"Jimmy Kimmel Live" made a huge move this week, getting a network promotion from the 12:05 a.m. slot to 11:35 p.m. -- right alongside the big late night players David Letterman and Jay Leno. And on Kimmel's first 11:35 show, which aired on Tuesday night, an N.C. State super-fan got major exposure during the opening monologue.

For a joke about ESPN announcer Brent Musburger's over-the-top admiration of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron's girlfriend (Katherine Webb), Kimmel replayed a clip from Monday night's game. Except instead of showing the reigning Miss Alabama while Musburger raved, the clip showed a topless Jake Robinson hanging onto a pole and enthusiastically twirling his t-shirt in the stands at an N.C. State vs. Florida State football game. You may know Jake better from his 15 minutes of internet fame this fall as "shirtless fat guy."

Here's the clip from Kimmel.

College football season means college football obsession. And beginning next week, NC State fans can relive the season's football games with the "Wolfpack Football Look Back" TV show.

"Wolfpack Football Look Back" has host Mark Thomas going through every play from the previous weekend's game, with Gary Hahn's play-by-play call from the Wolfpack Sports Network accompanying the replay.

The season debuts Wednesday, September 7, with a look back at Saturday's game against Liberty. It airs at 8 p.m. exclusively on Time Warner Cable channel 24, and is also available on Carolina On Demand (channel 199 and 1047).

Coach Tom O'Brien's TV show is also available On Demand.

"Wolfpack Football Look Back" can also be viewed on GoPack.com each week under the All-Access subscription plan.

There's a similar show called "Tar Heel Rewind" but I was unable to find any information about when and where that airs. If anyone knows and wants to help out their fellow Tar Heels, add that info in the comment section. 

Staff photo by Ethan Hyman

The graduation gap between white and black college football players at schools headed to bowl games widened this year.

Still, overall academic progress increased for both, according to a recently-released study from the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

The annual report found that graduation rates are increasing more rapidly for white players than black players, according to this report from the Boston Globe.

There are 70 teams going to bowls this year, including UNC, N.C. State and East Carolina.

According to the Globe article, the graduation success rate for black players jumped two points, to 60 percent this year. White players exhibited a three percent jump, to 80 percent.

A graduation success rate is a four-year average of a school's six-year graduation rate.

Here's how the local schools break down.

At UNC, 89 percent of white athletes hit the graduation success rate, while 69 percent of black athletes did.

At NCSU, 89 percent of white athletes hit the mark, but just 45 percent of black athletes did.

And at East Carolina, 91 percent of white athletes hit the mark, but just 50 percent of black athletes did.

Black players had higher graduation success rates than their white counterparts at five schools - Northwestern, Virginia Tech, Southern Mississippi, Notre Dame and Troy.
 
Wondering how your school rates? Click here.

After starring on the football field this year, N.C. State University linebacker Nate Irving stars in a stark traffic safety video about the dangers of driving drowsy.

Irving missed the 2009 season after a pre-dawn crash on Interstate 40 in Johnston County. He had fallen asleep at the wheel.

He woke up at WakeMed with cracked ribs, a collapsed lung, a separated shoulder and a broken leg.

“I had been up all night,” Irving says in the video, produced by the state Department of Transportation. “I was tired. But I still thought I could drive. I was wrong.

“I could have lost everything. I could have died, or killed someone else. ... [MORE]

View Carter-Finley Stadium, RBC Center in a larger map

N.C. State University has a football game at 7 p.m. Thursday in Carter-Finley Stadium, so let's get ready for a special pre-game feature on the streets of West Raleigh:

A rush-hour traffic contest between fans and commuters.

Football fans will try to claim the home-field advantage — even before they park their cars for the game between NCSU and the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Commuters who usually travel through West Raleigh on Interstate 40, Wade Avenue, Blue Ridge Road and other nearby streets should consider playing an away game instead. Stay as far away from Carter-Finley as possible. ... [MORE]