here are my thoughts on the Red and White Spring game.

Passing Game - QBs Daniel Evans looked like the guy to beat. Seemed in more control of the offense and was able to hit a lot of the short passes. Obviously struggled with the deeper outs but everything seemed to flow with him under center. Beck got a lot of PT and def. showed the big arm he was supposed to have but looked like he hurried a bit and missed a lot of short easy throws. Burke looked solid all around but still looks like he has some learning to do in regards to moving from HS football to College. Future looks pretty good though. WRs - Dunlap and Blackman are going to be studs. Dunlap is a big target and Blackman has insane speed. One thing I noted about Blackman over last season was his route running, it was much improved. T. Holt was never the fastest on the field but he had great route running, add in Blackman’s speed and that can be dangerous. Not saying that Blackman’s routes were on T-Holts level but on several occasions he used a nasty move to smoke by #24, one of them was the 50yrd TD with under 4 min. to play.

Running Game - Running backs looked amazing, hopefully that is not a product of poor defense but the O-line really looked like it was opening up nice holes for Baker, Brown and Eugene who all ran for 100+ yards. Brown looks bigger than last year which is scary, and Eugene looks like a he could be a big time added speed threat. Baker looked solid as always.

Defense - Hard to tell much about the defense they were mixing and matching so many players up front it was confusing. The secondary, which played almost entirely zone was interesting to watch. Under Amato State played almost entirely Man-to-Man, so the difference was apparent from the start. The secondary was a little less worried about getting burnt and looking to attack the ball more. That was refreshing. I think they will be able to generate a lot more turnovers this year, which was much needed last season.

Play Calling - Wow what a change. There seemed to be rhythm with the offense and it was more straight forward than last year, ie less gimmicky. I was happy to see a lot of boot-legs and up the field passes rather than dink and dunks and swing passes. Also the running plays were a lot less up the middle but still down field, allowing our big backs to get into open field where they are even harder to bring down. There was one trick play where they threw a screen to Stone and he chucked it downfield. I was waiting to see if they were going to do something like that with Stone, he has a big arm and as long as he isn’t the one making the decisions he can get the ball down field. We’ll see that one again, I’m sure of it.

Other Stuff - Coach O’Brien personally called 300+ Former Wolfpack Players and invited them to the spring game and a NC State football reunion the day before. More than 300 former players showed up including Tory Holt, Bill Cowher, Mario Williams, Jamie Barnette, Carols King, Mark Thomas, and Terry Harvey to name a few. GoPack.com has some pictures of the reunion. I think this was an amazing idea by TOB and he plans to do it every year. Reading some of the comments in the N and O and just about everywhere else, it seems that all the players and former players really like ToB, having that kind of support system is always good.

Video Highlights from the N and O

Here is Mario Williams’ Lambo that he had parked outside the Murphy Center.