North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Seminoles, Lightning Strike Pack
10/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
BY TONY HAYNES
In an unusual scene, both teams were pulled off the field late in the third quarter when game officials learned that bolts were lighting up the
“I asked Bobby Bowden before the game if he’d ever been involved in a thunderstorm where you had to get off the field,” said NC State head coach Tom O’Brien. “He said it had never happened to him. If he’s never seen it, I’ve never seen it.”
There’s probably very little college football’s winningest coach hasn’t seen during his long and storied career. But sure enough, after the coaches had discussed the possibility of a stoppage in their meet and greet before the game, it actually happened.
Lightning strike No. 2 then came on the field early in the fourth quarter when Seminoles quarterback Xavier Lee heaved the football down the left sideline in the direction of receiver Greg Carr.
Using every inch of his lanky 6-6 frame, Carr literally reached over Wolfpack corner DeAndre Morgan and turned what could easily have been an interception into a 40-yard touchdown pass that gave FSU some breathing room.
It was a score from which NC State would never recover.
And if there was a third lightning strike that would short-circuit the Wolfpack’s chances of winning again in Tallahassee, it may have come late in the second quarter when starting running back Andre Brown limped off the field with a foot injury.
When doctors came back with the verdict after taking Brown to the X-ray room, their news was not what O’Brien wanted to hear: Brown had suffered a broken bone in his left foot, an injury that will likely end his season.
What once was the Big Three’ in the NC State’s backfield is now down the Little One.’ Once third in line behind stars Toney Baker and Brown, Jamelle Eugene now stands alone. Baker was lost with a season-ending knee injury in week one. Now it was Brown’s turn to hobble along on crutches, the victim of another in a long line of hard luck heartbreak for NC State.
To be sure,
“Jamelle Eugene wanted his opportunity,” O’Brien said. “I thought he was tremendous tonight and really did a great job. We’re going to have to go back and figure out where we go from here.”
NC State came into Saturday’s match-up feeling confident and hardly overwhelmed. After all, many wearing red and white had already experienced victories over the speedy, athletic Seminoles. Having won two in a row over FSU, and four of the last six, the Wolfpack often played like a team that was ready to trip the Noles up again.
After a Lee to Carr bomb of 53 yards on the first play from scrimmage set up a quick touchdown, the Pack answered right back with its best drive of the year. With Evans hitting Brown and Eugene in the flat on swings passes and screens, NC State tied it with a crisp 64-yard march in seven plays that ended with Daniel Evans finding receiver John Dunlap from two yards out on a slant.
The Wolfpack would then take the lead later in the opening quarter on kicker Steven Hauschka’s fifth straight field without a miss this season, a 23-yarder that made it 10-7. From that point on, it was a dog fight for the remainder of the half. After hooking a pair of boots in the opening frame, FSU kicker Gary Cismesia nailed a 39-yard field goal to tie it with 3:09 left in the half.
It was then that an old, familiar nemesis showed up just as NC State’s upset plans seemed to be taking shape. In its 24-20 victory over
It wouldn’t happen on this October afternoon.
After driving the Pack into field goal territory late in the half, Evans was intercepted by
The turnover bug again took a bite out of the Pack’s chances early in the third quarter when corner Michael Ray Garvin picked of another errant Evans throw and returned it 43-yards for a go ahead score.
It was a lead the Seminoles would not relinquish.
“We can’t turn the ball over and we can’t give up all those big plays, that’s the bottom line,” said O’Brien. “We’re in field goal range at worst [right before the half]. You kick the field goal, go in at halftime and we get the ball to start the second half. Instead, we come out of it with no points.”
NC State had four more turnovers on Saturday, its 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd in just six games. And though its defense played hard and well at times, the Wolfpack didn’t force any FSU turnovers, meaning its turnover margin for the season slipped to minus-17.
“When you’re playing somebody who you’re heavily favored over like we were, it scares a coach to death,” said Bowden, who picked up career win number 370 on Saturday. “A team like that, you have to break them somewhere. As long as they can play even with you, they’ve got fire and fight and you wonder if you’re going to win the game. I told our kids that it will be a struggle until you go out there and break them. I thought Garvin’s interception took it out of
All NC State is picking up right now are the shattered pieces of a 1-5 start. But as was the case in last week’s loss to
“We’re definitely getting better,” O’Brien said. “We’ve played much better the last two weeks. We’re at fault for not winning the last two games; nobody beat us, we beat ourselves. We’re going to use this week to get better. There are a lot of things that we still don’t do that we coach over and over again. It happened again tonight. We’ve got to get it corrected, or we’ll get somebody else in there.”
