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Message: [QUOTE="CuseLegacy, post: 1454029, member: 469"] Posted: Thursday, August 13, 2015 4:47 pm [URL='http://greensboro.com/sports/accxtra/ed-hardin-state-bides-its-time-before-football-really-starts/article_262b2cc2-79ec-533d-84fa-2d7eff775610.html'][U]Ed Hardin: State bides its time before football really starts in Raleigh[/U][/URL] Associated Press | [B]RALEIGH —[/B] A small pile of huge rocks sits near the entrance to the N.C. State football practice facility. Stenciled on the top rock is State’s motto, something about one state and one goal or something. [URL='https://greensboro-dot-com.bloxcms-ny1.com/users/admin/service/purchase/?serviceid=1333&driver=csv&referer_url=/sports/accxtra/ed-hardin-state-bides-its-time-before-football-really-starts/article_262b2cc2-79ec-533d-84fa-2d7eff775610.html&step=1'][/URL] The pile of rocks might be a fitting symbol, though. We won’t know what to make of the Wolfpack until sometime in early October, after weeks of football that won’t matter to anyone and won’t get State one bit of attention unless they lose. Troy, Eastern Kentucky, Old Dominion and South Alabama lie between now and Louisville, when the Cardinals come to Raleigh to play a likely 4-0 Wolfpack team. So, another season and another exhibition schedule to open it. The players were working out in the sun Thursday morning. They seemed to be having fun. The coaches were all running around in hats and T-shirts and yelling and screaming and having the time of their lives. This is a loose bunch. Then again, it’s August. Coach Dave Doeren has a good football team this year. He had a good football team last year, too, which is why so many people expect so much of the Wolfpack. But any sober look back at last season shows the reality of it. State won its first four games in the exhibition swing, then lost every game it was supposed to and won every game it was supposed to from there on out. Another 8-5 (3-5 ACC) season isn’t just possible, it’s likely. Unless, of course, State really is one of the best teams in the country, which some people are saying. Doeren embraces the expectations. “I’m excited about it,” he said. “That’s where you want to be as a program. You’d rather have that than the opposite any day.” The opposite is never far away for State. The Pack managed to stay young in the offseason. State’s roster last year was 70 percent freshmen and sophomores. This season, the roster is 70 percent freshmen and sophomores. Granted, last year’s freshmen are this year’s sophomores, and a lot of them will start. By the time Louisville arrives, a few more of them could be in the lineup. That’s the theory behind the Pack’s scheduling. By then, State’s confidence should be soaring. The stadium should be filled. The Pack should be in the top 25 or on the verge, and the four easy wins should have State’s lineups and game plans honed and tuned for the meat of the schedule. Besides, they’ve been doing this four years now. They learned it from Herb Sendek. Doeren wants a confident football team. He expects it, and his players thrive on it. State was the most confident team at the ACC Football Kickoff in Pinehurst. Senior defensive end Mike Rose predicted great things at that event, sounding a warning to all who would doubt the Pack. “A lot of people underestimate us,” he said. “They better watch out.” A lot of people look at State’s schedule and State’s division and estimate the Pack to go about 8-5 (3-5) again. A lot of people see State locked in behind Florida State, Clemson and Louisville, not necessarily in that order. The Pack was 0-3 against that Atlantic Division trio last season by a combined score of 127-59. Any gauge of improvement over last season will ultimately depend on how they do in those three games, But that seemed so far off Thursday as the players frolicked in the heat, showing no signs of wilting from expectations. “The expectations are there,” Doeren said. “Whether they’re real or not, that’s for us to prove. But that’s what you want. You want people to expect things of your players.” State has the players, 14 starters from last year and two maturing recruiting classes that suggest Doeren has settled into his area, recruiting against Carolina and East Carolina at the same time. State has the quarterback, senior Jacoby Brissett. State has the running backs, Shadrach Thornton, Matt Dayes and freshman Reggie Gallaspy from Southern Guilford. State has three interior linemen back and eight defensive starters back. What’s not to like? This is a good football team stuck in a brutal division but blessed with what is likely the easiest non-conference schedule in the country. We won’t know anything about this team for a long time. College football season starts in about three weeks, and State has a game that week, too. But the Pack’s real season doesn’t start for another month after that. The incongruous expectations are somehow fitting for a program situated between a rock and soft place. [/QUOTE]

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