North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Pack Still Putting Pieces Together
8/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Tony Haynes
“I don’t think as a coaching staff that we’re comfortable naming starters at a lot of spots right now,” O’Brien said. “We haven’t seen people take control of their positions; be the type of players that we want them to be. That’s a concern right now. If you can’t feel comfortable asking your offensive and defensive coordinators if they can give you a starting line-up and there are a lot of positions that they’re still unsure about, that means you have work to do.”
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O’Brien says the quarterback competition between Daniel Evans, Harrison Beck and Justin Burke is status quo, meaning each player still has an opportunity to earn the starting nod.
Spots are still available on the offensive and defensive lines, as well as linebacker and key positions in the secondary. The staff is also still trying to identify a starting punter and place-kicker.
“We came in with certain standards with the way we wanted to play football, and we haven’t gotten that,” said O’Brien. “There are sparks, but once they get into competition they lose their focus. That’s a concern. All teams go through that, but we don’t have a history with these guys to know if they’re going to come out of it.”
On Friday night, the Pack scrimmaged for about an hour and a half at Carter-Finley, working mainly on end of games situations. It’s something O’Brien and his staff focused on frequently at
“Last night we did a lot of situational work,” O’Brien said. “My experience has been that it’s a real good indicator of where are a lot of people are on this football team. When you scrimmage sometimes you just run plays. These were end of game situations basically four minutes and in. It wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. I didn’t see what I was hoping to see. This was their first experience doing it like this. It’s the type of scrimmage that you have to have before you play your first game. You have to be able to substitute with ease, understand situations, know when you’re supposed to stay inbounds, know when you’re supposed to get out of bounds, know when you’re supposed to keep them inbounds, know when you’re supposed to get them out of bounds and those situations.”
Noting that the effort level and intensity wasn’t what he had hoped for during the scrimmage, O’Brien conceded that the recent heat wave has probably taken its toll.
When asked if this team plays hard, O’Brien said, “They did until last night.”
Does this team play smart? “No,” he said.
That, of course, will change under a coach who demands discipline, intelligence and sound judgment from all of his teams.
“When it comes to day game day there won’t be anything we haven’t practiced or haven’t prepared for,” said tailback Toney Baker. “When we get into a two-minute situation, we should be very confident that we will win the football game. [The coaches] do a great job with game situations.”
Whether Baker starts or not is irrelevant. NC State is blessed with an embarrassment of riches at the tailback position where Baker, Andre Brown and Jamelle Eugene will get plenty of chances to touch the football.
“Nothing has changed from what I thought that they would be,” O’Brien said. “In some cases, they’re better than I thought they would be. They have tremendous work ethic and great work habits. They’re not afraid to stick their noses in there. Competition makes you better and not one of them wants not to take a snap; not one of them doesn’t want to show up at practice for any reason because they know they’re in a battle for playing time.”
It appears there will be a lot of battles for playing time at numerous positions right up until the final week of preseason.
