North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony's Take: The New Game in Town
9/25/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 25, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Blacksburg, Va. - There's a new game in town at NC State and that game starts with defense. How ironic it is that the Wolfpack prevailed over Virginia Tech on Saturday by using precisely the same formula that had worked so well for Ohio State the week before. And how ironic it is that Pack coach Chuck Amato - once an assistant coach at Florida State for 18 years -- was on the winning side of a game that was decided on a field goal attempt that missed wide right as time expired.
It ended 17-16 when Virginia Tech's Brandon Pace hit a kick that sailed about a foot wide of the upright on the north end of Lane Stadium. Then came an on field celebration by an NC State football team that knew it had invested too much effort into this game to come up short.
What goes around comes around.
While at FSU, and even at NC State, Amato had endured the agony of losing many big games when the words "wide right" had become all too familiar. This time, the kicking shoe was on the other foot.
"I'm going to call coach Bowden and tell him what it feels like to win a wide right. Oh my goodness," said a relieved Amato following Saturday's battle.
As it turned out, the best kicker was on Amato's side of the field. John Deraney, the redshirt sophomore, made a huge difference with his strong right leg in this ACC thriller. Out of four Deraney kick offs, three went for touchbacks. Against the block-happy Hokies, he also punted eight times for an average of 43.2 yards. Finally, his 53-yard field goal early in the first quarter was the third longest in school history.
"The 53-yard field goal right off the bat was unbelievable and then he turns right around and kicks the ball out of the end zone," Amato said. "The whole kicking game was good. [Snapper] William Lee put that ball back there fast, under .08 seconds so Deraney could get it off."
Deraney's kicking, combined with the Wolfpack's low risk offensive game plan actually made it resemble the Ohio State team that left Carter-Finley Stadium with a 22-14 win last week. The plan was simple really: don't lose the game on offense, win the kicking game and let your top-ranked defense do the rest.
And boy did the Pack defense do its part and more.
Swarming like angry bees, NC State blitzed Virginia Tech quarterback Bryan Randall silly and tied a school mark with 10 sacks. So quick and so mobile is Randall, many teams are reluctant to send blitzes at him because he does such a good job of making big plays once he breaks containment. But on Saturday, he never had a chance. With the ever relentless calls of coordinator Reggie Herring, Randall likely saw blitzes he never knew existed.
The sack brigade was led by speedy defensive end Manny Lawson, who nailed Randall three times. Once, after being caught from behind by Lawson, the senior quarterback, kneeling on one knee, looked around to get the license plate of the sleek Jaguar that had just drilled him from behind. Randall, after all, is not accustomed to being tracked down from behind by anybody, much less a defensive end.
"The other three guys - Mario Williams, Dwayne Herndon, John McCargo - were taking the pressure off of me," Lawson said. "There were several times where I had one on one and they were being double teamed."
NC State's secret weapon during its week of preparation may have been freshman wide receiver DaJuan Morgan, who played the part of the athletic Randall on the scout team.
"We worked hard this week," Amato said. "We had DaJuan Morgan simulate Randall and were chasing him all over the field. The defense was upset at me and upset at Reggie. Then we got upset at [Virginia Tech] and that trumped all that. We had to keep him contained and wrapped up."
Overall, Tech finished with just 192 total yards, including a measly 36 on the ground. At one point midway through the third quarter, the Hokies had just one yard of offense for the entire game. All of this came a week after NC State had held the Buckeyes to just 137 yards of offense.
Offensively, the Wolfpack is still a work in progress. The quarterback position is, in a word, unsettled. Jay Davis started on Saturday, but gave way to Marcus Stone, who was an asset as a runner. But for the game, Davis and Stone combined to complete just 6-of-17 passes for 78 yards and one touchdown.
"We'll go and discuss and analyze what the two of them did," Amato responded when asked about his quarterback situation. "Those two youngsters fought their fannies off until maybe 10 days before our first game before we made a decision. We'll owe it to both of them to discuss it without the emotion of the game."
In case you missed it, NC State's program is now in the midst of a massive makeover. While the Wolfpack is now close to playing the type of defense Amato envisioned when he first took over in 2000, it will not be, at least in the near future, the type of offensive team that can make a scoreboard light up like a pinball machine the way it did in the Philip Rivers years.
It is the new game in town.
