North Carolina State University Athletics
Everette Sands Diary: Week 2 and Responding Against South Alabama
9/16/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 16, 2011
Although we were still feeling the disappointment from the result last week, it was important for us to sit back and ask, did we play our best game? I won’t take anything away from Wake Forest, because they’re a good team, but we needed to figure out what we could have done better.
There’s an old saying that it’s never as bad as it seems, and never as good as it seems. Maybe if we had made two or three more plays, we could have been in a better position to win the game. If we had gone ahead and stuck the ball in the end zone early, our unit could have run the ball more consistently. But, the way it happened, we were behind early and had to start throwing. On the plus side, facing that deficit allowed Mike Glennon to start to shine a little bit, which was an encouraging sign for the future.
The most positive we can do, now, is to reflect on how we prepared and if we gave our best effort. Luckily, our players have done that and understand the importance of responding against South Alabama. I think we’ve had our best week of practice thus far. We came out Tuesday very lively and it carried through the whole week.
As far as my unit is concerned, If the opportunity arises this week, I’d like to get Anthony Creecy in to see him in action against an opponent rather than our defense in practice. South Alabama’s a fast team with a lot of speed off of the edge, so this week’s game will present a good challenge for our guys. The offensive coordinator and wide receiver coach at South Alabama are both good friends of mine from my time at Ohio, so the game will also mean something to me on a personal level, competing against those guys.
The biggest thing that the coaching staff will be looking for this week is whether we can continue to get better, especially on smaller details and assignments. Pass protection will be important, because we had some mental breaks in that last week. We need to find out if we can get our guys to be a little more physical in protecting the quarterback.
On the home front, my family’s adjusting and really enjoying Raleigh. My son’s playing Pop Warner football, and his team improved to 2-0 last weekend. They won big last week, but I keep telling him that they have to keep it going, because it’s only game two. While he’s having fun doing that, my daughter’s cheerleading for the same team. They play on Saturdays, so I don’t get to see many of the games, but I love getting to hear about it.
