Spring Football Weekend

The NC State Spring Football game is this Saturday at 1300. Nuke is coming up Saturday morning to go to the game with me. Sunday I think we’ve been invited to dinner – but not sure. Nuke has the details. There's also a rodeo in Sanford Friday night and Saturday night - I think it starts at 2000 each evening. That might be worth going to. Nuke has a dentist appointment Monday morning in Raleigh so it’ll be a full weekend for him.

Coach O'Brien

I follow basketball and football recruiting a bit more than the average person because I’m a WolfPack Club member and season ticket holder. In fact, the football ticket order package arrived in the mail last week.

I like what I’ve been reading about recruiting under new head coach Tom O’Brien (Ret. Col. USMC). Academics seem to be more of an issue with potential recruits with TOB. Also, a lot of the talk is that TOB and staff have expanded their geographic recruiting base and are also credited with being able to spot underrated hidden talent. If that’s the case, I'll be very pleased.

TOB isn’t going to be a flashy splashy personality like Coach Amato. He’s more of a WYSIWYG kind of guy. Here are a couple of TOB quotes that I like.

On coaching at the Naval Academy:

“One thing about coaching at any of the academies, you learn how to coach,” O’Brien said. “You don’t have great talent all the time, but you really work hard to put your players in position to win. They have to go out and win the game, of course, but if they are fundamentally sound, believe in what they are doing and have faith in the person next to them, they are going to have a chance to win every time.”

On assembling his coaching staff:

“I always try to hire guys who are smarter than me and are better coaches than I am. The things I look for when I put my coaching staff together were guys who have good moral values, are good communicators and are good educators.”

Funny Article

National football signing day was back in February. Here’s a really funny article about recruiting by Terry Bowden – network TV game analyst and former Auburn Head Coach – son of Florida State Head Coach Bobby Bowden. He swears it’s true.