The most surprising statistic from N.C. State’s game with Western Carolina Saturday was the zero posted in the tackles column by Pack linebacker Nate Irving.

Irving, of course, missed all of last season because of a car accident and has been shifted to middle linebacker by new position coach Jon Tenuta. It’s easy to see why Irving may not be where he was in 2008, but to see zero tackles against Western was a surprise.

“Nate didn’t have many opportunities,” Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien said this week. “I think he got a little frustrated out there. Everything got funneled to Terrell [Manning]. He was the linebacker they attacked. … I don’t know if that was by design or not but that’s the way things worked out.”

Manning led State with 10 tackles (two unassisted and eight assists).

Here are 10 football games that are within driving distance in the Triangle area Friday night. In bold is the predicted winner. Most games are at 7:30 p.m. Check with local officials as some games start at 7.
My record last week, again, was 7-3 for a season total of 21-9.

Athens Drive at Green Hope

Cardinal Gibbons at Ravenscroft

Carrboro at East Chapel Hill

Cary at Fuquay-Varina

Durham Riverside at Garner

Lee County at Apex

Leesville Road at East Wake

Middle Creek at Holly Springs

New Hanover at SE Raleigh

Northern Durham at Millbrook, 7 p.m.

Check the scores in our Sports Roundup on the left navigation bar.

Yes, Wake Forest has beaten Duke 10 straight times and are at home but in order to beat the Devils again, they’ll have to get good production out of the quarterback position.

With four-year starter Riley Skinner gone, Ted Stachitas, a sophomore, is expected to get most of the snaps this year but he has had two surgeries on his right shoulder. Therefore, freshman lefty Tanner Price, who had been a redshirt candidate, saw action last week against Presbyterian.

“We feel like Ted Stachitas can win a bunch of football games for us,” Wake coach Jim Grobe said this week. “I think as he plays more, he’s going to be better. But his injuries have been an issue for us. You just have to have Plan B ready, basically because of his history injury wise.”

Grobe seems a little ambivalent about Stachitas. “I like a lot of the things that Ted did (in the opener). He misfired on a couple of pretty easy open throws which was disappointing. And he fumbled the football at one time, and that’s something we can’t do.”

Grobe went on to decisively say, “I think he was somewhat indecisive at times, but at times he was very decisive.”

Unless he’s playing possum, you’d have to give the quarterback matchup edge in Saturday’s game to Duke’s Sean Renfree.

“A couple of people that are from Arizona that knew about the kid when he was in high school told me when Duke first signed him that they had signed a great quarterback,” Grobe said of Renfree. “Of course he got some snaps early last year. And with Thad Lewis being as good as he is, I knew that Coach Cutcliffe wasn’t going to put that kid on the field and take reps away from Thad Lewis unless he thought he could help them win. So I knew with him being on the field last year he had to be pretty special.”

Renfree completed 80 percent of his passes against Elon last week. “It’s hard for a kid to hit 80 percent if there’s no defense on the other side if you’re just out there throwing on air. On one hand I was probably a little surprised and disappointed that he played so well last week. Watching the video was pretty special.”

While Wake Forest is favored to continue its streak against Duke, Renfree could be the difference maker.

North Carolina is no closer to resolving its roster when it comes to the NCAA and school investigations into the football program, coach Butch Davis said Wednesday.

“There’s no movement today on any of the players we were not in position to play last weekend,” he said on the ACC teleconference.

Carolina held out 13 players in Saturday’s loss to LSU, with an obvious impact on the defense. Those losses rippled across the UNC lineup in other ways as well.

The Tar Heels started Johnny White at tailback and he promptly fumbled the ball away. UNC turned to Anthony Elzy, a converted fullback, after that and even sophomore Hunter Furr. Asked about his running back situation for the Sept. 18 Georgia Tech game, Davis said both White and Elzy had ankle injuries and he was uncertain what would happen.

Carolina also had to use inexperienced players on special teams, which led to some disastrous coverage issues in the first half against LSU.

Quarterback Russell Wilson was the headline in N.C. State’s victory over Western Carolina Saturday, but Wilson will need more help as State’s schedule toughens up with Saturday’s game at Central Florida.

Two issues for State are whether it can run the ball, and how its inexperienced offensive line performs. The Wolfpack rushed for 129 yards against Western, a decent number considering the fact that redshirt freshman Dean Haynes and true freshman Mustafa Greene had never carried the ball in a college game. Haynes carried 13 times for 69 yards and Greene 10 times for 35 yards.

“Our thought process was keep it simple, hold onto the football, run to the goal line,” O’Brien said. He said he wasn’t looking for his backs to do anything fancy, but to turn upfield and not make a mistake.

A major issue with young backs is pass protection. While fans often evaluate runners by how they perform with the ball, coaches are watching closely to see if they protect the quarterback. In that aspect, O’Brien said he was pleased with what he saw.

“They were perfect in where they were going and what they were doing,” O’Brien said. The technique could use some work but at least they grasped the game plan.

“They could be a little better fundamentally but as far as assignment-wise they were going the right direction the entire night,” O’Brien said.

UCF, with George O’Leary as coach, is expected to field a defense that will be much tougher than Western Carolina. The Knights beat South Dakota 38-7 and allowed only 220 yards of total offense.

State’s offensive line is inexperienced, but has talent. O’Brien raved after massive left tackle Rob Crisp, a true freshman who started because Jake Vermiglio did not dress.

“With Rob Crisp it was an exceptional performance from a freshman,” O’Brien said. “What you see is really good athletic ability. You saw great tenaciousness. He’s got a certain confident about himself.”

O’Brien said Vermiglio is practicing this week but refused to say if he will play Saturday against Central Florida. Vermiglio faced drug charges in the offseason, but they were dropped.

O’Brien said Crisp and Vermiglio will both remain at left tackle to give the Wolfpack depth at that position this season.

Some of the fan reaction to The News & Observer’s Wednesday story linking associate coach John Blake to agent Gary Wichard misses a key point. Many fans, in response, have pointed out that Wichard represents only one UNC player, Kentwan Balmer, who came up in the Butch Davis regime.

That criticism overlooks the fact that Davis came into a program bereft of talent. Balmer was San Francisco’s first-round pick in 2008 – UNC’s first first-rounder since Julius Peppers and Ryan Sims in 2002. Hakeem Nicks was a first-round pick in 2009 and Richard Quinn went in the second round. In 2010, Carolina didn’t have a player select in the top three rounds.

The 2011 NFL Draft will be different, with multiple UNC players considered first-round picks. It makes sense that agent would want to position himself to represent those Carolina players – and the NFL prospects to follow. The N&O’s story showed a pattern of communication between Blake and Wichard that follows their professional association, and the trip Marvin Austin took last summer to work out with Balmer, a trip that is likely an NCAA violation.

ACC NEWS RELEASE – Raycom Sports and the Atlantic Coast Conference today announced that beginning this season, the Raycom Sports Regional Syndicated package of Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball telecasts will be branded as the ACC Network.

The new marketing initiative will feature ACC Network graphics and designations beginning with the first game this year, the Duke at Wake Forest telecast on Saturday, Sept. 11.

The ACC Network branding was part of the new television rights agreements between the ACC, Raycom Sports and ESPN that begins with the 2011 Football season. Raycom Sports and the Conference moved to begin the branding during the final year of the existing contract.

“Beginning to brand the ACC Network with the start of the first conference football game made great sense for our league, member schools, fans and partners,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “It’s a great tribute to Raycom that we’re able to roll out this initiative a year before the new contract begins.”

“The establishment of the ACC Network brand was a natural step, given our longstanding syndication exclusivity with the Atlantic Coast Conference,” said Jimmy Rayburn, vice-president of operations for Raycom Sports. “Moving forward with our new rights agreement, we were already preparing the transition. But with the volume of media coverage already surrounding the conference’s new television rights agreement, it made perfect sense to capitalize on the public’s attention now with the ACC Network designation.”

ACC NEWS RELEASE – North Carolina senior quarterback T.J. Yates and Maryland junior free safety Kenny Tate headline a list of eight players honored as the Atlantic Coast Conference football players of the week, announced Tuesday by the ACC.

Yates threw for a career-high 412 yards against LSU, setting a league record for most yards thrown by a quarterback in a season opener. Tate helped the Terrapins secure a 17-14 win against Navy as he stopped quarterback Ricky Dobbs on a fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 34 seconds remaining, maintaining the lead for Maryland.

Tate is joined by Terrapin teammate Joe Vellano, the defensive lineman selection. Five more schools had players earn recognition, including Florida State’s Zebrie Sanders, Georgia Tech’s Sean Bedford, and Virginia’s Oday Aboushi as co-offensive linemen. Miami’s Lamar Miller earned rookie of the week honors, and Clemson’s Dawson Zimmerman was named the specialist of the week.

Jheranie Boyd

Jheranie Boyd made sure to keep a straight face when the play call came in Saturday night. North Carolina was at its own 3-yard line, down by 20 to LSU, and Tar Heel fans were clicking off and going to bed across the state.

Coach Butch Davis had urged the team on at halftime. “Coach Davis gave us a speech – he said we wore Carolina blue for a reason,” Boyd recalled. And offensive tackle Mike Ingersoll told Boyd to be ready to be a leader among the receivers.

Boyd had been running 18-yard cuts all game – that is, bolting 18 yards downfield and turning back to face the quarterback. He relayed to his receivers coach that he was confident he could get open if given a chance to hurtle downfield. That message went up to offensive coordinator John Shoop, and when Carolina had the ball at its own 3, Boyd got his chance.

He went to the line concealing the excitement over the call. “I try to keep the same attitude about me,” he said.

At the snap, he shot upfield like he was doing his usual route, faked outside and then zoomed deep as the ball from T.J. Yates floated into his hands. “I felt I could get them on a double move – and it worked,” Boyd said Tuesday in Chapel Hill.

All that was left was the dash to the endzone and the sweet feeling of looking at the massive video board and seeing no LSU players nearby.

That play sparked a comeback that nearly won the game for UNC, and it also underscored how much better Carolina’s passing game might be this season. The Tar Heel receivers were infants a year ago, a group of freshmen thrust into key roles with Hakeem Nicks gone.

Now, Boyd and Erik Highsmith and Josh Adams feel much more confident that they are on the same page with Yates.

“I feel we are way closer than we were last year.”

That confidence is part of a trend likely to continue throughout the season. Last year, Carolina won with defense. This year, the defense remains a question mark given school and NCAA investigations – and the more seasoned offense is determined to play a larger role.

“We said it has to be even this year, offense and defense,” Boyd said. …

Bruce Carter

North Carolina linebacker Bruce Carter was with his family Friday night when the call came that he was eligible for Saturday’s game with LSU in Atlanta.

Carter hustled to the Kenan Stadium football center, and he and Quan Sturdivant took a private plan at 8:45 p.m. to whoosh down to Atlanta.

But Carter and Sturdivant and the two pilots, by the way.

“Pretty sweet,” he said with a smile Tuesday. …

You have to love the attitude of UNC tight end Zack Pianalto. Pianalto is refusing to say the last play against LSU should have been pass interference, even though the ESPN video appeared to show it was. A Tigers linebacker was draped around him at the end, but Pianalto isn’t calling foul.

“Not at all. It was a great defensive play by him,” Pianalto said Tuesday. “He did exactly what he needed to do.”

Classy comments, again, by the UNC senior.