The Pack has backed itself into a corner as it prepares to take on Florida State Saturday. After three consecutive losses, the Pack finds itself in last place in the Atlantic Division of the ACC and desperately seeking its elusive first win in the ACC.
“We’ve got to go down there and handle business,” redshirt senior offensive tackle Jeraill McCuller said. “It’s not about Florida State, it’s about N.C. State now. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to make that happen.”
The Seminoles, 3-4 (1-3 in ACC), are coming off an impressive comeback victory against the Tar Heels of North Carolina, in which they scored 24 points in the second half to win, 30-27. Redshirt junior quarterback Christian Ponder played a huge role in the comeback victory, throwing for at least 300 yards for the third consecutive game.
“He is as hot as anyone in the country,” coach Tom O’Brien said. “He has made some great throws, he is athletic, he is making good decisions and he has good skill guys around him. They are catching the ball, but he certainly is a big challenge and hopefully we will be up for it.”
The Pack is coming off of a bye week and if history repeats itself the Pack should be looking forward to the next five games. Since O’Brien took over in 2007, the Pack is 8-4 after the bye week. O’Brien said he hopes this trend continues, but noted each season is different.
“We are hoping we have success after the bye week. We are planning on going down there and getting a win,” O’Brien said. “But every situation is different. Our first year we were getting to know the individuals and we had to make some changes to fit what we were doing and we had to scale back.”
“Last year we were fortunate that our best players that were out finally started to get healthy and came back and played. We will see what happens this year. Certainly these kids have worked hard this week and they are excited to play the game. We will see if we can go down and do it for the third year in a row.”
During the bye week O’Brien, the coaches and the players worked extremely hard to help shore off the defense that has been the Achilles’ heel for the Pack this season. In the past three weeks the defense has allowed 43. 7 points per game and the secondary has given up on average 336 yards through the air. This doesn’t bode well for the Pack as they prepare to face Ponder, who leads the ACC in passing yards per game.
“We saw we needed to do some things a heck of a lot better,” O’Brien said. “Hopefully we got that accomplished in the off week and we carry it over into this week, as it pertains to what we have to defend against come Saturday.”
Even though the Pack is 0-3 in the Atlantic Division, it is still not out of the race as only three games separate the bottom team and the top team. But the team knows it has to go out and get a win this week.
“The ACC title is still up for grabs,” redshirt senior running back Jamelle Eugene said. “Florida State got their first win and they’re salivating at the mouths. We’ve got to get our first win now.”
