Another HD article

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/acc/0-6-267/NC-State-already-familiar-to-life-without-Irving.html

NC State already familiar to life without Irving

July 7, 2009 11:10 AM


Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich

When NC State's coaches first saw the pictures of linebacker Nate Irving's car following his recent accident, the general consensus was it's a blessing he's even alive.


It's unclear how much of a contribution linebacker Nate Irving will be able to make this season.
Now that Irving is out of the hospital, and coaches are on vacation this week, the initial shock of it has been somewhat absorbed. When they get back, though, they'll have to do what they've grown all too accustomed to doing -- move on.

Irving's return hasn't been determined, but considering the severity of the one-car accident -- a fractured leg and a collapsed lung -- it would be hard to imagine he'll be back anytime soon. If it were up to Irving, he'd have been back on the field by now. He's hungry for the NFL, and returned for his redshirt junior season to better prepare himself for it. Irving was having a great summer and buying into the workouts, and poised for a breakout season.

But he might not have that chance now.

Irving would be tough to replace because he's more than just a hard hitter. He's also got a nose for the ball, and set a record for interceptions by a linebacker with four. He's got that God-given ability, which is something you can't just replace.

The good news for the Pack is that Irving's backup in 2008, Dwayne Maddox, played 308 snaps last year when Irving was injured. Irving injured his leg against East Carolina and then missed the next two games. He hurt his ankle just 16 snaps into the Florida State game and missed the following weekend at Maryland.

Maddox was the only true freshman to start on defense last year, and he did so four times. He didn't play in four of the last five games of the season when Irving was healthy and moved to strongside linebacker this spring. Terrell Manning, Sterling Lucas and Audi Cole will help give the position some depth. Without Irving, the linebackers will look a lot younger.

Possibly more of a concern is the experience in the secondary. With the transfer of Dominique Ellis, who could have been a potential starter at the boundary corner, the depth took a hit. If Javon Walker, who missed his second spring after sitting out 2008 with a knee injury, comes back strong at safety and they move Justin Byers around, it might help. The staff feels good about the talent, but experience remains a question.

The best-case scenario would probably be for Irving to make a comeback at some point in the season. If not, Maddox will have to take over, which he has proven capable of. Unfortunately for NC State, they've already had to handle this situation.

7/7/2009 12:07:02 PM

Rivals has us at #38 on their top 120 countdown, it's a little too long to post the whole thing on here but here is an excerpt:

Quote :

"OVERALL OUTLOOK North Carolina State is getting plenty of preseason attention as the ACC's biggest team on the rise, but Wolfpack fans shouldn't make their bowl preparations just yet. This offense relies heavily on Wilson, who arguably was the league's most indispensable player last year. Irving means almost as much to the defense. And both players have been known to get hurt, with Irving's status for the season opener already uncertain. As long as Wilson stays healthy, this offense ought to rank among the best in the ACC. But the offense will have to be good to make up for the defense. North Carolina State allowed more points and yards per game last year than any team in the conference. If Wilson and Irving stay healthy, Young lives up to his potential and the defense gets a little better, the Wolfpack have a chance to win the Atlantic Division title. But if Wilson gets hurt and the defense continues to struggle, the Wolfpack could finish below .500 for a fourth consecutive year. But we're betting the string of losing seasons ends this year."

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=962540

[Edited on July 7, 2009 at 1:20 PM. Reason : .]

7/7/2009 1:15:24 PM

Quote :

"North Carolina State allowed more points and yards per game last year than any team in the conference."

It certainly didn't help that whenever Wilson wasn't in the game, the ball was being thrown to the other team. He was essential to having good offensive AND defensive stats...

7/7/2009 4:49:51 PM

we (the nate irving wreck story) were mentioned and featured in the intro video montage of College Football Live just now on ESPN.... people care about us, whaaaaaaaaat?!!!!

7/7/2009 5:33:45 PM

Just wanted to post this for this page. It's the link to all of the polls for College Football Live's 50 States Tour. We've got to dominate the NC poll when it comes up. The usual polls are best team, best player, and best coach. It'd be great if we could get a sweep of all three.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sportsnation/news/story?page=50StatesTour

[Edited on July 7, 2009 at 6:47 PM. Reason : link]

7/7/2009 6:46:00 PM

USC commits violations: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4311314

7/8/2009 3:40:39 AM

^

Quote :

"including one for an improper text message to a recruit and another for "impermissible snacks.""

...sounds like some NCAA regulators want to throw out some bullshit and flap their cocks (no pun) around for a bit.

7/8/2009 3:44:07 AM

^^ When you say USC I always think Southern California

that is a basketball article as well

7/8/2009 8:08:29 AM

^Reading comprehension... do you has it?

Quote :

"South Carolina's football program was cited for three infractions, two of which were the more severe variety. The school said an assistant coach wrongly texted a prospect and football recruits watched a display that simulated a game-day experience against NCAA rules. Also, an ineligible player was provided transportation to an away game."

7/8/2009 8:39:46 AM

umm... yeah, i got it

dude linked an article from a college basketball page about a misnamed school that has one tiny, insignificant blurb about football

just quote the relevant part

7/8/2009 9:15:28 AM

Well the protocol for punishing teams nowadays is to just erase a few historic wins away from their record... which means nothing. Why can't they yank scholarships and leave the sports program in shambles like they did in the past

And I too always think of Southern California whenever someone brings up "USC." Of course this is the thread for the South Carolina game. They should just go ahead and come up with a different acronym for referring to South Carolina.

[Edited on July 8, 2009 at 9:37 AM. Reason : -]

7/8/2009 9:35:34 AM

they also refer to themselves as carolina. ultimate identity crisis team!!!!1

7/8/2009 9:45:55 AM

how about USuCk or SCar. i've seen both on Clemson boards. they also call them the Coots. maybe kevmcd can enlighten us to why the Clemson people came up with that.

7/8/2009 11:59:17 AM

i dont know why we call em Coots except it just sounds relatively derrogatory i guess. i use Coots a lot. i also tend to use USuCk and gamechicks, sometimes chickadees because they pretty much always play like a bunch of chickens that get slaughtered, in lieu of fighting ruthless gamecocks.

but Carolina to me has always been the gamecocks, not the tarheels...

that goes with the territory of being from Charleston. not a single person thinks about the Tarheels in the state of south carolina when you say "Carolina".

[Edited on July 8, 2009 at 12:33 PM. Reason : .]

7/8/2009 12:32:01 PM

^yeah if you're from South Carolina, "Carolina" means the University of South Carolina

in most other states though, people are generally talking about UNC basketball

therefore, whenever a Tarheel fan refers to Carolina, I make sure to ask them what about the Gamecocks

7/8/2009 12:41:43 PM

Aug. 4th TWW's unite to skew the NC poll for NCSU on espn's 50 state college football tour on Aug. 5th!


GO PACK!!

7/9/2009 12:25:41 AM

The polls actually open before that. The NC one will open soon, like within the next few days.

7/9/2009 1:01:20 AM

thanks for the info Brass..it'll be interesting to see them go through the state's D-1 programs and determine whose the most successful.


Im going to guess that they'll have as far as program's best victory:

1) Appalachian State's last National Championship game
2) Our Gator Bowl victory of Notre Dame
3) Wake Forest's Orange Bowl Victory....cant remember there opponent
4) ECU's victory over VT during the 2008 season
5) One of UNCs big wins during the Mack Brown era..?


what do you guys think??

7/9/2009 2:25:22 AM

Quote :

"Wake Forest's Orange Bowl Victory"

...Wake lost that game

[Edited on July 9, 2009 at 7:10 AM. Reason : and it was Louisville, 24-13]

7/9/2009 7:09:59 AM

56 days

7/9/2009 7:50:42 AM

R.I.P.

7/9/2009 8:53:29 AM

having nate irving days left makes me sad

7/9/2009 9:07:21 AM

^, ^^ - WTF is wrong with you two, grow some balls. Nate is the man and will be banging heads soon. He is not giving up, you should not either.

7/9/2009 9:18:49 AM

UNC's win over FSU in 2001 (when FSU was still fairly unstoppable) was a pretty big one.

7/9/2009 9:19:43 AM

^ Seriously, crying over Nate like he is dead and then talking about UNC in the thread counting down to the start of OUR season. You guys are really fucking this thread up.

7/9/2009 9:28:05 AM

Woo! The NC poll is now open. Time to skew!

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/polls?pCat=46&sCat=575

Wait how the fuck do we not have a coach on the "best coach" poll? We've had Lou Holtz, Dick Sheridan, Bo Rein, and Earle Edwards (whose record is skewed by the fact that during his early years at State we didn't have scholarship players; we were one of the few big time schools to not have scholarship players; he won 3 ACC Championships and was selected ACC coach of the year four times).

[Edited on July 9, 2009 at 11:21 PM. Reason : ]

7/9/2009 11:16:15 PM

there's really not much to skew on there.

7/9/2009 11:20:29 PM

Well we need to skew best team. I'm still surprised we didn't have one of our ACC Championship teams, like the white shoes defense team, on there.

It looks like ECU fans found this poll early.

[Edited on July 9, 2009 at 11:23 PM. Reason : ]

7/9/2009 11:22:02 PM

The 2002 team was up to 22% last night before I went to bed. I can't access ESPN from work though. What is it now?

7/10/2009 7:54:39 AM

28% to ECUs 51%

7/10/2009 8:13:03 AM

Yeah ECU fans are definitely skewing this one hard.

7/10/2009 8:50:33 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__yslkz9vvo&feature=related

7/10/2009 9:54:15 AM

where the heck is the countdown on this page????

7/10/2009 9:56:42 AM

More publicity for NCSU football 2009....I found this great article on the potential of our 2009 football season....and another chance at poll skewing...it was on Bleacherreport.com , the writers there do a great job of covering up and coming programs, mid majors and everything else college football related.

Here is the link below:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/215375-college-footballs-seven-sisters-of-surprise-for-2009/poll_results#poll

** The writers at bleacher call us one 1 of 7 upcoming sleeper teams in college football heading into the 2009-2010 season**

GOD, when was the last time NCSU football received this much press post the Rivers/Holt era??

GO PACK!!

7/10/2009 11:16:08 AM

ACC Now did an article about which school has had the best football program in North Carolina over the past decade, and their conclusion was that NC State did:

Quote :

"What will happen in '09, we don't know. What has happened from 2000 to '08, we do know. Those numbers say N.C. State has been the best team in the state of North Carolina ... so far. State has won the most overall games (60), ACC games (32), bowl games (four) and edged UNC and Wake Forest (5-4 against each) in their respective series. The Wolfpack has also had the most bowl appearances (six). (I hear you, App State, three national titles but your boys are 1-2 against the ACC this decade with a 23-10 loss to N.C. State in '06, which was State's worst team of the decade). Duke (surprise!) has the worst record of the five Bowl Subdivision programs in the state (and all of Division I-A for that matter) with a 14-90 mark. For the sake of meaningful comparison, Duke, has been taken out of the group-record discussion. "

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/whos-the-best-in-the-state

7/10/2009 3:13:35 PM

Yeah the fact that App State fans seem to think they have one of the best football team in the nation kills me. They wouldn't be much of a contender in any conference at the DI level, haha.

7/10/2009 3:22:11 PM

Quote :

"For the sake of meaningful comparison, Duke, has been taken out of the group-record discussion. ""

you know your team is bad when . . . . . . . . .

7/10/2009 3:26:46 PM

aha @ wolfood's link

I'm pretty sure anyone can write for bleacherreport.com, it's just a blog site

7/10/2009 3:30:59 PM

Duke's the worst in all of D1A? I mean, I knew they were bad, but really?

7/10/2009 3:53:49 PM

i bet yall didn't know that Yale is the 2nd winningest football program of all time, behind Meechigan.

7/10/2009 3:55:37 PM

In all-time wins, Carolina is 25th (!), we're 59th, Duke is 92nd, Wake is 103rd

7/10/2009 4:00:57 PM

^^ I too, saw the college state tour of Connecticutt/Rhode Island

7/10/2009 4:18:35 PM

Good discussions going on in the comments section.


http://myespn.go.com/blogs/acc/0-6-272/Who-will-rule-Tobacco-Road-in--09-.html

Who will rule Tobacco Road in '09?

July 8, 2009 9:00 AM

Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich

On Tuesday afternoon, Tim Hall of 99.9 The Fan in Raleigh stumped me with a question: Which team in the state of North Carolina will be better this fall, North Carolina or NC State?

It's a question I've gotten in the mailbag, too.

Andrew in Charlotte, N.C. wrote: Which North Carolina team do you see going the farthest this season and why?

First of all, don't count out Wake Forest, even though the Demon Deacons lost some of their best defensive players to come through the program. Riley Skinner is one of the winningest quarterbacks in the league, and he's got a much better and deeper supporting cast to work with this fall. But I do think UNC and NC State are the teams to beat this year on Tobacco Road. Don't forget that Tom O'Brien and the Wolfpack owned the state last year with wins over East Carolina, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Duke. Nate Irving played in all of those games, though.

Here's how the Carolina schools stacked up in the last ACC Power Rankings:

NC State
North Carolina
Wake Forest
Duke

Since then, Irving, NC State's top playmaker on defense has suffered serious injuries in a car accident, and Dominique Ellis, a potential starter in the secondary, has decided to leave the program. Meanwhile, North Carolina's young receivers are still unproven and kicker Jay Wooten has decided to transfer. Both of these teams have a few issues.

NC State appears to be stronger on offense, and North Carolina probably has the better defense. The two will face each other in the regular season-finale on Nov. 28 in Raleigh. It's the first end-of-the-year meeting at NC State since 1995. And who knows? Irving might be back to his old self by then.

So who wins?

Carolina. The Tar Heels return a league-high nine starters on defense, including the entire defensive line. They've got an efficient quarterback in T.J. Yates. And they've got a talented tandem of running backs in Shaun Draughn and Ryan Houston who will help take some pressure off of the young receivers. The departure of Ellis and possible loss of Irving isn't going to knock the Wolfpack out of the running for the Atlantic Division, but it definitely won't help their chances.

7/10/2009 7:48:44 PM

More proof that we have been the best program overall in the state for the 2000s. I just wish we had a championship to show for it like Wake does.

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/whos-the-best-in-the-state

7/10/2009 9:13:29 PM

I tried to do the vote on ESPN yesterday (from work) and let me say, I know that many of you have said it already, but ESPN has the worst damn website on the web. It is impossible to navigate through that damn thing. Format is attrocious . I spent over 20 minutes looking for that shit! and I still didn't find it!

7/11/2009 9:46:53 AM

i voted.... but i agree there isn't really much to skew. stupid that they didn't bother putting an NC State coach on there...

7/11/2009 12:36:22 PM

53 days....maybe Lo Brown should have saved his official visit to drive down from Hargrave for a football weekend.

7/12/2009 3:35:35 PM

HD rated our Quarterbacking-unit as the best in the ACC:

Quote :

"1. NC State Starter: Russell Wilson Backups: Mike Glennon 2008 Starter stats: Wilson completed 150 of 275 pass attempts (54.5 percent) for 1,955 yards, 17 touchdowns and one interception. He averaged 177.7 yards per game. Analysis: Wilson's accuracy was remarkable last year, and his receivers should be even better this fall. Glennon is going to play, though, and got more work this past spring and summer because Wilson was playing baseball. Regardless of whose job it is in November, it's Wilson's to lose now, and having Glennon as a viable backup will make a huge difference in the offense."

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/acc/0-6-297/Ranking-the-ACC-units--Quarterbacks.html

Personally I think Miami at 10 is ridiculous, Jacory Harris is better than Yates, Turner, Ponder and anybody on UVA's roster

7/14/2009 2:02:20 PM

look at how far we've come after one season.

i never would have imagined this.

7/14/2009 2:05:48 PM

Jacory Harris is good, but still needs to prove himself. He throws a lot of floaters. As an athlete he is amazing, but it remains to be seen if he can be a great drop back passer!

7/14/2009 2:23:39 PM