North Carolina State University Athletics
Everette Sands Diary: Gearing Up for FSU
10/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 28, 2011
We've been getting ready to travel down to Tallahassee for a tough matchup with Florida State. They've lost a couple of games, which shows us that they're not invincible, but they're still a very talented team and we have to be ready to give our best effort.
When facing a team like Florida State, a lot of coaching staffs have the tendency to tweak their offense in an attempt to take advantage of the defense's shortcomings, but we're very committed to running what works for us. It's going to be important to play fast and execute. We're not anticipating a game where the two teams try to trick each other.
We believe that we have a very good plan in place, and we're going to stick with it. We try to avoid having our players learn a bunch of new things week to week. We might throw wrinkles in here or there, but the base plans say the same. That continuity helps out our team, because the kids know what to expect, we've been doing it since the spring, and we're getting better at it every week through the season.
Last week, we were able to score a big win on the road against Virginia. I thought our effort in the running game was okay, Washington had around 80 yards and Creecy added 40. Even though Creecy didn't have as many carries, he still had comparable touches, because he came down with seven catches on the day. That's not something we really planned on happening, but he did a good job with the opportunities he had in the passing game.
My daughter had a heartbreaker in her cheerleading competition. They came in second place, but had a 15-point deduction on a technicality, so they won't be advancing. It was a hard loss to take, but she knows it's not the end of the world, and they'll have a chance to perform at a few more competitions before the year's over. My son's football season came to an end, but he's already starting to say "Mom, I'm bored," so we signed him up for basketball which starts in a couple of weeks. While I'm with the team in Florida, they're going down to visit their old school in South Carolina for a Halloween carnival.
