With the NFL’s draft combine getting started this week in Indianapolis, I spoke with draft analyst Dane Brugler of NFLDraftScout.com and CBSSports.com about the prospects of a few notable local players, including N.C. State’s Mike Glennon and David Amerson, North Carolina’s Giovani Bernard and Duke’s Sean Renfree.
Brugler also mentioned Wolfpack safety Earl Wolff as one of the players who had impressed him the most leading up to the combine.
RALEIGH — Quarterback Mike Glennon passed for three touchdowns, two to fellow senior Tobais Palmer, to lead N.C. State to a 27-10 win over Boston College on Saturday to close the regular season with a 7-5 record.
The Wolfpack will play in a bowl game for the third straight season, and fourth time in five years, with Saturday's win. State's season could end where it began — in Atlanta.
Updated 8:01 p.m.
CHAPEL HILL — While Giovani Bernard ran up the sideline and into the legend of the North Carolina-N.C. State football rivalry here at Kenan Stadium on Saturday, his teammates on the Tar Heels’ sideline ran with him.
Mike Glennon is getting ready for his second season as N.C. State's starting quarterback and Russell Wilson is getting for his first season as an NFL quarterback.
"It worked out for everybody," Wolfpack coach Tom O'Brien said.
Which is what O'Brien had hoped would happen when he decided to split with Wilson after the 2010 season.
Tyler Brosius hasn't played organized baseball since his senior year of high school two years ago but he has an undeniable raw talent, Walters State coach Ken Campbell said.
Brosius, N.C. State's backup quarterback a year ago, transferred to the Tennessee community college to play baseball, Campbell confirmed on Tuesday.
"The sky is the limit for him," Campbell said. "He's real raw because he hasn't played in awhile."
UNC quarterback Bryn Renner shares a past with N.C. State quarterback Mike Glennon. PHOTO: Robert Willett
GREENSBORO — Don’t want to give too much away, because I made them the focal point of the story I just wrote off of Day One of the ACC’s annual preseason football kickoff, but North Carolina quarterback Bryn Renner shares a lot in common with N.C. State quarterback Mike Glennon.
Both are natives of northern Virginia. Both grew up playing basketball and football. Both competed against the other. Both went on to play collegiately at North Carolina schools. And both are part of perhaps deepest returning class of quarterbacks the ACC has ever seen.
RALEIGH — There were the usual highlights for N.C. State in the Kay Yow Spring Game on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Mike Glennon made some nice throws and David Amerson had a sweet interception — off Glennon. History will note the Black team beat the White, 32-7 in front of a crowd of 24,797. More importantly, the game raised more than $26,000 for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien saw positives and negatives in the Wolfpack’s first scrimmage of the spring Saturday – which is about what he expected.
O’Brien enjoyed watching quarterback Mike Glennon throw against the first-team secondary. In 75 plays, the offense scored two touchdowns, both on passes. The defense, which had 27 interceptions last season, picked off two passes in the scrimmage.
O’Brien said Glennon and the secondary are improving.
“(The secondary) is operating at a high level, which is good for them and our quarterback,” O’Brien said. “It’s all about making each other better.”
N.C. State begins spring football practice Friday afternoon with Wolfpack fans concerned more about the basketball doings in St. Louis than football in West Raleigh.
But it's an important time for any football team and again will be for the Pack, 8-5 last season and a bowl winner in Tom O'Brien's fifth year as coach.
"The emphasis, as always, is to be better individually," O'Brien said today. "As individuals improve, the team improves. Certainly as the spring goes along there are certain things we need to look at, offensively, defensively, schematically, to make us better. There are some younger players we need to look at in situational things."
Updated 12:17 a.m.
CHARLOTTE — There was no such thing as the easy way for N.C. State's football team in the 2011 season.
So when it took a 21-point lead in the third quarter, you got the feeling Louisville would make the Belk Bowl interesting.
The Wolfpack held on for a 31-24 win over the Cardinals in front of 58,427 fans at Bank of America Stadium on Tuesday night.
