{"id":150,"date":"2010-08-13T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-13T17:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsports.us\/?p=150"},"modified":"2010-08-13T10:39:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-13T17:39:00","slug":"n-c-state-enters-benchmark-year-under-obrien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=150","title":{"rendered":"N.C. State enters benchmark year under O’Brien"},"content":{"rendered":"
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N.C. State hasn\u2019t had five straight losing seasons since 1956, when coach Earle Edwards\u2019 team finished 3-7 overall. That year marked State\u2019s sixth straight losing season before Edwards turned the program around and embarked on a long, and overall successful, career.<\/p>\n

That history is a reason why the Wolfpack is entering an important season this fall. State fans have poured time and money into this program, and to see all that net four straight losing seasons is hard to fathom. It\u2019s true that coach Tom O\u2019Brien has had tremendous bad luck with injuries; it\u2019s also true that he is entering his fourth season, and injuries are part of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to win. That shows progress,\u201d O\u2019Brien said in an Associated Press story.<\/a> \u201cThat\u2019s what we haven\u2019t been able to do. \u2026 We\u2019ve got to go on and have a winning season and go to a bowl game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Say what you want about State fans, but they are amazingly loyal to their program. In this region, only South Carolina football fans have given more \u2013 and often received less \u2013 than Wolfpack fans. State averaged 56,422 fans for eight home games last year, which is an amazing number for a 5-7 team.<\/p>\n

But at some point, as O\u2019Brien understands, you have to win. O\u2019Brien is a smart, tough coach who wants to win and do it the right way. The chaotic ways of the Chuck Amato era have disappeared, but the winning seasons haven\u2019t returned.<\/p>\n

The Wolfpack is four seasons into O\u2019Brien\u2019s tenure and still doesn\u2019t project as an upper-half ACC team. This schedule, with Central Florida, Cincinnati and East Carolina among non-conference games, is not easy. Another losing season would be difficult to accept, and certainly make the new chancellor and new athletics director take a long look at how to fix it.<\/p>\n

State fans deserve a winner. This season is an important barometer of whether Tom O\u2019Brien can deliver one in West Raleigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N.C. State hasn\u2019t had five straight losing seasons since 1956, when coach Earle Edwards\u2019 team finished 3-7 overall. That year marked State\u2019s sixth straight losing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}