North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: O'Brien Learned Lessons at 1st Bowl
12/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. The first time Tom O’Brien went to a bowl game as a head coach, he learned some important lessons. Pretty early in the game, in fact.
It was New Year’s Eve, 1999, and the rest of the world was worried about Y2K. But O’Brien, after two losing seasons at Boston College, had his team in Tucson, Arizona, for the 11th-annual Insight.com Bowl. The Eagles were eager to improve on the program’s breakthrough 8-3 regular-season record against a 7-4 Colorado team coached by Gary Barnett.
Unfortunately, most of the BC players had the flu and were overwhelmed by Colorado’s speed from the opening kickoff.
Colorado scored on the game’s opening drive and took advantage of the Eagles in just about every aspect of the game, scoring three touchdowns on offense, three on interception returns by the defense and one on a punt return by special teams all in the first half.
The Buffaloes were ahead 45-7 at halftime and won the game going away, 62-28.
As soon as that game ended, O’Brien recognized he needed to make some changes in how his teams would prepare for bowl games in the future. He instituted those changes for Boston College’s appearance in the 2000 Jeep Aloha Bowl against Arizona State, and the Eagles won 31-17.
And O’Brien, now in his second year at NC State, hasn’t lost in a bowl game since. Now that winter final exams are over, O’Brien and his team are ready to begin their serious preparations to face Rutgers (7-5) in the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., on Dec. 29. Tickets are available through Dec. 26 at the GoPack.com Ticket Center.
“After that first bowl, I changed some things about how we prepare,” O’Brien said. “But more important than that is how the team buys into the preparations. In that game against Colorado, they went to win the bowl game and we were just glad to be in a bowl game.
“You have to go with the intent of going to a bowl game to win.”
While all coaches say they spend many of their pre-bowl practices going back to fundamentals, O’Brien treats it more like preseason or spring practice than most. This week, he will conduct two-a-day practices on Wednesday and Friday.
Anyone curious about how the coach conducts a pre-bowl practice can attend Saturday’s workouts from 4-5:30 p.m. at Carter-Finley Stadium, immediately following the men’s basketball game against Lipscomb at the RBC Center.
So far, the Wolfpack has practiced just a few days of the weekends, working on fundamentals and checking out the progress of the young players who have spent most of this season on the offensive and defensive scout teams.
“It’s similar to what we do in preseason practice and spring practice,” O’Brien said. “We work on base offense, base defense, base blitzes, base blitz pickup. Those are all the things you work on to become a fundamentally sound football team, all the things that will help once we start thinking about Rutgers.
Beginning Sunday, however, O’Brien and his staff will begin focusing on their game plan to slow down the Scarlet Knights, who have won six in a row after a 1-5 start.
While many teams wait until they get to the bowl site to begin preparing for their bowl opponent, O’Brien has found that it’s better to start those preparations earlier. The Wolfpack will leave on Christmas Day for Birmingham and conduct daily workouts until the 3 p.m. kickoff on Dec. 29.
“I found it is important that you have to work on them while you are still at home,” O’Brien said. “You can’t get ready at the bowl site. You can’t get it done.”
The four-week break between the regular-season finale victory over Miami and the bowl game could benefit the Wolfpack in one way: O’Brien said that safety Clem Johnson, who was hurt in both the preseason and in the North Carolina game, could return to the Wolfpack lineup for the Rutgers game.
“I think he is supposed to be back on the practice field this week so we will find out how he is,” O’Brien said. “He is going to make an effort to practice this week.
“Certainly, it will be valuable to us. We think he is our best safety. We are going to need our best players to slow [the Rutgers] passing game down a little bit. He has had a hard-luck year. He personifies everything this team has been through this year. I hope he is able to come back and play and will be able to contribute.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
