national championships elsewhere, only to have posterity scribble a moustache and horns on their legacies after they dared to believe they could change Carolina Gamecock football. Of the 56 programs which have played more than 1000 games all-time, only four have scored fewer points than South Carolina in their school’s history. And since Carolina joined the SEC in 1992, only two teams have fought off the Gamecocks for the glories of last place in victories: Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Although Carolina has finished last in its division twice. Carolina has yet to win six conference games in a season, joined again only by Kentucky and Vanderbilt in that particular achievement of hopelessness. Let us also remember that it was the distinguished accomplishment of Gamecock football to navigate two consecutive seasons without winning a single conference game; racking up an impressive string of 21 consecutive losses, having their run of inglorious failure snapped only in 2000 by beating eventual 3-8 record New Mexico State—after which, of course, the understandably brain-damaged chicken fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts,a wonder New Mexico State never figured to experience after a game in an SEC stadium. This is Carolina Gamecock football., Since 1992, only three times has any non-probation member of the conference failed to win two or more games overall in a season. Yet South Carolina has accomplished this feat twice, Kentucky only once. Since 1992, only once has a conference member failed to win a game overall in a single season. You guessed it, South Carolina. "

[Edited on June 18, 2009 at 11:12 AM. Reason : hilarious]

6/18/2009 11:10:58 AM

all this pwning of SC is all well and good

i just can't wait til we're waxing that ass up and down our new field on September 3rd.

I rewatched the Miami game from last year...it's scary how easily we put up 38 points on them. our offense is fucking awesome.

6/18/2009 12:29:09 PM

^^great article....Where is it from?

6/18/2009 12:50:04 PM

the article has endlessly floated around clemson message boards over the years, with each new failing gamecock season adding yet another paragraph to the already stellar article (much like new rings added on to the stanley cup)

[Edited on June 18, 2009 at 1:05 PM. Reason : .]

6/18/2009 1:05:20 PM

i'd just like to point out that Navy is 632–516–57 all time and has never had a sub-.500 all-time record...don't know where that fuckstick gets his numbers

[Edited on June 18, 2009 at 1:10 PM. Reason : .]

6/18/2009 1:05:26 PM

Yeah, the article is full of inaccuracies. Many of which have been pointed out over time as well. Clemson fans just don't want to acnowledge it. Nevada, for example, has an all time football record of 483–428–34 (.530). They have also been to 4 straight bowl games.

[Edited on June 18, 2009 at 1:21 PM. Reason : df]

6/18/2009 1:21:28 PM

the article is old, but the main point of it is the accuracy of south carolina's history. i can guarantee you the reason those teams are listed are because either they 1) ranked at one time near the bottom or 2) south carolina played them (for example, USC opened with a loss to Ball State in 1996...or 97, i forget..)

6/18/2009 1:27:00 PM

I generally hate packpride but I saw this post and it hit home

Quote :

"**On Tuesday, June 23rd, the interim Chancellor will be answering questions submitted to the NCSU Alumni Association Weblog. This is my little tidbit.** Dear Interim Chancellor Woodward, This is as much a request as it is a question. It has been nearly five years since the fatal shooting took place in the fairgrounds parking lot preceding an NC State football game. Since then, tailgating time restrictions have continued to be levied unfairly in a heavy-handed fashion by the administration which has only served to punish the multitude of mature, law-abiding alumni, friends, and fans of this university. This is not a trivial point - thousands of Wolfpackers see the football season and its home game tailgating events as a special time to return to campus and rekindle the relationships that have been important to us for so many years. These seven (or eight) days in the fall allow for a social gathering that cannot be equaled anywhere. Carter-Finley stadium lends itself to a classic collegiate game day tailgating environment, one that NO other school in the conference can boast. Those unfortunate and tragic incidents in 2004 happened in the fairgrounds parking lot. There are 24 of us that tailgate together every year and we use to park in that lot years ago. We chose to move our tailgate festivities into the reserved lots because of the alcohol-related incidents that went on in that lot. It would be safe to say that many, if not most of the problems that occur are a result of poor conduct in the fairgrounds lot. If time restrictions are still necessary, they need to be confined there. It is what it is. I humbly request that the university administration revoke the five hour time restriction on all pre-paid, reserved parking lots. Give us back our gridiron Saturdays as they had been for 37 years. Will you be able to accomplish this?"

I don't live in Raleigh anymore or I would be there. If any of you can make it to this meeting please go. Let's get our tailgating back!

6/18/2009 1:42:47 PM

whats this student section "white out" stuff im seeing

i disagree

6/18/2009 2:05:15 PM

^^Yeah, I agree with that letter. I pay way too much to park in the TX lot, and it's not like I would necessarily tailgate for 6+ hours for every game, but I'd like the freedom to do so for as much as I pay. It's quite unreasonable, actually, way more than $10/game and it's still quite a hike to get to the stadium. I do enjoy it though, plenty of room to get a big spread and a bunch of cars all together. For later games, I'd be out there all effing day long.

6/18/2009 2:16:56 PM

Just missed the cut in Southern Pigskin's ACC coaching staff rankings:

Quote :

"Watch Out For - NC State - Tom O'Brien is building a program his way with the Wolfpack and is poised for great success in 2009. Getting to a bowl game was step one, now it's time to move forward. Defensive coordinator Mike Archer was the head coach at LSU from 1987-1990. He is a veteran defensive mind. Offensive coordinator Dana Bible is one of the most respected play callers in the ACC."

http://www.southernpigskin.com/index.php/site/acc_coaching_staff_rankings/

6/18/2009 2:47:56 PM