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N.C. State Wins Champs Sports Bowl With Five Takeaways

December 28, 2010   FanHouse Staff   No comments

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On the tail-end of the first possession of the second quarter, North Carolina State coach Tom O’Brien called a fake field goal. It was botched. Two possessions later, West Virginia scored a touchdown on a 32-yard pass from Geno Smith to Stedman Bailey.

And those were nearly the only two things that went right for the No. 22 Mountaineers, as N.C. State cruised to a 23-7 victory in the Champs Sports Bowl Tuesday evening.

Sure, West Virginia (9-4) hung with the Wolfpack in total yards and first downs, but also turned the ball over a whopping five times compared to zero by N.C. State. In what was expected to be a defensive battle, the turnovers were obviously a significant part of the difference. The team that took care of the football won going away.

Russell Wilson led N.C. State (9-4) on offense. The junior quarterback threw for 276 yards and two touchdowns. Jarvis Williams caught six passes for 77 yards and one of those scores.

Another star for the winning team was kicker Josh Czajkowski. He connected on three field goals, each at least 38 yards.

 

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West Virginia vs. North Carolina State: Champs Sports Bowl

December 28, 2010   FanHouse Staff   No comments

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Russell WilsonThe West Virginia Mountaineers (9-3) will square off against the North Carolina State Wolfpack (8-4) in the 2010 Champs Sports Bowl Tuesday night in Orlando, Fla. at 6:30 p.m. ET. The game will air on ESPN.

West Virginia tied for first place in the Big East but lost out on a BCS bowl due to a head-to-head loss to co-champion Connecticut. The Huskies will take on Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

The Mountaineers haven’t lost since that Oct. 29th disappointment against UConn, taking their final four games and looking like a totally different team. Three of the four were blowout wins, including a most impressive throttling of Pittsburgh on the road.

West Virginia does it with defense, ranking second in the FBS by allowing just 12.8 points per game. The Mountaineers also rank second in rushing defense, third in total defense and third in sacks — led by the pass-rushing duo of Bruce Irvin and Julian Miller.

Something’s going to have to give, because N.C. State averages 32.6 points per game and is led by stud quarterback Russell Wilson. He threw for 3,288 yards and 26 touchdowns this season, while also running for 394 yards and nine touchdowns.

Wilson led the Wolfpack to their best season since 2002 — a team that featured NFL star Philip Rivers at quarterback — and first winning season since 2005.

Offensively, West Virginia is led by quarterback Geno Smith (2,567 yards, 23 touchdowns, six interceptions), running back Noel Devine (886 yards, six touchdowns) and wide receiver Tavon Austin (53 catches, 757 yards, eight touchdowns).

The N.C. State defense is led by senior linebacker Nate Irving, a first-team All-ACC selection.

 

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Torrey Smith Explodes for 14 Receptions as Maryland Upsets N.C. State

November 27, 2010   Patrick Stevens   No comments

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Torrey SmithCOLLEGE PARK, Md. — N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien, in his inimitable calm manner, held his hands inches apart Saturday night just after a crushing, marathon-length 38-31 loss to Maryland.

The Wolfpack dropped passes. They committed turnovers. They dropped passes. They were scorched by Maryland’s pitch-and-catch duo of Danny O’Brien and Torrey Smith. They dropped even more passes.

And yet the chance to escape Byrd Stadium with an Atlantic Division title slipped away only in the final minute when Maryland narrowly made a first down and spoiled N.C. State’s conference title hopes.

“We’re so close. I remember coach (George) Welsh said if you’re that close, you might as well be that close,” Tom O’Brien said as he spread his arms out and invoked the name of his old boss at Navy and Virginia. “It doesn’t matter. We have to make up a lot of ground, which we’re going to do here.”

As O’Brien spoke, the disembodied voice of Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen echoed throughout the stadium as he fulfilled his postgame radio obligations. Moments later, he would describe the window one of quarterback Danny O’Brien’s touchdown passes needed to travel through to be caught rather than intercepted.

Friedgen nearly cupped his hands together, spread out far enough to hold a football. Yep, that close.

 

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Maryland Beats N.C. State, Ruins Wolfpack’s ACC Championship Dreams

November 27, 2010   FanHouse Staff   No comments

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Maryland over N.C. StateCOLLEGE PARK, Md. — N.C. State needed just a victory to wrap up its first Atlantic Division title.

Torrey Smith, Danny O’Brien and Maryland had dramatically different ideas.

Smith caught a school-record four touchdown passes — all from O’Brien — as the Terrapins shredded the Wolfpack 38-31 on Saturday at Byrd Stadium.

Smith finished with 14 catches for 224 yards, both career-bests, while O’Brien completed 33 of 47 passes for 417 yards and four scores for the Terps (8-4, 5-3 ACC). Maryland quadrupled its win total from a season ago.

The loss dashed any chance N.C. State (8-4, 5-3) had of reaching next week’s ACC title game. Instead of a rematch with Virginia Tech, the Wolfpack will head home while Florida State (9-3, 6-2) faces the Hokies in Charlotte, N.C., next weekend.

They’ll think about the opportunities lost — between turnovers, dropped passes and other foibles — well beyond the end of this year.

 

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N.C. State Seniors Own UNC

November 20, 2010   Viv Bernstein   No comments

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Owen Spencer pounded his chest and pointed to the red-clad North Carolina State fans who had traveled the short trip down I-40 to see the Wolfpack play hated North Carolina on the Tar Heels’ hallowed turf.

It was a small but boisterous gathering in the corners of the stands amid the quiet, powder-blue masses filing out of Kenan Stadium in disappointment. Once again.

For the fourth year in a row, ownership of this rivalry belongs unequivocally to N.C. State.

“We can honestly say: This senior class, we never lost to Carolina,” Spencer said with more than a hint of satisfaction on his face after the Wolfpack’s stunning 29-25 comeback victory in the 100th game in the history of the rivalry.

More importantly for the immediate future, N.C. State also stayed in the hunt for the Atlantic Division title and a berth in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game Dec. 4 in Charlotte. If the Wolfpack wins at Maryland on Saturday in the regular season finale, N.C. State will clinch the division and that spot in the title game.

And a victory there would put N.C. State in the BCS Orange Bowl.

It’s an almost unimaginable turnabout for a program that hadn’t produced a winning season since 2005 or an eight-victory campaign since 2003. But with Saturday’s win, N.C. State is now 8-3 (5-2).

 

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N.C. State Comes From Behind to Beat North Carolina

November 20, 2010   FanHouse Staff   No comments

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – In a season that started with North Carolina hailed as the next great team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, few would have figured rival North Carolina State would emerge instead as a potential Bowl Championship Series contender.

The Wolfpack also ended any doubt about which team stands atop the Triangle, rallying for a 29-25 victory over North Carolina at Kenan Stadium on Saturday and holding on despite a late touchdown by North Carolina. It was N.C. State’s fourth consecutive victory over the Tar Heels (6-5, 3-4), a team sullied by investigations into academic misconduct and agent gifts and weakened by numerous player dismissals in a season that devolved from the start.

Few predicted glory for the Wolfpack going into the year. But if North Carolina State (8-3, 5-2) wins at Maryland next Saturday, the Wolfpack will clinch the Atlantic Division and reach the ACC Championship Game for the first time.

N.C. State pulled it off with an unlikely 105-second stretch late in the third period and early fourth when it turned a 19-10 deficit into a 24-19 lead.

The Tar Heels had used a pair of third-quarter field goals to turn a 13-10 halftime lead into that 19-0 advantage. But Wolfpack quarterback Russell Wilson threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Owen Spencer to close it to 19-17 with 52 seconds left in the third quarter.

 

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Clemson Wins Wild One Over N.C. State

November 06, 2010   FanHouse Staff   No comments

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Earlier this week, offensive coordinator Billy Napier said Clemson had to win games with defense and conservative offense.

Saturday, that’s exactly what happened. The Tigers erased a 10-point second-half hole with standout defense and opportunistic offense, and held on for a stirring 14-13 win over No. 24 N.C. State at Memorial Stadium.

Clemson improved to 5-4, 3-3 in ACC play; State fell to 6-3, 3-2.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Clemson flipped field position on the Wolfpack, taking possession at the State 39. Kyle Parker converted on third and six from the 35 with a seven-yard flip to Brandon Ford, and a 13-yard slant to Marquan Jones put the ball at the State 15.

Two plays later, Jamie Harper crashed over from four yards out with the winning touchdown.

N.C. State had the ball twice in the final five minutes, but couldn’t move against Clemson’s tough defense. It’s the Tigers’ seventh straight win over the Wolfpack.

N.C. State held a 7-0 halftime lead following an extremely sloppy 30 minutes of football from both sides.

 

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ACC Report: Virginia Tech Hot, Faces Big Annual Test

November 04, 2010   Jim Henry   No comments

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BLACKSBURG, Va. – The demise of Virginia Tech has been greatly exaggerated.

After dropping their first two games of the season to Boise State and James Madison, the Hokies have reeled off six consecutive wins and lead the ACC’s Coastal Division. The last time Virginia Tech won six straight was in 2006 to end the regular season.

When the 22nd-ranked Hokies (6-2 overall, 4-0 ACC) and Georgia Tech (5-3, 3-2) meet here Thursday night, history says plenty is on the line. History doesn’t fib. Just ask Yellow Jackets coach Paul Johnson.

“I think this has been a big game because the last few years, the winner of this game has won the division, at least since I have been here,” said Johnson, Tech’s coach since 2008.

It has been longer than that, Paul.

In each of the five meetings between the two Techs since the league split into two divisions, the winner has represented the Coastal Division in the ACC Championship Game.

 

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North Carolina State Upsets Florida State, Alters Path to ACC Championship

October 28, 2010   Jim Henry   No comments

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Florida State’s mission Thursday night was to figure out how to handle success.

The Seminoles entered raucous Carter-Finley Stadium off to their best start in the Atlantic Coast Conference since 2003, when Bobby Bowden was a spring chicken and on the sidelines. The Seminoles also were positioned nicely in the race to the ACC championship game, an event that many believed FSU would make routine after it dominated the league in the 1990s, but at which it last appeared five years ago.

Of course, nothing has been routine — or very good, as some might argue — in the ACC this season. However, the nationally televised game between No. 16 FSU and North Carolina State proved the beleaguered league can still, at least, be thoroughly entertaining. And, yes, the Seminoles certainly appeared comfortable, composed and poised in the spotlight’s glare — right until the very moment they blinked with 49 seconds remaining in the game.

 

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ACC Report: Florida State’s Christian Ponder Is on the Mend

October 21, 2010   Patrick Stevens   No comments

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Florida State can take a significant step next Thursday toward its first ACC Atlantic Division title since 2005 when it visits N.C. State.

A healthy Christian Ponder would make that goal substantially more attainable.

Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher said his quarterback’s injured right elbow is doing better and that Ponder should be ready when Florida State (6-1, 4-0 ACC) begins its game-week preparation this weekend.

“Got a lot of the swelling out … ,” Fisher said on Wednesday’s ACC teleconference. “I was very encouraged yesterday. We practice Saturday. We expect him to be back practicing.”

Ponder was hyped as a possible Heisman Trophy candidate, but he isn’t enjoying the greatest statistical season as a senior. He is fourth in the ACC in pass efficiency, and has 12 touchdowns against seven interceptions.

He had a particularly rough day at Boston College on Saturday, throwing three interceptions. And while Fisher said the injury “bothered him a little,” there were other factors contributing to Ponder’s sluggish performance as well.

 

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