3 hours and 15 minutes before game time, and there it is…

You know what I’m talking about. All week long it’s “State sucks”, “We suck”, “Everyone is hurt”, “We’ll be lucky to go 4-8″, “God hates State” and “who will be injured next”.

Well, like it always does, my inexplainable, inconceivable, unfounded, possibly detrimental Wolfpack optimism rears its ugly head.

Yes, all of the sudden with foolish expectation I am looking forward to us perhaps winning tonight’s game. History should teach me what this does, but I cannot help myself. No, I must expect us to win, I must root for my Pack with reckless abandon. As long as the team thinks they will win, so shall I.

BACK THE PACK! Beat those… Defeat South Carolina! Soundly!

A Tale of Two Quarterbacks

To put it simply, there are concerns about both quarterbacks.

South Carolina will go with fourth-year junior Tommy Beecher, who’s thrown just 25 passes in his college career. the Pack will have redshirt freshman Russell Wilson. Beecher has more experience than Wilson, so expect Beecher to make fewer mistakes. If both struggle, the Gamecocks have better backups.

Don’t expect Beecher to run much, but a big reason why State coach Tom O’Brien chose Wilson at quarterback was because of his dual-threat ability. The young Wilson may get some happy feet in the pocket and take off a little early until he gets comfortable. South Carolina must make sure to keep an eye on the redshirt freshman.

THE ODDS: NCSU +14.5 | uSC -14.5 … Total 45.5
College football betting stats for Thursday’s game have the Wolfpack 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games in August. The Wolfpack are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games on grass. The Wolfpack are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games overall. The Wolfpack are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 non-conference games. The Gamecocks are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 non-conference games.
The Gamecocks are 3-7 ATS in their last 10 vs. the ACC. The Gamecocks are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games on grass. The Gamecocks are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games overall. The Under is 6-1-2 in the Wolfpack’s last 9 non-conference games.
In college football betting odds, the Under is 5-1 in the Wolfpack’s last 6 Thursday games. The Under is 5-2-1 in the Wolfpack’s last 8 road games. The Under is 4-1 in the Gamecocks last 5 vs. the ACC. The Over is 23-9 in the Gamecocks last 32 home games.

Breaking news about Thursday’s game

Columbia News Report: Football practice in Columbia was delayed on Monday for nearly two hours. One of the offensive players, while on his way to the locker room, happened to look down and notice a suspicious looking, unknown, white powdery substance on the practice field. The head coach, Steve Spurrier, immediately suspended practice while the FBI was called in to investigate. After a complete field analysis, the FBI determined that the white substance unknown to the players was the goal line. Practice was resumed when the FBI decided that the team would not be likely to encounter the substance again.

It was reported that South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier will only be dressing twenty players for the Clemson game.

The rest of the players will have to get dressed by themselves.

Oh, I got some more…

How many University of South Carolina freshman does it take to change a light bulb?
None, it’s a sophomore course.

Did you hear about the fire in the University of South Carolina’s football dorm that destroyed 20 books?
The real tragedy was that 15 hadn’t been colored yet.

Why do University of South Carolina fans keep their diplomas on their dashboards?
So they can park in handicap spaces.

What do South Carolina and pot have in common?
They both get smoked in bowls! (see below)

NCSU bowl game record: 12-10-1
uSC bowl game record: 4-9

Cullen Jones wins Olympic gold!!!

My wife and I just watched former NC State swimmer Cullen Jones win an Olympic gold medal!

First of all, no one (in the public) even knew if he’d be on the 4×100 freestyle relay for the finals. Earlier in the day, Cullen and 3 other teammates set a world record of 3:12.23 in the prelims. Thing is, we were told only one of those swimmers would actually swim on the final relay team. This was the American “B” team, used to make it to the finals, and give rest to the main 3 swimmers on the relay team. But the unthinkable happened, that “B” team (Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Matt Grevers) not only posted the fastest time in Sunday night’s preliminaries of the 400-meter freestyle relay, but set a world record.

So, we were thrilled to see “the black guy” down by the pool when the camera panned in for the 4×100 relay. To make a long story short, we were doing good, we got behind, we came back for perhaps the most amazing finish in relay history.

After the world record setting and gold medal winning swim, Cullen told the NBC reporter, “we love listening to hear people talk stuff about us,” in response to French relay member Alain Bernard, who made headlines for telling sports newspaper L’Equipe, “The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came for.”

It’s been a while since we Wolfpack fans have had a champion to be excited about and proud of. It’s pretty awesome that in this case it’s an Olympic champion. Congrats Cullen! We’re so proud of you!

OK, I’m awake

Not only is July the boringest month (other than MLB home run derby and All-Star game), but I was in Brownsville, TX for Hurricane Dolly for 12 days.

So I’m back, and caught up on sleep (was working 14-22 hour days, most on the upper end of that spectrum.

Only 23 days until THE GAME! Why is our opener “The Game” this year? Because we have no idea what to expect. Who will be at QB? How many QBs will play? What will our running game look like? Will our defense be more disciplined?

There are so many questions to be answered, and on top of all of that it’s a road game! For us State fans, a win at uSC is almost unfathomable. Yet, we cling to our inalienable optimism that only a NCSU supporter can know. Perhaps it’s foolish optimism, but we own it none-the-less.

I can’t wait for August 28th!!!!!!