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BostonCollege quarterback Chris Crane rushed for his third touchdown of the game, a 13-yard jaunt, with 22.8 seconds to play, as the Eagles escaped with a 38-31 victory over NC State Saturday afternoon at Carter-Finley Stadium.
The Wolfpack, which twice trailed by two touchdowns, fought back to tie the game at 31-31 with 3:33 remaining on redshirt freshman quarterback Russell Wilson’s two-yard run, recharging a sold-out Homecoming crowd and seizing the game’s momentum.
But Crane swiftly led his team down the field, directing a masterful seven-play, 70-yard, game-winning drive in just over three minutes. Crane had thrown for only 461 yards in the Eagles’ first four games, but picked apart the Wolfpack defense with three rushing touchdowns and two passing scores on the day. He completed 34 of his 51 passes for 428 yards and rushed for another 42 yards.
“He was on fire in the first half,” said O’Brien, who recruited the fifth-year senior quarterback when he was the head coach at BostonCollege. “He was making every throw with pin-point accuracy. We got his best shot.”
The Eagles (4-1 overall, 1-1 ACC) could have put the game away earlier in the fourth quarter, but gave the ball away on downs at the Wolfpack’s 37-yard line with six minutes to play.
On the first play from scrimmage, Wilson hit sophomore Owen Spencer with a 35-yard pass on the sideline. On the next play, tight end George Bryan reached behind himself for a spectacular one-handed 20-yard pass that took the Wolfpack to BC’s 8-yard line.
After a sack and an incompletion, BostonCollege was flagged for pass interference in the end zone, putting the Wolfpack on the 2-yard line. On the next play, Wilson scurried around the left end for the game-tying touchdown.
“There was no doubt in my mind, after that, that we were going to win the game,” said Wilson, who completed 19 of his 33 passes for 218 yards. “We just kept playing hard. But losing like that hurts. We have to keep working. It was a tough way to lose a game.
“I do feel like each game we are getting better on offense.”
The Wolfpack has the next 12 days off before facing Florida State on Thursday, Oct. 16, at Carter-Finley Stadium. O'Brien said he would give his team the next three days off, so it can continue to heal from the injuries that have decimated his roster. Overall, though, he goes into the mini-break feeling good about the way his depleted team managed to fight back and nearly take the victory.
"The one thing that has been constant throughout the year is that we have played hard and stayed after it," O'brien said. "We have to make sure we continue to do that. I know they are awfully disappointed with where we are right now. We will have to get our heads up, and get back and get some healthy bodies back and then go play."
Twice, BostonCollege went up by two touchdowns, but big plays by the Wolfpack (2-4, 0-2) on offense, defense and special teams kept it in the game. The NC State defense created three turnovers in the game, while the offense did not give the ball away all day long.
One play after junior Clem Johnson returned a kickoff to the 39-yard line, Wilson hit Spencer with a 61-yard touchdown pass, the longest pass or reception of either of their careers, pulling the Wolfpack within a touchdown.
Early in the third quarter, on fourth and five, the Eagles faked a punt to upback Brian Toal, who rambled 39-yards for the first down and more. Four plays later, Crane ran for his second touchdown of the game to give his team to a 28-17 lead.
“That fake punt was a big play in the game,” O’Brien said. “We stopped them, but then they were able to score and put us in a deeper hole.”
On their next possession, the Eagles extended that lead to 14 points on a 17-yard Steve Aponavicius field goal.
Two big special teams’ plays and two forced fumbles kept the Wolfpack within four points, 21-17, at the half, after BostonCollege jumped out to a 14-point lead in the high-scoring first quarter. Crane threw for two touchdowns and ran for another in the opening period.
But the Wolfpack closed the gap, thanks to a 100-yard kickoff return by freshman receiver T.J. Graham and a field goal by sophomore Josh Czajchowski.
On the final play of the opening quarter, Graham took the ball one-yard deep in the end zone and raced up the right sideline. He cut back to the middle around the BostonCollege 25-yard line to take advantage of a block by Johnson, who saw his first action of the season after suffering a preseason broken jaw.
“I just have to trust my speed,” said Graham, a state high school sprint champion.
It was the longest kickoff return in school history, better by one yard than the 99-yard return Darrell Blackman had against Clemson last season.
After freshman linebacker Dwayne Maddox forced a fumble a the BC 28-yard line that was recovered by teammate Willie Young, the Wolfpack drove all the way inside the Eagles’ 1-yard line. On third down, Wilson had the ball slapped out of his hands as he tried to stretch over the goal line.
Offensive lineman Ted Larsen recovered the fumble and the Pack settled for the 22-yard field goal with 8:46 remaining before the half.
Crane threw the ball with pin-point accuracy all game long, completing 17 of his 25 passes for 261 yards in the first half alone.
Wilson, in his return after missing last week’s game because of an injury, scored the Wolfpack’s first touchdown of the game on a 10-yard quarterback keeper to tie the score at 7-7, the capper on a seven-play, 61-yard drive.
The Eagles opened the scoring on a 41-yard touchdown pass from Crane to Justin Jarvis with 9:47 remaining in the first quarter. Crane connected with Rich on a 12-yard pass for the Eagles’ second touchdown.
BC built its biggest lead after Crane scored on a five-yard run with nine seconds remaining in the first quarter. Graham, who entered the game second in the nation in kickoff returns, returned the ensuing kickoff for the first touchdown of his career.
Earlier in the game, Graham broke loose for a 60-yard return to set up the Wolfpack’s first score. On another return, Graham handed off to teammate J.C. Neal for a 36-yard return.
The Wolfpack has the next 12 days off until it hosts FloridaState on Thursday, Oct. 16, in a 7:30 p.m. game broadcast nationally on ESPN.
No. 13 South Florida scored seven times in the first half and cruised to a 41-10 victory over NC State Saturday evening at rain-soaked Carter-Finley Stadium.
Bulls’ junior quarterback Matt Grothe was all but unstoppable in the first half, completing his first 11 passes and 15 of 18 in the half. He also hurt the Wolfpack defense by carrying the ball for 55 yards before halftime.
Rain started to fall late in the first quarter, as the Bulls built their 31-10 advantage by getting 19 first downs to the Wolfpack’s four. Most of the sold-out crowd filed out of the stadium and did not return to their seats.
South Florida (5-0 overall) scored on five of its own possessions of the first half and two of the Wolfpack’s, notching three touchdowns, two field goals and a pair NC State safeties, while the Pack offense managed a field goal and a touchdown.
“We got beat by an excellent football team tonight,” Wolfpack head coach Tom O’Brien said. “We couldn’t make plays against them, and they made a lot against us. This one is over. We can forget about it, go back to conference play next week and see what we can get done.
“South Florida did a very good job using a couple of things we hadn’t seen before. Our defense had a tough time, and that is on us.”
Neither team scored in the third quarter, though the Wolfpack (2-3) threatened by reaching the USF 3-yard line before turning the ball over on downs. In the fourth quarter, the Bulls added a 44-yard field goal by Maikon Bonani and a 10-yard touchdown run by Mo Plancher to round out their scoring on the night.
On the night, Grothe completed 20 of 29 passes for 259 yards and one touchdown, while rushing nine times for 68 yards. “Their quarterback is something special,” O’Brien said. “He’s the real deal.”
For the Wolfpack, replacement quarterback Harrison Beck, taking over for the injured Russell Wilson, competed nine of his 32 passes for 239 yards and three interceptions. Four of his completions went for 39 yards or longer, but he spent much of the night scrambling away from pressure from the South Florida defensive front.
On defense, O’Brien said, his team could not keep up with the speed of South Florida’s offense.
“Their speed of the game is something we weren’t ready for at the start of the game,” said the coach. “You can’t slow down the game on defense. You have to play at the pace of the offense.
“They had much more speed and they were more powerful up front. Their offense is pretty efficient at what they do.” Both teams scored on their first possession of the game, with the Bulls getting a 1-yard touchdown run from Jamar Taylor and the Wolfpack answering with a 32-yard field goal by sophomore placekicker Josh Czajkowski with 7:51 remaining in the first quarter.
The Bulls marched straight down the field on their second possession with Grothe dissecting the Wolfpack secondary. He finished off the second drive with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Carlton Mitchell with 4:37 remaining that gave his team a 14-3 advantage.
USF sophomore tailback Mike Ford then took over in the second quarter, leading the Bulls to their third score of the evening with a 1-yard touchdown run for a 21-3 lead.
South Florida scored twice more on safeties created by bad NC State snaps. The first went over punter Bradley Pierson’s head and he fell on it in the end zone for a 27-yard loss. The second happened when a shotgun snap went over Beck’s head and he kicked it out of the end zone, for a safety-by-penalty, giving the Bulls a 25-3 lead.
In between those safeties, the Bulls missed out on another three points when Bonani’s 44-yard field goal attempt bounced off the right upright of the goal post in the south end zone. Later in the second quarter, Bonani booted a 20-yard field goal to give his team a 28-3 lead.
The Wolfpack scored its only touchdown of the first game after freshman T.J. Graham reeled off a 47-yard kickoff return and starting quarterback Harrison Beck hit sophomore wide receiver Owen Spencer on a 48-yard pass to the 1-yard line. Senior tailback Andre Brown scored on a 1-yard run with 1:08 remaining before halftime.
The Bulls quickly answered with a 32-yard field goal by Bonani as time expired in the first half.
The Wolfpack returns to Carter-Finley next Saturday to play Boston College in a noon game that will be broadcast on the Raycom local network.
Clearwater, Florida’s Harrison Beck already had his eye on what he thought were bigger and more established horizons when coaches from the University of South Florida were making recruiting overtures entering his senior year of high school. A hot shot quarterback prospect at Countryside High, Beck was starting to draw a lot of attention nationally, so USF, a school located just 20 minutes from his home, didn’t seem like a realistic option to make the cut.
“When I came out of high school, they recruited me a lot,” said Beck, now a redshirt junior at NC State. “When I came out of high school in 2005, they weren’t the USF that they are now. They’ve gotten a lot bigger and more competitive than they were then. I wasn’t really paying too much attention back then to USF.”
So he chose Nebraska, a traditional college football powerhouse that had just hired passing guru Bill Callahan as its head coach. Following a brief cup of coffee with the Cornhuskers, Beck transferred to NC State.
It’s strange how things work out.
While Nebraska has all but fallen off the national stage, the University of South Florida has quietly emerged as a program to be reckoned with. When the Bulls visit NC State Saturday night at 7:30, they’ll bring with them a No. 13 national ranking and a 4-0 record.
It is strange how things work out.
Because Russell Wilson was injured during an otherwise stellar performance in NC State’s 30-24 overtime win over East Carolina last Saturday, Beck will be asked to make his fifth career start for the Pack. A start that will come against a fast improving USF program that was just starting to turn the corner when he left the Sunshine State for Lincoln, Nebraska.
“It’s definitely been an interesting past couple of weeks,” Beck acknowledged. “You don’t want a teammate going down; Russell had a great game last week. He’s been a great leader for us. But for me personally, it does feel good to get to play this week.”
Did I mention it’s strange how things work out?
The current South Florida quarterback, Matt Grothe, is one of the poster boys for the new fad in college football: a quarterback who can run and pass out of the spread offense. Sure, there are others. Pat White at West Virginia is a lethal weapon. So is Florida’s Tim Tebow. And while Grothe probably isn’t Heisman Trophy material like Tebow, he has been, at the very least, in the discussion.
Grothe has won some games in his career with his legs. But if there were any doubts about his ability to dominate with his passing ability, they were laid to rest a few weeks ago when the Bulls rallied from a 17-point deficit in a stunning 37-34 victory over Kansas. Passing for 338 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions, Grothe completed 32-of-45 throws against the Jayhawks. He also added a 28-yard touchdown run for good measure.
Can he be stopped? One has to wonder if South Florida’s surprisingly close 17-9 win at Florida International last week was an aberration. Grothe was a modest 14-of-22 passing for 136 yards and rushed for 48 yards on 11 carries against a Florida International team that’s dropped 27 of its last 28 games.
“We won the game and that’s always good,” reasoned USF coach Jim Leavitt. “All coaches say they’d rather have an ugly win than a pretty loss, but I hate hearing that line. I just want to play good football. We didn’t play good football, but we still won.”
Leavitt went on to point out that the Bulls won because they have talent. Few coaches readily acknowledge that they have good talent, so that was refreshing.
With Grothe in charge, this offense is putting up averages of 450 yards and 35 points per game. Realistically, the Wolfpack is going to give up some yards on Saturday night, so the goal must be limiting the damage on the scoreboard. And for the most part, that’s exactly what coordinator Mike Archer’s defense has done this season.
“Our defense has done a really good job this year,” Beck said. “They’ve kept it close and kept us in a lot of games this year.”
Having already forced an ACC-best 12 turnovers, the Wolfpack defense has been quite resilient thus far. Last week’s amazing goal line stand against ECU is what made the frantic finish and overtime possible.
Grothe will be the most complete quarterback the Pack has faced thus far and the offense itself is every bit as prolific as Clemson’s.
“I wouldn’t say it would be that difficult [to stop] because we’ve played good teams with good running quarterbacks just like ECU,” said NC State middle linebacker Ray Michel. “I believe our D-line will be able to contain him.”
But, for the second straight week, that D-line will be missing tackle Alan-Michael Cash (knee). Plus, NC State will be without its best defensive player as well. Weak-side linebacker Nate Irving, who’s been a human highlight reel this season, is out indefinitely after sustaining a lower leg injury last week. Irving has a feel for the game that can’t be taught and his ability to always show up around the football was uncanny.
Irving’s instincts will be missed, especially against a cagy quarterback who has mastered the clever schemes that South Florida employs.
Protecting Beck: NC State’s offensive line took a step forward against ECU last week. Asked on many occasions to keep the pocket clean with five-man minimum protection schemes, the O-line did a respectable job. And on those occasions when the Pirates would get pressure, Wilson would use his nifty feet to escape harm and buy more time.
Beck, of course, does not feature the same mobility, meaning the Pack may very well have to limit the number of four wide receiver sets that worked so well last week. Pass protection will likely be the single biggest key against a South Florida defense that features two outstanding pass rushing ends.
The kingpin of rush is George Selvie, a 6-4, 245-pound junior who had 14.5 sacks last season. Does 14.5 ring a bell Pack fans? That’s the same number of sacks Mario Williams registered the season before he became the number one player selected in the 2006 NFL Draft.
Selvie has 22 career sacks, which ranks fourth among the NCAA’s active sack leaders. With 50.5 tackles for loss, he has more than any other defender playing college football today. Incredibly, USF has only four sacks through its first four games. Selvie’s mere presence, however, forces opposing teams to commit more people to protection, thus restricting offensive strategies.
“He’s getting a lot more attention than he has before,” Leavitt said. “Yes, we want to get sacks in every game, but that’s just the way it’s played out. I mostly talk to the other guys. I tell them ‘if they’re all blocking [Selvie], who’s blocking you?’ We need to get some more production out of the other guys.”
But Selvie and company have done enough to bother opposing quarterbacks, who are only completing 54 percent of their attempts for a measly average of 171 yards per game.
“He’s excellent,” NC State head coach Tom O’Brien said of Selvie. “The other end (Jarriett Buie) is excellent. Both guys on the perimeter make the other guy better. They’ve got two guys coming off the edge that are really special rushers.”
Overall, South Florida’s defense is allowing just 235 yards per game, a figure that ranks 12th in the country. Leavitt and his staff have built up the talent base simply by staying close to home and combing their own recruiting rich state. Ninety-six of the 107 players on the USF roster are from the state of Florida. As irony would have it, one of those recruiting targets that got away back in 2005 will be the Wolfpack’s starting quarterback on Saturday.
“Weve got a good football team,” Beck said. “We’re running the football really well and our offensive line is playing great. You just play within yourself and go out and have some fun. I feel like if we play our best we’ll have an opportunity to be in it.”
A pressbox-overturned replay gave NC State a game-tying touchdown with 72 seconds remaining in regulation and a senior Andre Brown scored on a 10-yard run in overtime to give the Wolfpack a 30-24 victory over No. 15 East Carolina.
On East Carolina’s third play in overtime, NC State defensive end Shea McKeen sacked East Carolina quarterback Patrick Pinkney and stripped the ball out of his hands. Teammate Willie Young recovered the fumble, giving the ball to the Wolfpack for its chance to score.
“I couldn’t see the ball when I was chasing him, but I wanted to try to strip it out of his hands,” McKeen said. “I didn’t even know that it came out until I saw Willie going after it. That made it that much better.”
Brown set up his score with a 16-yard high-hurdling run, and followed with a 10-yard run for the winning touchdown in front of a sell-out crowd of 57,583 at Carter-Finley Stadium.
“When the defense goes out there and play like they played, getting that turnover in overtime and making those two stands inside the 5, I didn’t want to rely on the kicker, to be honest with you,” Brown said. “I wanted to go out there, put that boy in the end zone and get out of here.”
Freshman quarterback Russell Wilson threw three touchdown passes for the Wolfpack (2-2 overall) and the defense held ECU to just three points on a pair of fourth-quarter goal-line stands. East Carolina (3-1) took a 24-17 lead with 4:27 remaining in the game on a Ben Hartman field goal.
But the Wolfpack, with four pin-point passes from Wilson, answered quickly.
Freshman speedster T.J. Graham gave State’s offense great field position with a 45-yard kickoff return. “I was really just trying to change the game,” said Graham, who averaged nearly 30 yards on his four kickoff returns.
Wilson threw a down-field pass for 26 yards to sophomore Jarvis Williams, a flare pass to Brown for 17 yards and a third-down pass to redshirt tight end George Bryan in the middle of the field get the Wolfpack to the East Carolina 1-yard line as the final two minutes of regulation ticked off the clock.
An illegal procedure penalty moved the ball back to the 5-yard line. On second down, Wilson hit Bryan in the end zone, a pass that was initially ruled incomplete. But game officials reviewed the play in the press box and over-turned that ruling, pulling the Wolfpack within one point with 1:12 remaining.
Sophomore placekicker Josh Czajkowski’s extra point tied the game at 24-24.
That set the stage for overtime, and again the defense came up with the big play, creating its second turnover of the game. Then Brown, who played for Greenville’s RoseHigh School for three years and knows three-quarters of the Pirate roster, finished off the Pack’s second straight win over its eastern rival.
“For the first time since I have been here, we finally played 60 minutes of tough, hard-nosed football,” said Wolfpack second-year coach Tom O’Brien. “It paid off in the end.”
After NC State scored on its opening drive of the second half to tie the game at 14-14, East Carolina sophomore tailback Norman Whitley broke free for a 42-yard touchdown run with 9:40 remaining in the third quarter to give the Pirates a 21-14 lead in the back-and-forth affair.
State answered with a 41-yard field goal by Czajkowski field goal with 1:10 remaining in the third quarter, cutting the lead to 21-17.
Wilson moved the offense all afternoon, out-gaining the Pirates 384-383. He received help from dual-threat running attack of Brown and junior Jamelle Eugene, who made his 2008 debut after missing the first three games because of an ankle injury. Brown rushed for 73 yards on 12 carries, Eugene had 25 on nine carries and Wilson had 26 on 12 carries.
“I think one I am learning about Russell is that he plays a lot better sometimes than he looks in practice,” O’Brien said. “There are things we have to learn about him. Certainly today, he made plays and extended plays with his feet.”
Wilson completed 21 of his 31 passes for 210 yards. He threw seven passes to Eugene, five to Bryan and four to Brown, maximizing his weapons with some short passes and then opening up the offense with a handful of downfield throws to Graham and Williams.
Curtis Underwood’s 23-yard return of the second half kickoff allowed Wilson to start from the his own 40-yard line. He quickly moved the offense across midfield. Rolling out with an offensive lineman for protection, Wilson found Bryan open in the middle of the field for a 30-yard pass to the ECU 13-yard line. After two plays of negative yardage, Wilson rifled a pass to sophomore wide receiver Jarvis Williams for a 20-yard touchdown pass to tie the game with 10:56 remaining in the third quarter.
The Wolfpack’s defense again played well, even though it lost its top performer, sophomore linebacker Nate Irving, to a lower-leg injury in the first half. He attempted to come back in the second half, but played only a few downs before the medical staff held him out for the rest of the game.
Early in the fourth quarter, East Carolina drove deep into NC State territory, reaching the 1-yard line on second-and-goal. But, even without Irving, the Wolfpack defense held strong for three consecutive plays. On fourth and goal, Wolfpack senior safety J.C. Neal blitzed and hit ECU’s Jonathan Williams in the backfield for a four-yard loss.
On its next possession, ECU drove inside the Wolfpack 5-yard line again, but could not get into the end zone. With 4:27 remaining in the game, Hartman kicked the field goal that gave the Pirates a seven-point lead.
“It looked like we were a little tired and a little confused during that second series on the goal line,” O’Brien said. “That’s why I called timeout down there. To keep them out of the end zone on four plays was huge. To force them to kick a field goal after four more plays down there, that was doubly huge.”
In the first half, East Carolina free safety Van Eskridge intercepted a tipped pass from NC State reserve quarterback Harrison Beck. Eskridge cut through the Wolfpack offense and returned the pick 23 yards to give the Pirates a 7-0 advantage.
Beck, for the second consecutive possession, came in on third-and-long to replace Wilson under center after the Wolfpack was backed deep into its own territory by East Carolina punts.
A short punt gave the Wolfpack its best field position of the game, on the East Carolina 46. Wilson marched the team down the field with big passes to Graham and Eugene. On fourth and 1 inside the 5, Wilson scrambled for a first down at the 1-yard line.
But a bad handoff between Wilson and Brown lost 12 yards. Wilson scrambled to get the offense back inside the 5 just before the first quarter ended, and on third down Wilson avoided a blitz and found an open Brown in the back of the end zone for a game-tying touchdown.
The Pirates regained the lead with nine minutes remaining before the half, when quarterback Patrick Pinkney found wide receiver Davon Drew in the middle of the field and he fought through the secondary for a 39-yard touchdown reception.
The Wolfpack looked to tie the game late in the first half, when freshman safety Justin Byers intercepted a Pinkney pass deep in NC State territory. Officials initially ruled that Byers fumbled the ball when he was tackled by receiver Dwayne Harris, but that call was overturned by instant replay.
Beck came off the bench and drove the Wolfpack down the field, reaching the East Carolina 18-yard line with 40 seconds remaining in the half. On fourth and one, however, Beck pushed over the right side of the line for a first down, but had the ball stripped out of his hands before he was tackled. Replay confirmed the call.
“The thing I like about us right now is that we are playing hard,” O’Brien said. “We are learning how to do that. Right now, with all the injuries we have had, that’s the only way we can win football games.”
The Wolfpack returns to Carter-Finley Stadium next Saturday for second of four consecutive home games to play South Florida in a 7:30 p.m. contest that will be shown on ESPNU.
