Notes From The Margin – Papajohns.com Bowl Edition
December 29th, 2008 by Jason Roberts
This Monday’s matchup between the North Carolina State Wolfpack and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at the Papajohns.com Bowl features two teams that halfway through the 2008 season looked to have absolutely no shot at making a post-season appearance. With the Wolfpack standing 2-6 and Rutgers 1-5 heading into the month of November, grit, tenacity, and determination combined themselves into a four- and six-game winning streak for each team, respectively, and final records of 6-6 for N.C. State and 7-5 for the Scarlet Knights by the end of the regular season. For the Wolfpack, there team is a mix of youthful athleticism and veteran experience; truly a team on the rise on the ACC, the potential for this squad is exemplified by the outstanding play of freshman quarterback Russell Wilson (1769 yards passing, 16 touchdowns, one interception; 342 yards rushing and four additional scores) and a handful of raw talent in sophomores Owen Spencer and Jarvis Williams. On the opposite side of the ball, Rutgers hosts a number of seasoned playmakers, and is particularaly strong on offense where it is headed up by senior quarterback Mike Teel (3099 yards passing, 23 touchdowns, 12 interceptions) and junior wide receiver Kenny Britt (1252 yards and six touchdowns). Both teams at points this year surprised in their ability to move the ball (N.C. State’s Wilson was solid through the air and on the ground against Miami, while Rutgers’ Teel put up a record 447 yards and seven touchdowns versus Louisville) and take down quality opponents (the Wolfpack beat in-state rival North Carolina and the aforementioned Hurricanes, while Rutgers soundly beat Pittsburgh and USF), so though this game is being played early Monday afternoon, it should be an exciting showdown between two programs looking to put an exclamation point on an impressive concluding run to the 2008 season.
Seeking to identify potential difference makers in this game, NFTM scours the Birmingham area in order to bring you answers to the following questions: Does freshman quarterback for the North Carolina State Wolfpack, Russell Wilson, really provide head coach Tom O’Brien with good dreams at night? Which Wolfpack tight end could go big time against the Scarlet Knights defensive secondary? Who will be back in Raleigh next year to make a probable run at the ACC crown? Why is Birmingham so attractive to Rutgers’ Mike Teel? What did Tiquan Underwood do to get over an early-season case of the “dropsies”? And what role will hang time have in the Rutgers’ special team game Monday?
Wilson – A College Football Coach’s Dream
The News-Record of Greensboro, North Carolina asked quarterback for N.C. State, Russell Wilson, if he was happier being named as an all-ACC first-team quarterback or the ACC Rookie of the Year. His answer? “Neither, really. Just getting to a bowl game is the most satisfying part.” John Delong of the Record responds, “Is this guy a coach’s dream, or what?” A dream, indeed. A redshirt freshman from Richmond, Virginia, Wilson is described in the article as “smart, humble, selfless and inspirational,” and “more excited about playing Rutgers in the Papajohns.com Bowl . . . than he is about collecting individual honors.” That kind of attitude doesn’t surprise coaches or teammates and goes a long way in describing how a 6-6 Wolfpack team somehow coerced its way into a post-season bowl appearance. “He has grown so much as a player and a person,” comments wide receiver Owen Spencer. “We love him so much on the team. He is becoming more vocal than some of the seniors and captains on this team. He has done a great job of leading us.” Head coach Tom O’Brien concurs, telling Delong, “I think that’s part of his makeup. He came here with those traits. Obviously, some of the trials and tribulations we went through this year helped bring them out and made them a little more pronounced, but those are certainly things he brought with him to campus.” That such is the case was made clear in the four-consecutive wins N.C. State garnered in order to become bowl eligible; in those contests, Wilson completed 60.1 percent of his passes, threw for 869 yards and eight touchdowns and added 203 rushing yards and another two scores – all while leading N.C. State to an average of 30.1 points a game. Yet, don’t overlook his streak of 226 passes without an interception, either. It’s the nation’s longest active streak and speaks volume about the freshman’s decision-making and accuracy throwing the ball. So, yes, Wilson does seem the dream quarterback that every college coach wishes he could recruit; O’Brien sums it up best in saying that his passer has “something everybody looks for in a quarterback,” but that the Wolfpack themselves are lucky enough to claim for their own.
N.C. State’s tight end Bryan is “in the right spot at the right time” . . .
The Gaston Gazette quotes N.C. State tight end George Bryan as stating he happened “to be in the right spot at the right time” this season, taking as a redshirt freshman a much more expanded role than expected after senior starter Anthony Hill was forced to miss a significant part of the season with a chest injury. Starting in five games, Bryan accumulated 18 receptions for 201 yards this year and finished their regular schedule tied for first place in terms of receiving touchdowns with four. “Look at the plays George Bryan made down the stretch,” head coach Tom O’Brien tells the Gazette; he “got to play a little bit before his time,” he adds, but still had a major affect on the success of the Wolfpack’s offense, including a team-high 58 yards produced in N.C. State’s upset of East Carolina in mid-September. “Every catch is important to me,” Bryan says of his approach to taking the field. “Every pass that is thrown to me is the most important to me because that’s the next ball and I want to catch it.”
Coming out of nowhere to be an important part of the defense . . .
The Fay Observer covers the story of North Carolina State’s Nate Irving, a sophomore linebacker who this year finished third in team tackles (77), second in tackles for loss (9), and first in interceptions with four. Described as “nothing exceptional “ by head coach of the Wolfpack, Tom O’Brien, coming out of his first spring and fall camp in 2007, Irving, states cornerback Jeremy Gray, “really came out of nowhere to become an important part of our defense.” The native of Wallace, North Carolina was after all part of a defensive shakeup which O’Brien instituted halfway through the season last year, starting four of the last five contests the Wolfpack played and establishing himself as “a pivotal player” heading into 2008. Gray comments on Irving’s role at the end of 2007, “He started doing pretty good toward the end of last season. I mean, he was making tackles, but we didn’t know he was going to turn into the player he’s been this year.” Irving says that he drew on lessons taught to him playing for the winningest high school coach in the state, Jack Holley, when it came to proving himself out on the playing field at in the second-half of last season. “I’m so grateful I met him. Coach Holley did a good job keeping me level headed, helping me out with the schoolwork and the football part, and with helping me out being a person.” Apparently the lessons taught to him by Holley stuck; notes O’Brien, since getting the opportunity to start as a redshirt freshman, Irving has “had the same influence on our defense that Russell Wilson has had on our offense. When he’s been in there, he’s made big plays and been a great leader for us.” That being the case, don’t expect the sophomore to be anything less than a prominent part of Monday’s Papajohns.com Bowl, and given that he is academically a junior, possibly also a name to remember heading into the 2009 NFL Draft in April.
Speaking of the 2009 NFL Draft . . .
The Fay Observer also points out to readers this week that North Carolina State’s Willie Young and running back Jamelle Eugene have both informed the Wolfpack coaching staff that they are submitting their names to the NFL Draft Advisory board in order to identify where they might go in this upcoming April’s draft proceedings.
A heavy burden for Hill . . .
Luke DeCock of The News & Observer writes this week that the oft-injured senior tight end for the North Carolina State Wolfpack, Anthony Hill, will look to close out his college career with an impressive performance Monday in a matchup with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at the Papajohns.com Bowl. And perhaps there is no player for N.C. State more deserving of a good final day on the football field than Hill. He is after all, as DeCock points out, one of only six seniors that have been on scholarship during their entire stay in Raleigh, and has been instrumental in getting the Wolfpack to the level of a program on the rise out in the ACC. But his involvement in N.C. State’s ascension hasn’t come without cost. A second-team all-ACC selection two years ago, Hill missed all of 2007 with a torn ligament in his left knee, then suffered a chest injury at the start of 2008 that kept him out of commission for nearly half of the Wolfpack’s remaining schedule. His return to the field found him contributing 16 catches and three touchdowns over the span of N.C. State’s last seven games – a far cry from the 45 receptions he made back in 2006. Yet, his mere presence in and out of the huddle was a difference maker, says O’Brien; “He has as much to do with [what’s been accomplished this season] as anybody.” The Wolfpack head coach points to one instance in particular: with N.C. State having lost to Maryland and standing 2-6 to start the season, Hill asked the coaching staff to leave the room in order to speak to the team directly. What was said remains a mystery, but it is an understatement to say that Hill’s words were well-received. Says DeCock, “The Wolfpack came out of that meeting with a new life and proceeded to make the most of it. Four straight wins over Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Miami put the Pack in a position to be . . . in a bowl game that seemed all too improbable at the beginning of November.”
Playing on a Monday afternoon in Birmingham, Alabama in a decrepit stadium sure looks good . . .
ESPN.com’s Brian Bennett writes earlier in the week that though “Rutgers fans might be disappointed with their team’s bowl destination” in traveling to Birmingham, Alabama to play in the Papajohns.com Bowl, the Scarlet Knights’ senior quarterback, Mike Teel, couldn’t be more pleased. “If you look back six or seven weeks ago or whenever it was when we were 1-5,” Teel tells Bennett, “I think we would have signed up for any bowl that you wanted to put us in.” Such sentiment arises in great part to what Rutgers faced after an October 11th loss to Cincinnati left them with five loses to FBS opponents halfway through 2008. In order to even make it to a post-season appearance after what Bennett correctly defines as “an abysmal start,” Teel and his teammates faced having to win its final six games of the season, a nearly unfathomable task given the state of affairs for this Scarlet Knights’ squad heading into late October. Still, Rutgers kept it’s faith, with Teel noting, “you need to believe”; “I’m not saying that if you would have asked me six or seven weeks ago if we would make a bowl game,” he continues, “that I would have said yes. [Instead] I probably would have said we just need to continue to practice and get better.” But practice and get better is exactly what Rutgers’ committed to do and was brought to fruition as the second half of season progressed. Heading into a Big East matchup against Connecticut, Teel noted the team practiced better than he’d seen to that point in time. And after a close 12-10 victory for the Scarlet Knights, the Rutgers offense starting producing at an outlandish pace, averaging 46 points in its last five games and winning each contest by at least 18. With each victory achieved after that October 18th defeat of the Huskies, the Scarlet Knights became more and more confident. Teel explains: “It’s crazy what winning does for you. It’s something you can’t really explain. The momentum builds up, and from [UConn on], it’s been kind of downhill for us.” Teel, in particular, became the antithesis of what observers saw early on against teams like Fresno State and North Carolina; against Pittsburgh, he threw for 361 yards and six touchdowns, followed up by a 447 yard / seven touchdown record-setting outing to close the regular season versus Louisville. Junior wide receiver for the Scarlet Knights, Kenny Britt, followed suit, nailing down five consecutive 100+ yard games against Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, South Florida, and Army. Thus, outstanding performance and undying determination yielded great things for head coach Greg Schiano and his players. Birmingham may not be the ideal, all said and done, but surely marks the commitment of this team to make things happen even when the chips are down.
Tiquan Underwood: Working overtime to make things happen with his hands . . .
The Star-Ledger reveals this week that for Rutgers’ wide receiver Tiquan Underwood, a commitment to work overtime after team practices, workout sessions, and classes meant the difference between ending his career in Piscataway in a gloomy nightmare filled with dropped passes and incorrect route-running and a respectable senior year serving as an exclamation point to four seasons as one of the best receivers the Scarlet Knights have ever had grace their presence. For some unexplained reason, Brendan Prunty of the Ledger writes, Underwood hit a wall early on in 2008, dropping easily catchable balls and running incorrect routes both in practice and against opposing defenses in game-time situations. The problem continued to manifest itself through the Scarlet Knights’ 13-10 loss to Cincinnati, in which Underwood experienced his first contest without a reception for the first time since December of 2006. Following that heart-breaking experience, the native of Lawrenceville, New Jersey approached wide receivers coach Kirk Ciarrocca and asked him to work with him on improving his catches. Ciarrocca agreed and spent countless hours out on the practice field playing catch – sometimes throwing quick passes directly at Underwood, at others tossing lob passes that the senior had to leap up or hug the sidelines to get. The repetitious exercises at times grew tedious, but after awhile, the results began to carry over from the practice to the playing field. After grabbing just 14 receptions for 160 yards and no scores over the first six games of the season, Underwood began producing much more solid numbers, by the end of the second-half of the year, ending up with 22 catches for 283 yards and four scores to his credit. “Just focusing and getting extra catches helped tremendously,” Underwood proclaims of his work with Ciarrocca. “He came to me about it and obviously, nobody likes staying after. But I needed to work on my game. I was will to do it, I listened to him and started doing it. Then nit started paying off for me.”
At his best in the post-season: Rutgers’ Tim Brown . . .
NJ.com expresses to readers this week that though wide receiver for Rutgers, Tim Brown, has never seen numbers comparable to All-American Kenny Britt, he nevertheless remains one to watch in the Scarlet Knights’ upcoming bowl appearance in Birmingham, as well as heading into the 2009 season. The reason? Brown – an undersized wideout at 5’8” and 165 pounds – has a history of playing big in post-season appearances. Against Kansas State two years ago, the junior took four catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns. Last year, in the International Bowl, he opened the game with a 36-yard touchdown that kicked off a 52-30 shootout over Ball State. Also, the native of native of Miami, Florida had the best campaign of his career at Rutgers in 2008, grabbing 27 receptions for 565 yards and six touchdowns – good enough to finish second on the team in total receiving yards. “I’m not going to say I’ve been under the radar,” Brown is quoted as saying in the article. “I just go out and play my game. That could mean scoring the first touchdown in a bowl game. It could mean making big plays because of the attention they give Kenny [Britt] and Ti[quan] Underwood.”
A telling tale of attrition and commitment . . .
The website NJ.com details the telling story of the recruiting class of 2004 for Rutgers and the trials and tribulations which have left a mere handful of players participating in this year’s post-season appearance in the Papajohns.com Bowl on December 29th. The article points out that 2004 saw 18 scholarship players entering fall practice as members of the Scarlet Knights football program; yet, due to injury, graduation, or legal / personal problems, come this past season, of those 18 individuals, only five – Mike Teel, Mike Gilmartin, and Jamaal Westerman, as well as walk-ons Kevin Brock and Jeremy Branch – remain as of this December. Teel says of the group, whose achievements include making four consecutive bowl appearances, “The class just disappeared. I think it shows you how demanding it is to come in every day and go about what you need to go about as a college football player, as a student and an athlete.” “I think the five of us have been fortunate,” he continues, “to stay away from injuries and issues that end your career.” That, according to Brock, has “definitely [created] a special bond with the five of us. We’re the guys who were here when there were still tough times here.” “It’s been a very long journey for a few of us,” Teel adds. “But it definitely was a fun one.”
Extra notes on the state of the Scarlet Knights . . .
The same article mentioned above in the NJ.com column goes on to provide information on the following as it relates to bowl preparations for Rutgers:
- Redshirt freshman Rob Cervini, a defensive back, will take over duties for punter Teddy Dellaganna holding the ball on field goal attempts as head coach Greg Schiano believes “Teddy doesn’t need an extra thing on his plate.”
- How does Schiano rate his opponent in the Papajohns.com Bowl? North Carolina State, he states, is “probably the best team we’ve played all year the way they’re playing [now].”
“ . . . enough hang time to allow our guys the chance to get down there” . . .
MyCentralJersey.com adds that the Rutgers’ special teams unit will be focused on shutting down N.C. State return man, wide receiver T.J. Graham, this in Monday’s bowl game. Schiano notes of Graham, “He’s lighting fast. He’s one of the fastest kids in the country. [When he] gets into the open there’s not a lot of guys that are going to catch him.” Kickoff coverage man for the Scarlet Knights, Antonio Lowery, concurs, commenting, “He’s just explosive. [We] just have to get the ball down there deep enough and get enough hang time to allow our guys the chance to get down there. A true freshman, Graham set the Wolfpack school record for single-season return yards with 893 accumulated in 2008.
The pick: Okay, okay. So I was negligent in providing selections for the first four games which NFTM covered this bowl season. Sue me. Or just retain the Christmas spirit and trust me when I say that I’m so far 3-1 over the first week of the post-season, having picked (in my own mind) Colorado State, Florida State, and California, while botching a choice of UNC over West Virginia.
As for this game — I think that NC State has a ton of athletic talent and Wilson should be impressive in his first bowl game. Still, Rutgers is riding one heck of a wave of momentum and will be nearly impossible to shut down in the passing game. Teel has got his confidence back right now, while Britt and (as the above points out, clearly) Brown will be nightmares down field with the ball in the air. Neither team should have much success on the ground (both defenses have stepped up majorly in the second half of the year), so this contest should come down to the more efficient passing attack. Give this one to Rutgers, then, with NC State still establishing itself as a program to beat in the ACC starting next year. Scarlet Knights – 35, Wolfpack – 24.
Related posts:
