North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: O'Brien Not Bothered by 6th-Place Pick
7/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
PINEHURST, N.C. Tom O’Brien’s expectations for NC State football are high much higher than the external expectations that were placed on his team Monday by the media that cover the Atlantic Coast Conference.
In a repetition of preseason publications' predictions, the Wolfpack was picked to finished sixth in the ACC’s Atlantic Division. It’s not an unexpected turn of events for a team that finished 3-9 last year and lost the final seven games of the season. That, in fact, is why O’Brien is in his first season as the 33rd head football coach in NC State history.
O’Brien and his team certainly believe they are capable of finishing higher in the division. They freely admit they have more faith in themselves, than the media has in them. It’s similar to how Sidney Lowe and his team felt about being picked to finish last in preseason balloting prior to last basketball season. “I never gave any credence to preseason polls when I was at Boston College and I don’t now,” O’Brien said. “I said a long time ago, if you guys knew what you were doing, you would be doing something besides picking schools in a preseason football poll.”
But the coach certainly sees room for improvement for a team that finished 3-9 last season and lost its final seven games. “I think our kids were embarrassed that they were 3-9 and they want to be a much better football team,” O’Brien said. “They have worked extremely hard [in spring practice and in off-season drills]. Now, it is up to us to coach them up and get them in the right spots so that they can win.”
Still, it’s just the first season in a new regime and O’Brien knows he needs time to build some depth and get the talent he needs to be as successful as he was the last 10 years at Boston College, where he is the winningest coach in school history (75-45 overall). Eventually, he believes that this year’s expectations will change.
“I think we can win a conference title here, and if you can do that, then you can win it all,” the coach said. “That is where we are going to go. We are going to get there.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
2007 ACC Football Kickoff Pre-season prediction| Atlantic Division | |
| 1. Florida State (37) | 423 |
| 2. Boston College (25) | 363 |
| 3. Clemson (8) | 332 |
| 4. Wake Forest (13) | 325 |
| 5. Maryland | 156 |
| 6. NC State | 144 |
| | |
| Coastal Division | |
| 1. Virginia Tech (77) | 491 |
| 2. Georgia Tech (4) | 367 |
| 3. Miami (2) | 356 |
| 4. Virginia | 255 |
| 5. North Carolina | 188 |
| 6. Duke | 86 |
