As I attended my first-ever football game at N.C. State, I was incredibly hopeful I would spend the next four years in sports heaven next to you. I enjoyed two years of bliss with Philip Rivers, and then suffered with you for two years of “the other regime.”
News flash: Rivers is not coming back. Every quarterback cannot reach the unimaginable levels he took us to, quit booing. It does not motivate the team.
Then came the Miami game, which ended with just a handful of the 56,000 who braved the incredible manhandling. Since then, I’m not sure I’ve seen a packed house in Carter-Finley.
Isn’t this still a team worth supporting?
Although I have been fortunate enough to see Norm Chow’s offense work to an 8-0 record, Rivers’ magic nearly knock off Ohio State, and a magical interception to beat Georgia Tech, my favorite memory must be last year against the dreaded Tar Heels.
The sun was shining bright on the student section, as is usual for a mid-day game, but you were not pleased.
The logical response, then, is clearly to flick the sun off. Take that, Ra!
We will get through it, though; it is actually alright to stay for a whole game and to cheer again.
How about senior days?
Don’t Manny Lawson, Brian Clark, Tremain Hall (and honorary senior Mario Williams) deserve to play one last time in front of a sellout?
Apparently not.
After all, we are a basketball school, so why bother criticizing a coach who hasn’t even so much as sniffed second place in the ACC when you can criticize Herb Sendek?
So let’s move on.
To all you fine fans who I heard on the phone or with friends at Reynolds unhappily telling them about how your parents are making you get tickets to see UNC and Duke:
Please quit wasting tickets. There are others who actually care to see the game. There is no need to go just so you can tell your family that you did what college students are supposed to do while you sit in the front row reading a magazine.
We know you paid for the tickets as everyone else has through your tuition, but there are plenty of people in the upper deck that would do anything for that seat you have, please graciously let them have it.
Congratulations as well to all of you who have run Sendek out of town. You have no idea why you did it, but hey, it sure was fun to yell!
To Mr. Explains Every Last Play to the Person Sitting Next to You, thank you for that, as well. I have very much enjoyed it for four years. Good to know that a shot clock runs about 20 seconds, timeout supplies are endless, and that every other team not named the Wolfpack apparently are attracted to members of the same sex.
You are the main reason we all want to attend games.
Unfortunately, I will not be at the RBC Center to hear it next year, but for all the incoming freshmen, please continue voicing your opinions in the loudest, most obscene and vulgar manner possible, as only you know how.
Lastly — here’s to my favorite organization on campus — the Student Wolfpack Club. Your absolutely preposterous rules have set the sporting world back 250 years.
Seriously though, here’s to an exciting future of Wolfpack athletics for all sports. Here’s to hoping Kay Yow never retires (and that students outside the beloved Wolfpack Club actually go see a game), to Justin Burke (or whoever the next embattled quarterback may be) leading the Pack to a BCS bowl, to a new staff on volleyball winning some ACC matches and to baseball continuing its staggering successes.
Here’s to the under-four-minute timeout at basketball games never ending, to proudly announcing that the opponent is in the Home of the Wolfpack during the national anthem, and to always believing a championship will come!
Here’s to Technician for getting me a seat in Cameron Indoor, to all my family and friends who have endured 22 years of endless babbling about sports, to Tucker Hall for three bewildering years of living with freshmen, and to all you loyal Wolfpack supporters who just want to win, baby, and especially to you, 5401.
The stories will last a lifetime.
Thanks for everything.
So here’s to you.
