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NC State WolfPack Hunts Down Red Raiders, 49-21

Raleigh, NC – Last season, NC State triumphed past Texas Tech 51-48 in a wild overtime shoot-out in Lubbock, TX.  On Saturday, the Pack (2-2) continued where they left off last year to score 49 more points over the Red Raiders in Raleigh despite 586 passing yards by slinging Tech QB B.J Symons, who flung the ball 63 times.  The WolfPack throttled its Big 12 foe with a balanced offense, a flexible defense and aggressive special teams play.  CollegeFootballFan.com watched Texas Tech (2-1) become our 84^th team toward The Goal at rockin’ Finley-Carter Stadium, and enjoyed the great hospitality of several die-hard NC State fans at the game and at their tailgate party.

    NC State’s special teams took advantage of a muffed punt by Texas Tech to set up at their own 45 to set up their first score. RB T.A. McLendon ran for three yards on fourth and one to keep the drive alive at the Tech 43 and finished the drive with another three yards to put State’s first TD on the board and go up, 7-0.  State’s bend-but-don’t break defense drew Red Raider blood next as CB Greg Golden picked off a Symons’ pass and sprinted seventy-one yards to push State’s point total to 14.  Tech drove from its own 20 to the Pack 22 on the ensuing series, where the home team halted a Raider attempt for a first down on fourth and ten! 

     After a short State series to begin Q2, Tech successfully moved the ball once again from its own seven all the way to NC State’s 11-yard line.  Once again, they came up empty as a running attempt on a fake 24-yard FG was thwarted by the quick, swarming defense.  The Pack’s next punt placed the Raiders at their own twelve, and this time the Pack “D” held the yard-churning offense to three plays and a punt.  State’s punt block team took over from here though as CFF.com’s vantage point 11 rows up from the 20- yard line allowed us to watch a Red/White swarm overpower the Tech punter. 6’5” LB Manny Lawson knocked the ball toward the end zone and WR Richard Washington recovered it there for the special team’s score.  Despite the yardage racked up thus far by Tech, State dominated on the scoreboard, 21-0.  Tech motored from its 20 to the NC State 20 again on its next series, but again came up with no points to close the widening gap.  The Pack took over on downs and moved to the Raider 12 where PK Adam Kiker missed a 33-yard FG attempt with: 29 remaining in the half.  The high-powered but scoreless Red Raider offense managed to move from its own 20 to State’s 8-yard line within 25 seconds.  However, a 25-yard FG by PK Keith Toogood was “Nogood”, and the Tech opportunity to build momentum went for naught as the half time ended, 21-0.  WolfPack FANS Bill and Katyna Esoda (NC State alum) along with friends Becky and Patty (NC Staters) and Rick (East Carolina) beat the stadium crowd out before halftime to take a short walk back to the tailgate area to serve up lunch to members of the hungry NC State swimming team.  CFF stood in long lines on the way out of the seating area and in the men’s room during the half to make more room for beer after the game on this hot, sun-drenched Saturday.   At least we got some shade!

     RB T.A. McClendon (115 yards on 10 carries) rambled for 67 yards on one play in the first series of the third quarter to put the ball at the Tech one.  Reports after the game said he slowed down because of a hamstring pull.  Only a sophomore, and prone to injuries, we’ll be interested to see how the pros will perceive this talented RB on his future draft date. RB Josh Brown went in on the next play to put a nail in the Raider coffin to go ahead, 28-0.  One of Tech’s patented long drives finally paid off as the next 80-yard drive ended in a 3-yard TD run by RB Johnnie Mack.  Though down 28-7, there was still a feeling that with a few breaks, TTU could get right back in this game with its high-powered offense.  It came back to tie from a similar margin in last season’s game.  Bang!  NC State fumbled the ball away on the kick-off return.  Though the fumble was a questionable call possibly caused by the ground, Tech seemed poised to click at the Pack 22.  What’s 22 yards to a team that averages about 60 each time it gets the ball?  A heavy rush by State pushed Tech back into a fourth and twelve situation.  Symons set up in the pocket, broke loose, rushed up field, passed the first down marker, and fumbled!  A block in the back after the recovery gave State the ball at its own six.  This seemed to be the final nail necessary to seal the Raiders coffin, but the Pack had a few more.  NC State finally performed its own version of the long TD drive.  A 37-yard pass to WR Jerricho Cotchery and pass interference in the end zone were key plays before Josh Brown scored his second TD from two yards away.  The Pack was in control of this one, 35-7, with 3:13 left in the third period.

     Into Q4, Tech responded with its second 80-yard TD drive culminating in a 37-yard TD pass from Symons to a wide-open RB Johnnie Mack out of the backfield.  Note that all the Tech drives started from the 20 due to the effective kicking of Frosh PK John Deraney, who put all six of his kick-offs deep or through the Tech end zone.  The Red Raiders netted no returns for zero yards on the day.  Deraney doesn’t handle the other kicking chores yet, but will most likely have a long and interesting future with the Pack.  The teams traded possessions before NC State put together another long drive of 84 yards with WR Richard Washington scoring his second TD of the day on a 25-yard screen pass from Rivers who was 18 of 22 with 257 yards on the day.  RB Cotra Jackson would score again later for the WolfPack on a 24-yard run to extend the lead 49-14 before Tech WR Cody Fuller finalized the score at 49-21 with a 50-yard TD reception from Symons.  Even after that, Tech continued to pad the stats with its first team offense and use the clock against second and third team defenders to make the score see somewhat respectable when over all, it was an old-fashioned ass-whipping, with some miscalculated coaching decisions by Tech’s Mike Leach deferring some easy first-half FGs to get points on the board and momentum on his side.  Next week, his team visits Mississippi with QB Eli Manning for their last non-conference game before Big Twelve play.  State hosts intrastate nemesis, North Carolina (0-3), in a game all the Pack fans look forward to.  CFF.com plans to see UNC later this season when they host the Arizona State Sun Devils.  The Texas Tech victory, after the overtime loss to Ohio State and the upset at the hands of Wake Forest, should be a springboard for a good ACC start for State before leading up to its final two conference games of the year with Florida State and Maryland.

Extra Points:  Besides CFF’s game day hosts, Bill and Katyna, I’d also like to thank Joe Massimilla (Penn State) for having me over to stay at his place in Raleigh this weekend.  Like many CFF fans, Joe puts time in with his kids’ sports activities over the weekends (baseball for Sam, soccer for Tom).  He’d have been with us if he didn’t have more important matters, but I hope CFF provides some fun reading when it’s hard to keep up with the game action on Saturdays.

  Carter-Finley Stadium is a great venue for college football.  Outsiders perceive all the ACC electricity is pent up for the basketball season in this part of the country, but to the contrary there’s enough to go around here for football as well!  Despite its capacity at half the size of many major stadiums, the crowd here at Carter-Finley exudes a lot of energy and enthusiasm on game day.  CFF really enjoys the atmosphere there!  We hope to go to some other games there in the future.

Major renovations and expansion have taken place at the stadium since our last visit versus Syracuse in 1998.   The open end was closed with new seating to form a bowl.  The Wendell M. Hempton Football Center was added over it where the NC State team gathers and trains, and the non-stop band and dance team perform now at the opposite end in front of the A.E. Finley Field House.  The enclosure makes the environment see even more raucous than the last time we were there and that was at a pretty energetic Thursday night game.

 The stadium turf looked like one of the best natural surfaces we’ve seen a game played on.  The school also knows that it has to take care of it fans here on a hot day with a noon time start.  At the start of the game, each seat was provided with a red “Howl Towel” and cardboard fan on a stick with two Coke discount coupons.  As hot as it was, Katyna says that the opener on August 30 was even worse.  We wonder why the opener against Western Carolina wasn’t a night game?  Tech was the Homecoming victim, so other activities were probably planned around that noon time start.

Carter-Finley has a vocal tradition where the P.A. announcer prompts the crowd by yelling, "Good enough for another WOLFPACK" - and the crowd responds, "-FIRST DOWN!" Once they got out of sync though when he started the call, and a small part of the crowd responded accordingly but despondently only to be followed by the P.A. announcement, "Third and one." He got a little ahead of the referees mark on that one!

 QB Phil Rivers of State came into this game as 1A’s passing yardage leader, and Tech’s Symons came in as the nation’s Total Offense leader.  The live up to their reps this day with 257 and 618 yards respectively.

 They love Head Coach Chuck Amato, former Pack wrestler and football player, in Raleigh, and like Paterno at Penn State, he uses his influence in the school’s non-football matters.  The recycling drive is called “Chuck-It”.  He does ads for the campaign on the stadium’s big screen.  We found first-hand they’re pretty serious about it , too.  Not only did they have a forty-cubic yard recycling container in our tailgate lot, but there was an attendant close by with his “Chuck-It” shirt on monitoring bottle and can disposal activities.  We cheered the new container drop-off after the game while tailgating.

 For the second week in a row, CFF saw the home band get a warning from the referees for playing music during a play.  Unlike Lehigh’s band, which replaced playing with loud singing, the WolfPack band played louder between plays. We’re waiting for ,“Musicians, that’ll be 15 yards for taunting the refs!”

For only the third time in all the years we can remember, a fan was ejected from the stands at a college football game.  We’ve seen it many more times at the fewer pro games we’ve attended (go to one NY Jets home game!).  This was the first “fight”though witnessed in the stands (we've seen them in the parking lots), and it was among fans right behind the NC State bench.  Even the team turned to watch. CFF didn’t see the original altercation, but three guys held down one big guy until security came.  The guy was wearing Carolina red among the other home fans in prime seats.  It couldn’t have been anything to do with the score since Carolina was way ahead at the time.  It must have been the heat mixed with a little too much bourbon!  Maybe the guy was getting ready for hockey season soon to start at the nearby RBC where the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes play.

Tech as a 6’5” LB named John Saldi.  We wonder if he’s the son of former Dallas Cowboy Jay Saldi?

 QB Philip Rivers became the 22^nd QB in NCAA history to reach 10,000 yards with his effort the previous week against Ohio State.  The list in the WolfPack Preview indicates CFF has seen seven others as well to this point:  Chris Redman of Louisville, Heisman winner Carson Palmer of USC (who stunk when we saw him his sophomore year), Alex Van Pelt of Pitt (not impressed), Drew Brees of Purdue (impressed), Danny Wuerffel ( read: Steve Spurrier’s system), Chad Pennington (with a lot of help from Randy Moss whom we saw him connect with versus Army), and the all-time leader, Ty Detmer of BYU, with 15,031 yards.  Rivers is somewhat unorthodox in his throwing motion though not in the same vein as Florida’s Wuerffel.  Joe Massimilla describes him as Bernie Kosar.  We shall see!

Our Tailgate hosts helped maintain a CFF tradition as we hung around to drink, talk and listen to music until were among the last few remaining.  Bill and Katyna started a tradition where guests sign the underside of their canvas canopy.  It’s now signed “Collegefootballfan.com: Texas Tech #84, but NC State rocks!”