North Carolina State University Athletics
Pack Focused on Possibilities
11/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 26, 2010
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RALEIGH, N.C. – There were figurative tumbleweeds rolling by NC State’s football team Thursday afternoon as it went through final preparations for Saturday’s game at Maryland. And Wolfpack head coach Tom O’Brien liked it that way.
“I think it’s good that campus is empty,” O’Brien said prior to his team’s Thanksgiving day workout.”It makes it easier to forget about the last game and move on to the next one.”
The last game, of course, was the emotional 29-25 victory over chief rival North Carolina, in which the Wolfpack took control in the fourth quarter and solidified its advantage in the ACC’s Atlantic Division title race. That’s a marked difference from the team’s three losses this season, against Virginia Tech, at East Carolina and at Clemson. The Pack led in the fourth quarter of all three games, and lost in the final moments, including an overtime setback to the Pirates.
So O’Brien and his team took last week’s come-from-behind surge over the Tar Heels as a sign that they are continuing to improve, continuing to learn from their mistakes and continuing to grow as a football program.
In a nutshell, that’s why the Pack is in position to earn a spot in next week’s ACC Football Championship at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium. To get there, they must beat the Terps, to put a cap on the program’s best season since 2002, when the Philip Rivers-led Pack established a school record for wins with its 11-3 record.
If the Pack wins Saturday’s game, slated to kickoff at 3:30 p.m. at Maryland’s Byrd Stadium, it will face Coastal Division champion Virginia Tech in the title game. If not, Florida State will go. For Saturday’s game, the Wolfpack Sports Network pregame show begins at 2 p.m.
The Wolfpack (8-3 overall, 5-2 ACC) knows it’s fortunate to be in this position. Its 14-13 loss at Clemson put a serious damper on its chances to win the division. But the Tar Heels, begrudgingly, came to the rescue by giving Florida State its second ACC loss. The Seminoles, who have finished conference play, still officially lead the Atlantic, but a Wolfpack win Saturday will give the teams identical 6-2 league marks.
The Pack owns the tie-breakers over the Seminoles, by virtue of its 28-24 victory on Oct. 28 at Carter-Finley Stadium.
“I think they understand that they have another opportunity,” O’Brien said. “They almost lost the opportunity at Clemson, but it was given back to them. They’ve been focused and working hard and, hopefully, we’ll finish the deal on Saturday.”
These are certainly new heights for the Pack, which last won an ACC title in 1979, before Georgia Tech became eligible for the league championship (1983), not to mention Florida State (1993), Miami (2004), Virginia Tech (2004) and Boston College (2005), and long before the league added a championship game (2005).
For that reason, O’Brien appreciates the magnitude of this contest.
“It’s more important other games I’ve coached,” he said. “It’s win or go home. It’s an unusual situation to be in really. Usually, the last game of the year, you win or lose and then get ready to go play your bowl game. It takes on more significance because you can stay alive, go on to Charlotte and represent the state university in the first ACC championship game played in the state.”
But Ralph Friedgen’s Terps (7-4, 4-3) have been a stumbling block for the Pack in recent years. In a series that is exactly even (31-31-4 all time) in more than a century of competition, Maryland has won seven of the last 10 meetings, including two games in particular that the Wolfpack would like to forget.
Three years ago, the Wolfpack entered its regular-season finale with a 5-6 overall record and an outside shot at a bowl game in O’Brien’s first season in Raleigh. The squad, almost exclusively made of leftovers from Chuck Amato’s tenure, had put together a four-game winning streak by beating East Carolina, Virginia, Miami and North Carolina and needed one win in its final two games to become bowl eligible.
But the Pack lost at defending ACC champion Wake Forest, 38-18, and then a 37-0 decision to the Terps at Carter-Finley. That’s the only game in the last 10 meetings in this series that has been decided by more than 10 points.
The other game was in 2001, when the Terps were on the verge of their first ACC title since 1985 and their first major bowl game since 1976. The Wolfpack settled for four field goals early in the game, and the two teams traded scores down the stretch. After the NC State offense failed to get a win-sealing first down, Maryland took possession with 2:18 remaining and drove 61 yards to score the game-winning touchdown with less than a minute to play.
Terp fans in the stands peppered the playing field with citrus fruit, celebrating Maryland’s anticipated trip to the Orange Bowl. Now, the Wolfpack has the chance to earn its way to a championship opportunity on Maryland’s field.
This year’s Terp offense is led by redshirt freshman quarterback Danny O’Brien, who might not be related to the Wolfpack head coach, but he is fairly well known after leading the Terps to more than 400 yards of total offense in three of their last four games.
The young signal caller, who emerged as the starter in late September after Jamarr Robinson suffered a shoulder injury, has guided the Terps to a 5-3 record in his eight starts. The Maryland offense has committed the fewest turnovers of any ACC school (12), even after its season-high four in last weekend’s loss to Florida State, which eliminated Friedgen’s team from the Atlantic Division title race.
O’Brien hopes that the Wolfpack defense, which has allowed just four touchdowns and created five turnovers in its last three games, can still rattle the Terps with its pressure.
“Certainly, that’s one thing you have to do against a guy who likes to throw on rhythm like [O’Brien] does,” Tom O’Brien said. “You have to get him out of his rhythm and make him throw off of his heels. “Ralph does a good job of coaching quarterbacks. He’ll continue to get better each and every year.”
But the Wolfpack has junior quarterback Russell Wilson, one of the league’s premier offensive players. He’s ready for the pressure Maryland’s defense often brings on a variety of blitzes and stunts. He’s the team leader in maintaining the focus O’Brien says his team needed this week in practice and in this game.
“We really have been focused all year,” Wilson said. “That carries over every practice and every play this year. I think that more than anything our leaders have stepped up a little bit. They have pushed the younger guys.
“We realize what’s at stake this week, and we’ll be ready for it.”
• By Tim Peeler, tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
