North Carolina State University Athletics
Thursday Football Notebook
11/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Game 10: NC State (5-4, 2-3 ACC) at Boston College (2-7, 1-5 ACC)
November 12, 2011 • 12:30 p.m. • ACC Network
Chestnut Hill, Mass. • Alumni Stadium (45,000)
O’BRIEN FACES FORMER TEAM: Tom O’Brien is very familiar with Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, but probably feels much more at home on the home sidelines than on the visitor side of the field. O’Brien spent 10 years as the head coach Boston College before coming to NC State for the 2007 campaign and is the winningest coach in Eagle history (75 wins).
The first ACC game that O’Brien ever coached at NC State was at Boston College on September 8, 2007. The Pack dropped that contest, 37-17, and also lost at BC in 2009, 52-20. State lost a nail-biter in Raleigh in 2008, 38-31, but won emphatically last season, 44-17.
During his tenure with the Eagles, O’Brien posted eight consecutive winning seasons, an NCAA-best six consecutive bowl victories (the Eagles won a seventh a few weeks after he came to NC State). He also won the American Football Coaches’ Association Adademic Achievement Award in 2004 for posting a 100% graduation rate, and won honorable mention status seven additional times.
OLD FRIENDS TO STAND ON OPPOSITE SIDELINES: This week’s game against Boston College will mark one of many times that Wolfpack head coach Tom O’Brien and Eagles’ head coach Frank Spaziani have coached on the same field, but it will be just the third time that the two old friends will be competing head-to-head. The two coached together for 26 years before O’Brien came to NC State.
The Irishman and the Italian first became friends and colleagues in 1975, when O’Brien, fresh out of the Marines, took a job as an assistant for George Welsh at Navy. Welsh had been an assistant coach at Penn State while Spaziani was playing there and hired him on his Navy staff as well.
The two coached together for the Midshipmen until 1982, when Welsh took the job at Virginia and took both of them with him to Charlottesville. Spaziani left the Cavalier program after the 1990 season, but when O’Brien was named head coach at Boston College in 1997, he joined his old friend.
He coached running backs for two years and then was O’Brien’s defensive coordinator for eight years.
NC STATE VS. BOSTON COLLEGE: NC State and Boston College first met in 1936, but have only played eight times in the series. Wolfpack head coach Tom O’Brien has stood on one sideline or the other in six of those eight matchups. He was the BC coach in 2005 when the Pack lost 30-10 in Chestnut Hill, then brought his team to Raleigh in 2006, when the Pack won 17-15.
HOMECOMING FOR WOLFPACK STAFF: Tom O’Brien isn’t the only member of the Wolfpack staff who spent a great deal of time with the Boston College program. Six members of his coaching staff at NC State followed the boss from BC when he took the job in December of 2006 (one, Jason Swepson, left following last season and is now the head coach at Elon).
Another member of the staff played at Boston College before his coaching career. The Wolfpack’s strength & conditioning coach and the director of operations both joined the Pack from the Eagles’ program as well.
Here’s a look at the ties some of the Wolfpack staff have with Boston College:
| Name | At NC State | At Boston College | Dates at BC |
| Tom O'Brien | Head Coach | Head Coach | 1997-06 |
| Dana Bible | Off. Coordinator | Off. Coordinator | 1999-06 |
| Jim Bridge | Off. Line Coach | Tight Ends coach | 2003-06 |
| Don Horton | Tight Ends Coach | Off. Line Coach | 1997-06 |
| Jerry Petercuskie | Rec. Coor./Spec. Tms. | Rec. Coor./Spec. Tms. | 1997-06 |
| Mike Reed | Def. Backs Coach | Player | 1991-94 |
| Keith Willis | Def. Line Coach | Def. Line Coach | 2001-06 |
| Todd Rice | Strength & Cond. | Strength & Cond. | 2006-06 |
| Kit Hughes | Dir. of Operations | Recruiting Asst. | 2004-06 |
FIVE AND O’BRIEN: Tom O’Brien has tied one NC State record that will endear him with Wolfpack fans for generations: he is only the second coach in school history to defeat rival North Carolina five consecutive times.
The Wolfpack won five in a row over the Heels from 1988-92 under head coach Dick Sheridan, with two wins at home and three on the road. Although the two teams have met 101 times on the gridiron, Saturday’s victory marked the first time State had ever won three in a row at home.
AMERSON IS THORPE SEMIFINALIST: Sophomore cornerback David Amerson, the national leader in interceptions, has been named a semifinalist for the 2011 Jim Thorpe Award. Heading into the Boston College game, he has three more INTs than any other player in the FBS ranks. The Greensboro native now has nine for the season, including a pair in the season opener, another pair versus Central Michigan and another pair versus Virginia. He returned one pick for a touchdown in the win against the Cavaliers.
Amerson set the single-season school record for interceptions last week, breaking a mark that had been set just a few years before he was born: Art Rooney held the record with eight in 1937 and again in 1938!
Amerson, who was one of just three true freshmen to start a game for the Pack in 2010, is the baby of the defensive secondary, even though midway through his sophomore campaign he already has 17 starts to his credit. Last season, he didn’t have a pick in 640 snaps played as he was playing at the boundary corner.
Amerson was named ACC Defensive Back of the Week following the Central Michigan and Virginia games.
Amerson has already tied 2010 national leader Jayron Hosley of Virginia Tech as having the most in a single season for an ACC player since 1996, when UNC’s Dre Bly had 11 - the conference record.
GRAHAM GOES FOR RECORD ... AGAIN: Senior T.J. Graham was hoping to break the ACC career record for kickoff return yards last week against North Carolina. He was just 76 yards shy of breaking the league mark heading into the game and was averaging over 90 kickoff return yards per game.
However, Graham only got one shot against the Tar Heels, as they kicked off to start the game and never kicked off again in the shutout Pack victory. Graham returned that first kick 21 yards and now needs 55 to break the ACC mark.
GETTING A RUSH: For the most part in 2011, NC State has shown great improvement rushing the football. In two games, the losses at Cincinnati and Florida State, rushing was atrocious, as the team fell behind early and fought to come back (-26 rushing at Cincy and 36 at FSU). In the other seven games, however, State has averaged 137.6 rushing yards.
The Wolfpack has had four individual 100+ yard performances this season, one by Curtis Underwood and three by James Washington. That marks the first time since 2007 that has occurred and if a State player is to reach the century mark in terms of rushing again this season, it will mark the first time since 2002 that it’s happened five times in a season.
