NC State Football 2015 +ESPN Addendum

It's getting close to football practice season. Just 6 more weeks till September and the actual start of college football.

So, it's also time for my usual over optimistic look at NC State's potential season.

I don't sit around and read all the sports websites. But I do check them out when it's of interest to me - that is - NC State.

I've found that Athlon Sports seems to have the most reasonable and well reasoned reporting and assessment of teams.

So - using Athlon's 2015 pre-season rankings - here's how the season should unfold for NC State.

#118 Troy at #39 NCSU - Win

FCS Eastern Kentucky at #39 NCSU - Win

Eastern Kentucky is a strong FCS team but not strong enough.

#39 NCSU at #113 Old Dominion - Win

Thinking about driving up to Norfolk for this game. ODU takes their football very seriously. They sell out their games. I've been watching StubHub and NCSU @ ODU tickets all seem to be above the $100 mark. If I go, I guess I'll be setting with the Wolfpack Club in the corner end zone for $39. Come to think of it, at home games I sit in the corner end zone - so there.

#39 NCSU at #108 South Alabama - Win

#38 Louisville at #39 NCSU - Loss (very possible Win)

Figuring out Louisville is next to impossible. They lost a bunch of kids (10+) to the NFL. They recruit well. Some predict they will have a down, rebuilding year. Others think they'll reload. Coach Petrino wins 10+ games every year. I think they will be much better than #38 and will win this game. But - this is also one of two games that NCSU could realistically have an 'upset' win.

#39 NCSU at #35 Virginia Tech - Loss (very possible Win)

This is the other game that NCSU has a real chance to 'upset' win. Will the big time VT defense show up? Or will it be another disappointing middle of the road VT team? Hard to win at Lane Stadium. Frank Beamer should have retired when he was at the top of his game. Kind of like a second tier Bobby Bowden, VT will have to usher him out the door. Time to play some golf Frank.

#39 NCSU at #82 Wake Forest - Win

Tom O'Brien is gone. The days of WTF losses to Wake Forest are gone too. The last two times I drove over to Winston Salem, the much higher favored NC State lost. Won't happen this year.

#14 Clemson at #39 NCSU - Loss

Clemson is better than #14. In fact, they will be better than FSU. QB Deshaun Watson is a legit Heisman candidate. In fact, he may be really . . really . . good. Clemson has a chance to go undefeated and to squeak into the National Championship playoff.

#39 NCSU at #56 Boston College - Win

Again, Tom O'Brien is gone. Coach Doeren doesn't put up with WTF losses. Why is Boston College in the ACC anyway?

#39 NCSU at #9 FSU - Loss

FSU is overrated at #9. But they're still going to win this game.

#85 Syracuse at #39 NCSU - Win

And why is Syracuse in the ACC? Only for their basketball program. And that's not going to last too much longer.

#42 UNCHeats at #39 NCSU - Win (possible Loss)

Carolina is always on the verge of fielding a big time football team. It just hasn't happened - since Mack Brown. New Defensive Coordinator Chizik will turn things around for Carolina's awful defense.

The rivalry between NCSU and UNCHeats has turned into downright hatred over the massive cheating and academic fraud over there. Mainly because UNCHeats has always had a 'holier than thou' sense of entitlement. Coach Doeren and our State guys 'get it'. State wins. Hopefully we beat the snot out of them like last year.

There have been a couple of articles wherein UNCheats Coach Fedora and players say they had attitude and team chemistry problems last year. I wonder if Carolina will have that  Everybody Look at Me I'm So Cool Idiotvisor Supervisor of Morale again?

I agree with Athlon's numbers. State should go 8 - 4. With the opportunity to pick up a couple of 'upset' wins (over Louisville and VT) to have a spectacular 10 - 2 season.

Or, the season could unfold as expected with an 'upset' loss to UNC and go 7 - 5.

Another typical NCSU preseason. Who knows what kind of team we'll have?

But, Tom O'Brien is gone along with his annual inexplicable loss - or two. Coach Doeren will have us steadily improving year to year.

However - once you get to 8 and 4 - those last four wins are very hard to get. Annual 9+ / 10+ win seasons are an incredible achievement.

8 and 4 would be fantastic. Better than that and Coach Doeren gets a parade down Fayetteville Street and a lifetime contract.

Of course, while NC State is getting better year by year - we're a LONG way from this -

2012 Alabama

All 11 Offensive Starters are in the NFL

ESPN Addendum

ESPN has published their preseason college football rankings. Assuming, as above, the higher ranked team wins - Preseason ranked #42 NC State still goes 8 and 4. But there are some significant differences.

The 4 cupcake teams are the same - so far down in the rankings - not worth bothering with.

Here's the ACC teams NC State plays and their ESPN Preseason ranking.

Loss to Clemson #19

Under-ranked. I think Clemson is a top 10 team.

Loss to #21 Florida State

I agree that FSU is behind Clemson.

Loss to #26 Virginia Tech

Playing at VT - difficult to win. ESPN drinks the kool aid that VT is returning to it's power self of years past. I think ESPN has VT over ranked. This is a possible (long shot) opportunity for an NCSU upset win.

Loss to #35 UNCheats

Any improvement in UNC's defense will lead to a much better season. But I think by the end of the season - both State and UNCheats will both be good teams. State's team is younger - but I think coaching and home filed advantage will give State the win.

Win over #44 Louisville.

At #42 State - this should be a toss up. Slight home field advantage. Louisville is hard to predict this year due to heavy starter graduation and early loss of kids to the NFL.

Wins over #75  Wake Forest, #77 Syracuse and #84 Boston College.

Basically, the difference between Athlon and ESPN is flipping Louisville for UNCheats.

With good coaching and preparation, sound game day play calling and solid smart play by our kids - we're an 8 and 4 team.

IF, and it's a big IF, State wins over both Louisville and UNCheats - it's a fantastic 9 and 3 season for the Wolfpack.

We'll see.

Life is Short

Life is Short. Don't squander it on hate and bigotry.

Perspective

I'm kind of sick and tired of hearing about Greece's debt problems.

Supposedly, if you're a dead beat and don't pay your bills - you don't get future loans. If you do get loans, it's usually at a high interest rate due to your history.

The idea is that banks or lending institutions are taking a RISK to loan money and that RISK is reflected in the interest rate. If you repay the loan - the lender makes money. If you don't replay the loan - the lender loses money.

Of course, with world economies and national debts, there's more at stake than someone defaulting on their mortgage or a car loan. So, for basically defaulting - Greece gets to pay a very low (almost nothing) interest rate AND gets to borrow more money.

That's fine. It's a Euro thing and they can do what they want.

I'm just tired of hearing about it.

Greece is a small, almost tiny, country. If it really defaulted (with no bailout) - some European banks (and national banks) would lose money. But it really wouldn't make a dent or blip in the economies of the other EU countries nor their industrial markets or stock markets.

Actually, it's good that the EU wants to assist a member country. If Greece defaulted and dropped out of the EU - it was be a huge depression for Greece. But basically, only for Greece.

I'm just tired of hearing about it. Enough already.

For a little perspective - wander on over to http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/.

There's a lot of ways to look at debt. Most economist look at debt vs national domestic product. But I think that NDP (or GDP) can be inflated and misleading.

I prefer to look at dept per citizen. In other words, if a country wanted to pay off their national debt, right now, how big a check would each person have to write? That means EACH person - man, woman and child.

Greece - $34,500 each

Germany - $27,303 each

For Puerto Rico (not a nation but very close to default) - $20,000 each

Here's the eye openers -

USA - $57,300 each.

Japan (a very successful, economic powerhouse) - $79,800 each!

Yikes - the USA and Japan owe a ton 'o money!

So enough with the Greek bailout. It's news - but not all consuming, all important news.

Visit (Google Storyboard link fixed)

My nephew, ADHI works for Red Hat.

Actually, this is his second go round for RH. He used to work for RH starting about 15 years ago and he and his wife and daughter lived in Cary. About 10 years ago he moved back to Japan and worked for Google. This past year, he went back to RH - Tokyo.

Anyway, ADHI was in Boston for a Red Hat Developer Convention / Meeting. Afterwards he came to Raleigh to spend the week at RH Headquarters.

Instead of staying at a hotel, he came out to stay with me.

Our friend, Nuke, came up to from Southport to spend the week as well to catch up with ADHI.

The first weekend my sister and brother-in-law came down (on their way to Florida) and spent the weekend in Raleigh. ADHI stayed at their hotel with them. We got together on the weekend, went out to eat, to the Art Museum, and pretty much just hung around visiting.

During the week, ADHI and I commuted together to work in downtown Raleigh - my office building is on the same street about 6 blocks from the RH building. Evenings, we spent at home watching movies on Netflix (both DVD and streaming) and the women's soccer matches.

I cooked during the week.

Nuke, took care of all the cleaning up. He also took on a bunch of chores I had been neglecting. He cut the lawn and upper field; vacuumed the house, took the recycling to the recycling center and he washed all the pollen / dirt from the screened porch.

The porch was a big job I'd been neglecting for several months. It was so dirty and pollen covered - you couldn't sit out there. Now you can. I still need to go over the screen porch and deck with the power washer - but it will be a much easier job now.

I hope to see ADHI every year or so now that he's back with RH. Maybe even more often - which would be great. What would be even better yet - if he could occasionally bring his wife and daughter with him.

ADHI put together a Google Storyboard about the trip with excellent photos. (Click on Google Storyboard for the link)

To go with the photos of meals at my house -

The BBQ came from Smithfield's. Slaw, baked beans and fries from Harris-Teeter. There was no real cooking done on our part.

The tomatoes were roasted in the oven, then filled with home made tuna salad (made with celery, sweet relish, water chestnuts, spring onion, olive oil based mayo).

Nuke cooked taco night. Seasoned ground beef, hard or soft shells, chopped onion, tomato, spinach (for the lettuce), cilantro, shredded cheddar cheese, and sour cream. I made salsa using the scooped out insides from the stuffed tomatoes (had saved in a container in the fridge). Threw it into the Cuisinart along with onion and cilantro = instant salsa.

For the pasta meal I sauteed spring onion, garlic, mushrooms and wilted some spinach at the end - topped with fresh grated Asiago cheese.. Italian sausage and french bread (from the H-T bakery) on the side. Couple of tips - 1) don't over saute - three or four minutes is enough - turn off the heat - add the spinach and cover to wilt - about another minute and 2) Sausage or Kielbasa is already cooked - heat it up by tossing the cut pieces into the pot with the boiling pasta.

We had a coupon for a free appetizer at Outback. Honestly, the avocado and crab with chips wasn't that good. I'd skip it and go for the wood grilled shrimp or plain old wings instead. All our steaks were cooked exactly right. Outback has their procedures down pat.

I had briefly toyed with the idea of going to The Angus Barn. Outback was the better choice for a weeknight dinner after long day at work.

ADHI and I were both tired, we drove from Raleigh to Moncure to pick up Nuke and then back to Cary to the restaurant. Service was just the right speed and the cost was about $75 including beer, drink and wine plus tip. The Angus Barn, while always superlative and outstanding - the drive would have been longer, the meal itself longer (but spectacular) and the bill would likely have been in the $250 range. Tip would have pushed it to $300.

It was a great visit and a busy, full week. Now back to my regularly scheduled nothing-going-on boring programming.