N.C. State has an off week in preparation for playing Virginia a week from Saturday. So, just what does the Wolfpack do during an “off week?”

QUESTION: Can you go through a little bit what your practice schedule has been like this week without a game on Saturday? What are your main points of emphasis this week?

COACH TOM O’BRIEN: Right now we haven’t
done anything. I gave them all off Sunday,
Monday, Tuesday. You know, the good news was
we had no new injuries last Saturday, but we’ve
still got a lot of guys banged up. Today they came
over, and this morning we worked in the strength
and conditioning area. We ran, we lifted, in the
training room every day.

We’ll practice Thursday. We’ll practice
Friday. We’ll give them Saturday off, and then we’ll
start Sunday with game week for Virginia. The
emphasis is on getting better. I just answered the
last question about continuity on defense. Trying
to get a defense lined up that we think will be here
each and every week from the rest of the season
and go back to work on some of the fundamentals
and things.

Part of the week for the coaches has been
out recruiting, the other part has been
self-evaluation and what we’ve done well, what we
haven’t done so well, and what we need to
emphasize. Part of the problem with the defense
with playing so many guys, we’ve got to figure out
what we can do well.