Redshirt senior wide reciever Tobias Palmer and redshirt senior tight end Mario Carter reflects on the Wolfpack's 38-24 loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl against Vanderbilt in LP Field, Nashville, Tenn. Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. Photo by John Joyner.
Before the Pack could look to the future, there was one more glimpse at the inconsistency of this past season.
With its first bowl loss since 2008, N.C. State gave a performance against Vanderbilt in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn. that encapsulates everything that led to former head coach Tom O’Brien’s dismissal the day after the regular season finale. The Wolfpack, despite out-gaining the Commodores offensively by almost 200 yards, was comfortably defeated by its opponents from the SEC due to the inordinate amount of penalties, nine for 90 yards, and turnovers committed, three interceptions and two fumbles lost.
As N.C. State interim head coach Dana Bible was ending his press conference after the Wolfpack loss, the long-time assistant and subordinate to O’Brien was willing to take accountability while he was still “head coach here for another minute or two” for the slew of mistakes made in Nashville.
The players, however, were just as quick to heap praise on the interim coach for holding the team together during a period of both bowl game preparation and program transition.
“Coach Bible, from him battling leukemia, he is a great guy,” said redshirt senior wide receiver Tobias Palmer.
“He is a strong man,” Palmer said. “He has nothing but love for the game. [The bowl loss and coaching change] is hard. He broke down in the locker room because he loves us. It was just really emotional after the game.”
“[Bible] has done a great job with me,” graduate student quarterback Mike Glennon said, “Setting me up for my future.”
“Coach Bible did a great job taking over for coach O’Brien,” sophomore running back Tony Creecy added, “coming in [after the coaching change] and being a great coach.”
With the inconsistent 2012 campaign behind them, the Wolfpack players – both those graduating and returning next season – are eagerly looking forward to the future of the N.C. State football program under new head coach Dave Doeren.
“I am sure the new coach will do a good job,” Glennon said. “I think we have a lot of talent coming back.”
“From what I hear, coach Doeren is a good coach,” junior cornerback David Amerson said. “I am sure he will steer the program in the right direction.”
Doeren led Northern Illinois to the Discover Orange Bowl this season, the first one-loss non-BCS school to earn a bid into a Bowl Championship Series post-season game. The Huskies won back-to-back Mid-American Conference championships in Doeren’s two seasons in charge.
This past season Northern Illinois was No. 9 in the NCAA in team rushing, with the Huskies averaging 250.2 yards on the ground per game. Doeren’s quarterback Jordan Lynch ranked third in the NCAA in total offense with 364.1 total yards per contest. Lynch finished seventh in this past season’s Heisman Award voting.
“We are really encouraged,” Creecy said. “With [Doeren] here, we are going to change it around.”
“We’ve got to move on and start playing football for coach Doeren,” Creecy said.
With the coaching change and the inconsistent season behind them, the Pack seems intent that the only direction the program will move is forward.
“This is a program that can compete to win the ACC every year.” senior guard Cam Wentz said. “It’s a very attractive place to go to school, great facilities, in a great area. I think the program is [in] a good state and it is going to progress. They have a high ceiling for their future.”