Football
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
- Photo by Al Drago
- NC State quarterback Mike Glennon hugs Earl Wolff afer defeating Louisville.
BANK OF AMERICA STADIUM/CHARLOTTE N.C. State looks to put some icing on the proverbial cake tonight.
The Wolfpack (7-5), which won three of four games in spectacular fashion in November to become bowl-eligible under pressure, will take on Big East co-champion Louisville (7-5) in front of a big partisan crowd in the Belk Bowl.
Both teams come in hot, as Louisville has won five of its last six.
It’s the second time State has appeared in a bowl game in Charlotte, as the Wolfpack blanked South Florida 14-0 in the then-Meineke Car Care Bowl in 2005.
State coach Tom O’Brien is 7-2 all-time in bowl games — 1-1 with the Wolfpack — and the Wolfpack is 13-11-1 in all-time bowl action.
State gets it done, holding on for a 31-24 win before 58,427.
Monday, December 26, 2011
The last football game in North Carolina in 2011 will be played Tuesday night, and N.C. State will be looking to put an exclamation point at the end of a solid second half.
- Photo courtesy NCSU athletics
- State cornerback David Amerson
ESPN will show it live at 8 p.m., and it will be the only football on TV at the time.
“At a point in the season — us after five games (2-3) and them after six (2-4) — nobody would have expected the two of us would be here,” Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien said. “It’s probably going to be one of those games that will go down to the last play, and the bowl people will love it.”
It’s supposed to be a close one, as the Wolfpack will be a 1 ½-point favorite in front of a partisan crowd that will probably top 60,000.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
- Photo by Al Drago
- N.C. State quarterback Mike Glennon was 36 for 55 in passing and threw for five touchdowns.
CARTER-FINLEY STADIUM/RALEIGH N.C. State comes into its final game of the regular season with a pretty clear mission.
Win.
That’s what State will have to do today against recent nemesis Maryland, who kept the Wolfpack out of the ACC title game with a comeback victory in College Park last year and dumped a losing season on State in 2007, Tom O’Brien’s first-year as head coach.
State can’t have a losing season, but because of a weak schedule needs a victory to qualify for a bowl. The 6-5 Wolfpack beat two teams that count as FCS opponents — obviously Liberty, but also a South Alabama team that will be a full FBS member next season after its transition is over — and needs to get a seventh win to go to a bowl game.
All it has to do is beat the worst team in the ACC, a 2-9 Maryland club that has lost seven straight games and the last six of those by at least 11 points.
It turns out to be yet another Carter-Finley November 2011 Classic, as the Wolfpack comes from a ridiculous 41-14 deficit to score the game’s final 42 points and win 56-41.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Saturday is last-chance day for everyone in Triangle ACC football
- FIle photo by Al Drago
- N.C. State Coach Tom O'Brien prepares to lead his team onto the field in a game earlier this season.
Saturday will be the final day of college football’s regular season in the Triangle, and there are still a couple of major questions to be answered.
Can N.C. State win one more home game in which it’s favored and earn itself a bowl bid?
Is it Everett Withers’ last home game as head coach at UNC, and can he go out a winner — or will Duke finally get a chance to paint the Victory Bell for the first time since 2003?
The answers will start coming at 12:30, when State (6-5, 3-4 ACC) puts its entire season on the line against struggling Maryland (2-9, 1-6) at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Since the Wolfpack played two teams that count as Division I-FCS opponents — South Alabama will count as an FBS member next season — it needs to win seven to qualify for a bowl game. (They’re hoping but not talking about the Belk Bowl in Charlotte on Dec. 27.) That would also lock up a second straight winning season for State for the first time since 2002-03.
UNC (6-5, 2-5) will host Duke (3-8, 1-6) at 3:30 at Kenan Stadium, and since the Tar Heels played just one FCS team they’re all bowl-ready. But they’d love to protect that bell, either helping interim coach Withers get the full-time position or at least helping send him out on a good note.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
CARTER-FINLEY STADIUM/RALEIGH N.C. State has three major motivations as the Wolfpack hosts No. 7 Clemson on one of those beautiful fall days for football.
1. It’s homecoming.
2. It’s the annual “Textile Bowl,” and
3. If State doesn’t win today, this will be its only bowl game this season.
- Photo courtesy NCSU athletics
- State LB Terrell Manning
Should State pull off the big upset and then win one more, the guess here is a trip to the Belk Bowl in Charlotte on Dec. 27.
But first things first.
And what happens is one of the biggest shockers in college football this season, not that the Wolfpack just wins but that the 37-13 contest is an utter annihilation.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Wolfpack faces do-or-die game, Duke looks for an upset
Following UNC’s near upset in the 24-21 loss at No. 9 Virginia Tech Thursday night, the Triangle’s other two ACC teams will also be underdogs when they hit the field Saturday.
- Photo courtesy NCSU athletics
- State coach Tom O'Brien
Before that one kicks off, Duke (3-7, 1-5 ACC) will look to get some momentum for its season finale against the Tar Heels when it hosts Georgia Tech (7-3, 4-3) at 12:30 at Wallace Wade Stadium.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
UNC will be going to a bowl game this season, something that’s assured since the Tar Heels have a 6-4 record (2-4 ACC).
- Photo courtesy UNC athletics
- UNC coach Everett Withers
The Tar Heels will be at Lane Stadium to take on No. 9 Virginia Tech (9-1, 5-1), which is looking to take a big step toward a Coastal Division title.
The Hokies, 10 1/2-point favorites, lead the series 17-10-6. Tech won 26-10 last season in Chapel Hill, but the Tar Heels won 20-17 in Blacksburg on a Thursday night in 2009.
Friday, November 11, 2011
N.C. State seems to have the ship righted again after the Wolfpack’s big win over UNC last weekend, while Duke has no margin of error left if the Blue Devils are to earn their first bowl bid since 1994.
And then at 3 p.m. Duke (3-6, 1-4) will be at Virginia (6-3, 3-2), with the Blue Devils needing their fourth straight win in the series to keep those bowl hopes alive.
State walloped BC 44-17 last season in Raleigh, and needs only to beat two opponents with current combined records of 4-14 (current 2-7 Maryland visits Carter-Finley on Nov. 28) to qualify for a bowl.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
State's stifling defense extends streak over UNC to five
CARTER-FINLEY STADIUM/RALEIGH It’s the annual biggest football game in the Triangle, and both teams come in after a nasty war of words.
- Photo courtesy NCSU athletics
- State LB Terrell Manning
State coach Tom O’Brien responded with a soliloquy about all the Tar Heels’ recent troubles with the NCAA and how they have cheated on academic assignments and paid players and so Withers had no room to talk.
As if they didn’t all dislike each other enough anyway.
And so on a cold and windy but sunny day, they assemble in front of a jam-packed house of Wolfpack partisans for another edition of the series UNC leads 63-31-6.
The Wolfpack gets revenge for all the talk, winning its fifth straight in the series by a 13-0 count. It is the largest margin in a Wolfpack shutout win in series history, and the first State shutout of the Tar Heels since 1960.
Friday, November 4, 2011
It’s the annual weekend of the biggest football game in the Triangle, as UNC (6-3, 2-3 ACC) visits N.C. State (4-4, 1-3) at Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday at 12:30.
- File photo by Al Drago
- N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien in a recent game against Central Michigan.
The contest will be the 101st in the history of the series, with the Tar Heels holding a 63-31-6 advantage. But State has won four straight, and looks to equal its record streak in the series of five straight under Dick Sheridan from 1988-92.
UNC, which has already earned a bowl bid while State needs to get three wins to assure one, is a 3½-point favorite.
Also Saturday, Duke (3-5, 1-3) will be at Miami (4-4, 2-3) for a 3 p.m. contest in which the Hurricanes will be 15½-point favorites.
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