“Playoffs, playoffs, you want to talk about playoffs? Are you kidding me? I just hope we can win a game.” This quote, made famous by former Indianapolis Colts head coach Jim Mora, is one of the funniest post game tirades in recent memory. It may seem funny, but for N.C. State fans in the past few years, it rang so painfully true.

However, with the 2009-2010 seasons ending, Wolfpack athletics may be on its way up heading into next year. Before this season, State fans have not had much postseason experience. In the past two years, the top-5 revenue sports, softball, baseball, football, and both men’s and women’s basketball, have only made postseason play outside of the ACC tournament three times. Those trips consisted of a trip to the PapaJohns.com Bowl in football, a Super Regional in baseball and lastly, a women’s NIT Bid. All those occurred during the 2008 calendar year.

But just this year three of these teams made it to postseason play. In coach Kellie Harper’s first year the women’s team made the NCAA tournament, the basketball team made it to the NIT after a strong run in the ACC tournament, and most recently, the baseball team made NCAA Regionals after a second place finish in the ACC Tournament.

Some may say that this was a single season and that it does not mean anything for the years to come. But the common thing that will help these teams extend their success into next year is the youth associated with many of these teams and hopefully the experience they have gotten in the past year can carry into next year and provide fans and students with some postseason action to cheer for.

For example, as everyone has heard, men’s basketball has a top-5 recruiting class coming in next year that includes McDonald’s All-American C.J. Leslie. Mixing the incoming class with returning players such as second team All-ACC forward Tracy Smith and freshman sharpshooter Scott Wood gives the Pack a team that can rival any in the ACC.

Then look at the women’s team. Coach Harper turned a team that went 5-9 the previous season in ACC play into an NCAA tournament qualifier. Matching that with the continued improvement of ACC Freshman of the Year Marissa Kastanek and leading scorer Bonae Holston gives fans no reason to expect anything but an improvement going into next year.

And then there is the wildcard, the football team. The team struggled mightily last year on defense, allowing 31.2 points per game and lost its primary running backs in Jamelle Eugene and Toney Baker. But there is hope. The freshmen that looked lost at times last season in the secondary will have a full year of experience, while the offensive passing attack seemingly lost nothing from last year and should expect nothing but improvement. Also, the Pack’s most dynamic player, redshirt senior linebacker Nate Irving, will be back on the field, while redshirt junior quarterback Russell Wilson has already stated he is coming back to play another season.

Lastly, we have the team that finished its season most recently, baseball. Yes, this team will lose at least three of its core players in Dallas Poulk, Drew Poulk and Kyle Wilson, but it has the depth to replace it. Outside of the three seniors, only two other juniors, Chris Schaeffer and Russell Wilson, played vital roles. With all the other players being freshmen or sophomores, the depth is there to make another run at the ACC title and into the NCAA’s.

While this may be overly optimistic, next season’s teams have a chance to build upon the success and failures of this past athletic year and improve on it to give the students and fans an opportunity to experience some consistent postseason play, something they have been starved of in the past few years.