North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Pack Prepares to Renew Duke Rivalry
11/3/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
NOTES: The ACC announced Monday that the NC State-Wake Forest game at Carter-Finley Stadium will kick off at 3:30 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU. ... NC State's allotment of tickets to the Duke game is sold out, but tickets do remain through the Duke ticket office for Wolfpack fans who would like to attend the game.
BY TIM PEELER
That changes on Saturday when the Wolfpack (2-6 overall, 0-4 ACC) and Blue Devils (4-4, 1-3) meet at 3:30 p.m. at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, N.C., in a renewal of the rivalry that dates back to 1924.
For the Wolfpack players, getting to face a next-door neighbor is not high on the priority list. It’s getting the chance to end a four-game losing streak that sparks their interest.
“I don’t know too much about the rivalry, to be honest,” said offensive lineman Jeraill McCuller. “I just know we are playing them on Saturday and I am excited about that, as is the rest of the team.
“We know they are a talented, mature group. Their front seven can wreak a lot of havoc on the field.”
Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien, who has faced the Blue Devils only once in a dozen years as a head coach, is similarly unfamiliar with the rivalry, though he has known Duke head coach David Cutcliffe for years and has read up on some of the close games that have been a hallmark of the NC State-Duke meetings.
“We better have our chin straps buttoned and our mouth guards in when we play this football team.” O’Brien said.
The Wolfpack, which has won a series-record 10 straight games over the Blue Devils, was off last week and will have played just two games in the 34 days prior to the contest. That time off is exactly what a team decimated by injuries since the preseason has needed. State’s roster has slowly been repopulating as those injured players return.
O’Brien said Monday that both injured linebacker Nate Irving and offensive lineman Julian Williams will prepare to play in this weekend’s contest, though he won’t have an official injury status update until Thursday.
The coach also made a few changes to the lineup during the off week, with defensive end Willie Young and linebacker Audie Cole returning to the starting lineup and cornerbacks DeAndre Morgan and Koyal George still battling for one of the starting cornerback starting jobs. O’Brien made no other appreciable changes to the two-deep chart since the team’s most recent game at
The Wolfpack players spent their time off trying to reconnect with each other, with several position groups making concerted efforts to spend more time together, whether it was playing cards, watching film or going out to dinner.
Several of them also spent a significant amount of time being angry.
“Our coach [defensive coordinator Mike Archer] told us that we are at the bottom of the pool in the ACC and really the laughingstock of the league,” said linebacker Ray Michel. “Right now, we feel like we have to prove that we are a better team than our win-loss record indicates.”
O’Brien said his staff doesn’t sugarcoat their messages. Before the
But the coach has also seen significant improvement in the team’s last three games, which have all been decided in the final period and have a combined final margin of just 19 points.
“This team has played really hard the last three games and gotten better the last three games,” O’Brien said. “Teams have played really good games against us too. Our players understand that each week we are getting closer to winning a football game.
“As I said before, there is still a lot of youth on this team. They still have some time to play in their careers. But there are also some guys whose careers are coming to an end, and it is important to them to do well now.”
And there are still goals within the Wolfpack’s reach, as it begins playing the rivalry portion of its schedule, with three consecutive games against the other members of the ACC’s “Big Four”: Duke,
“There are four games left, and if we win those four games, we are bowl eligible,” McCuller said. “That’s something we are shooting for. But before you can win that fourth one, you have to win the first one, and that is what we are aiming for.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
