NC State Wolfpack

Key Losses: WR Darrell Blackman, WR John Dunlap, TE Marcus Stone, OG Kalani Heppe, C Luke Lathan, DE Martrel Brown, DT DeMario Pressley, DE Littleton Wright, LB Ernest Jones, LB James Martin, LB LeRue Rumph, CB Jimmie Sutton, S Miguel Scott, S DaJuan Morgan

Key Returnees: QB Daniel Evans, QB Harrison Beck, RB Andre Brown, RB Jamelle Eugene, RB Toney Baker, TE Anthony Hill, OG Curtis Crouch, OT Julian Williams, DT Alan-Michael Cash, DE Willie Young, CB Jeremy Gray, CB DeAndre Morgan, S J.C. Neal

Tom O'Brien is entering his second year at NC State. He did a very good job in his first year, coming within one game of getting the Wolfpack to a bowl game. He did that despite having quarterbacks that threw the ball to the other team a lot more than they did to their own receivers.

NC State will not benefit from playing in the better of the two ACC divisions this year. The Atlantic Division is a lot deeper than the Coastal. It could potentially send five teams to bowl games. The Wolfpack could be better this year, but it probably won't show up in their overall record.

The Wolfpack have a trio of talented runners. Andre Brown, Toney Baker and Jamelle Eugene can all get it done with the ball in their hands. However, there aren't enough carries to go around for all three of them. As a result, Baker will probably see a lot of time at fullback this season, while Brown and Eugene will split duties at tailback.

Despite having three good runners, yards will probably be hard to come by. NC State has major weaknesses at pretty much every other position on offense. Their quarterbacks aren't good, the offensive line isn't particularly talented, and they lost both of their starting wide receivers from last year's team.

Opposing defenses will key on the running game, and limit the production of these three talented backs. NC State hasn't averaged four yards per carry for the season in 10 years.

At the very least, every team needs a quarterback who can protect the football, even if he does nothing else. NC State doesn't have that luxury. Returning quarterbacks Daniel Evans and Harrison Beck combined to throw 14 touchdowns and 22 interceptions last season.

In their defense, they were playing in a new offense. Still, that doesn't paint a positive picture for the upcoming season. Neither player is a lock to be the starter this year. NC State has younger quarterbacks in the program, such as r-freshman Russell Wilson and true freshman Mike Glennon (Sean's brother).

Evans might be the correct call for the Wolfpack this year. He'll be a senior, and his 12 touchdowns and 13 interceptions last season weren't nearly as hideous as Beck's numbers.

NC State lost some good players from the secondary, but they also return some part-time starters at every position in the defensive backfield. DaJuan Morgan is gone, but safeties Javon Walker and J.C. Neal combined to make 10 starts in 2007. Cornerbacks DeAndre Morgan and Jeremy Gray both started seven games last year.

This secondary won't be dominant, but relative to the other units on this defense, they should be pretty good. Of course, that's not a glowing endorsement of the rest of the Wolfpack defense.

NC State lost all three starters at linebacker after last season. Ernest Jones, James Martin and LeRue Rumph are all gone. Returning weakside linebacker Nate Irving did start four games last year and got a lot of playing time overall. However, the middle and the strongside are very questionable.

Depth is even more questionable for NC State. Two of their top backups at linebacker check in at 200-lbs or less, one of which is a converted safety. On paper, linebacker is easily the weakness of the NC State defense this year.

The other night, I plugged in my tape of the 2002 VT-Pitt game (yeah, I know -- WHY?!?! I have no answer). For some reason, the first hour of that tape is the end of an FSU-Wake Forest game. As I was fast-forwarding through that, something caught my eye: they posted the ACC standings.

I stopped and looked, and noticed something interesting. NC State had lost to Georgia Tech that day, which halted the Wolfpack's 9-0 start to the season.

The Pack lost three in a row, then beat FSU to end the regular season and tromped Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl to end 11-3.

If we as Hokie fans think 2002 was a long time ago, imagine how long ago it must seem to Wolfpack fans. 2002 was Chuck Amato's third season as their head coach, Phillip Rivers was in his prime as a junior, and the sky seemed to be the limit for the Pack. Six years later, they're bottoming out, as Tom O'Brien cleans up the mess left by Chuckie Red Shoes, who was the very embodiment of the Peter Principle in his time at NCSU.

This is probably going to be a tough year for the Pack, which is a shame for the ACC. NC State has some relatively high profile OOC games at South Carolina (August 28th on ESPN) and home against ECU (Sep. 20th) and South Florida (Sep. 27th). I still think Tom O'Brien is the right guy for the job there, but 2008 will most likely be a don't-look-Ethel kind of season.

NC State 2008 Football Schedule
NC State 2008 Roster
NC State 2008 Depth Chart not available