North Carolina State University Athletics
Pack Concerned About Banged Up Offensive Line
10/24/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 24, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - It's getting to the point where identifying the members of NC State's offensive line without a scorecard could become a challenge. During the Wolfpack's 45-31 loss to Miami on Saturday night, tackle Derek Morris and center Leroy Harris joined the injury parade when they left the field in the second half. Although he did return after sustaining a shoulder injury, Harris' status for next weekend's 12 noon game at Clemson may not be known until Monday. Morris, meanwhile, could be sidelined by a severe high ankle sprain.
"It doesn't look good for Derek with his ankle," NC State head coach Chuck Amato said on Sunday. "We'll know more about Leroy tomorrow."
Over the last three weeks, four of the Wolfpack's five starters on the offensive line have left games with a variety of physical problems. It all started during the game at North Carolina when starting center Jed Paulsen sustained ligament damage in his ankle, a problem that required surgery. After Paulsen went down, Harris, then a starter at left guard, was forced to move into the center spot. Two weeks ago at Maryland, left tackle Chris Colmer missed most of the game with a banged up shoulder. The revolving door then continued with Harris and Morris going down against Hurricanes.
"We're beat up very bad," Amato said. "As I said last week, that's one position where we cannot afford to have injuries and we've got them. We'll just have to wait and see with a couple of these, but things don't look good."
The rash of injuries actually started in the preseason when back-up center Kalani Heppe underwent surgery after breaking his foot. When Harris came off the field on Saturday night, third string center Luke Lathan, a redshirt freshman, was pressed into duty.
All of this comes at a time when the NC State offense has actually started to find itself. Against Miami's 11th ranked defense on Saturday, the Wolfpack tallied 440 yards of total offense to go along with 31 points against a team that had been ranked 7th in the nation in scoring defense. Over its last four outings, the NC State offense has averaged 443 yards per contest. Although its record is just 4-3 to this point, the Wolfpack has actually outgained all seven of its opponents this season.
"When you lose, it's frustrating," said Amato. "Just like yesterday; Brock Berlin had a fabulous game throwing for five touchdowns. Jay Davis threw for four touchdowns and went unnoticed. He had another really exceptional game. All those things can do is get you frustrated. There's nothing you can do about it."
The one thing NC State can do about taking advantage of its overall statistical advantage in many of these games is to protect the football better. With four more turnovers on Saturday night, the Wolfpack is now minus 10 in the giveaway/takeaway margin for the season. And in its three losses, the Pack has 12 giveaways compared to just three takeaways.
The turnovers, combined with 10 costly penalties and errors in the kicking game, certainly sabotaged NC State's upset bid against Miami.
"What happened yesterday is what we were concerned about coming into the game," Amato said. "I said early on in the week that we cannot turn the ball over and we've got to win the kicking game. In the first half, we turned the ball over four times. The kicking game accounted directly or indirectly for three of their touchdowns."
The first of those touchdowns came on Devin Hester's 100-yard return for a score on the opening kick off.
Amato also noted that some missed assignments on defense certainly contributed to Berlin's ability to make some big plays downfield in the passing game. And with Miami's maximum protection packages giving Berlin plenty of time to throw against Wolfpack blitzes, the Hurricanes' swift receivers frequently burned NC State's corners on deep routes.
"We had some missed assignments that hurt us," said Amato. "The type of team Miami has was another reason. A of it has to do with the team you're playing. A couple of missed assignments here and there accounted for close to 100 yards."
The nation's leader in both total defense and pass defense before the Miami game, NC State slipped to number two in both categories this week.
