With expectations always high at N.C. State under Chuck Amato, the Wolfpack's 1-2 start including the stunning home loss to Akron and the battering at Southern Mississippi has left many State fans seething.
Of course, nobody is seething more than the Wolfpack head coach and his players.
State was badly beaten at Southern Miss. There were penalties and turnovers, and then, there was State's touted defense giving up 261 yards on the ground and over 400 in total offense. It was a disappointing loss, to say the least, and in Amato's seventh season, it appears right now, the State program is regressing.
The peak season in Amato's tenure was the 2002 Gator Bowl season, but instead of building on that, the program has declined with five losses, six losses and five more, plus the 1-2 so far this season. When Amato took over in 2000, he talked of taking State to the elite level in college football. And during the first three years of the Philip Rivers era and with the money put into football -- with the facilities improvement -- and with the constant hype about the recruits coming to State, it appeared to be happening. That's not the case anymore.
So Pack fans are howling, and with the conference opener coming up this Saturday, Chuck Amato needs to regroup and refocus this football team.
The conservative offensive approach is not working. Marcus Stone was a highly recruited quarterback, but even after all his time in the program, the coaching staff still is not confident enough to let him loose. Can State win Stone at quarterback? And if State's touted defense continues to give up chunks of yardage and the always-present mistakes continue, the season can get out of hand in a hurry.
Chuck Amato has never lacked confidence in anything that he does. He says he and the team are still confident about this season, and the real season starts Saturday with the ACC opener against Boston College. Everybody thinks there is talent in the program; now is the time for State to quit talking about it and start playing. Amato might try a week of flying under the radar. It might help.
Carolina is in the win column, but the 45-42 shootout win over Furman is hardly a confidence-building win. The Tar Heels should beat Furman, and man, you have to wonder about a defense that yields over 500 yards to a 1AA team. But a win is a win, and Carolina will take it, but it's only going to get harder. And there's no question this is a UNC team with a lot of problems, and going to Clemson this week is a hard place to solve them. If you're Carolina, you're happy to win, but not happy with the way you won.
Speaking of problems, the ACC as a whole, has them. Miami and Florida State used to scare everybody by just walking on the field. Now, they just may scare Duke. Neither has any offense. And with Maryland humiliated by West Virginia on national TV and Virginia losing to Western Michigan, the new and expanded ACC is certainly not living up to what it was supposed to be.
But the mediocrity of the league is what should give everybody in the ACC hope. There is no dominant team -- nobody that any team should fear -- and that means the conference championship is very much up for grabs.
Positive notes: Wake Forest, for the first time since 1987, is 3-0 but offensively the Deacons gained only 209 yards against Connecticut but 3-0 is 3-0 and that puts Wake, Virginia Tech and Boston College as the only unbeaten teams in the conference.
By the way, nice win for East Carolina over Memphis. Good crowd, good atmosphere and a come back at that. The Pirates after two tough losses needed this one with West Virginia coming to Greenville Saturday.
Oh yeah, guess you know the Panthers are 0-2. Steve Smith, stretch those hamstrings, buddy.
