North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Second Half, A New Start
10/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
BY TONY HAYNES
The 25th overall meeting between the Wolfpack (1-5) and Pirates (4-3) is set to commence at 4:30 p.m. from the rowdy confines of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in
And while Pack coach Tom O’Brien can’t possibly extinguish the bad memories from a 1-5 start, he did try to create the impression that his team would be starting anew when it kicks off the second half of its campaign. Using this past Saturday’s bye as a backdrop, O’Brien and his coaches put NC State into a time machine and turned the dial backwards, back to a time in early August when the Wolfpack was starting preseason camp.
Indeed, practices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week very much had a preseason vibe about them.
“It doesn’t feel good to be 1-5, but we’ve got another six games to go out and prove ourselves to our fans as well as ourselves and the coaches,” said senior linebacker LeRue Rumph. “The basis of practice was fundamentals. We had a lot of individual work with our coaches.”
O’Brien, in fact, used the open date to evaluate everything that happened in the first half, and he didn’t stop with the players. He looked at himself, each of his coaches and broke down tendencies, play-calls and decisions.
Then, of course, there were the obvious reasons why NC State dropped five of its first six games.
“The first thing you have to do in an off-week is evaluate everything that you’ve done,” O’Brien said. “You have to evaluate yourself as a coach and you have to evaluate what you’ve asked of the players as a coach. What you have to do then is make an evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses and where you can make them stronger, which basically comes down to the fundamentals of the game. Specifically on defense, we have to cut out the long runs and long passes and you have to cut out the turnovers on offense.”
In what has become somewhat of an epidemic for NC State football the last few years, the Wolfpack turned the ball over 22 times in the first six games, and its minus-17 turnover margin ranks dead last in the country among 119 Division-one college football teams.
In games against
“If you take away the long runs, long pass plays and take away the turnover deficit, you’re probably looking at a different record right now, but we can’t do that,” said O’Brien. “We have to play these six games one game at a time and make sure that after these six we’re on the positive side of the turnover margin and we don’t have as many long runs and long passes against us, starting with
And while O’Brien and his coaches will do their best to reign in the turnovers and limit big plays in the second half, one thing they can’t control is another epidemic that plagued the Pack in the first half: injuries.
A total of seven starters sustained injuries in the first six games that caused them to miss at least one game. And among those starters were the Wolfpack’s best players at certain positions. Tight end Anthony Hill, an All-ACC candidate at tight end, underwent season ending knee surgery before training camp even started. Toney Baker, a starter at tailback in the opener against
For quarterback Harrison Beck, it was a knee against Clemson, followed by a shoulder separation suffered two games ago against
“It depends on if he can practice this week,” O’Brien said. “The medical people think he should be able to, but I haven’t seen him on the practice field yet.”
Most of the running back duties now fall on the shoulders of redshirt sophomore Jamelle Eugene, who certainly made the most of his opportunity against the Seminoles, rushing for 101 yards on only 14 carries.
“One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity,” O’Brien said. “Jamelle Eugene wanted to be the starting tailback and now he is. His problem all the way through the preseason was fumbling the football. He’s done a good job through the season of holding on to the ball, and if he can hold on to it against
True freshman Curtis Underwood will be
Despite the injuries, turnovers, big plays allowed on defense and unsettled rotation at the quarterback position, NC State is looking forward to a fresh start to its season following the bye week.
“Nobody hates [being 1-5] more than us,” said senior guard Kalani Heppe. “It’s a terrible place to be. But the way the bye week was set up, it kind of gives us a fresh chance to split up the season, play six more games and do everything we can to win them. The first part was real rough, but we’ll see how we come out and I’m looking forward to it.”
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