RALEIGH — Butch Davis deserves every ounce of credit he has received for his reclamation project at UNC, but he's not the only Triangle coach earning his keep.

Tom O'Brien is proving once again there are few better in the business at keeping a team together and improving as the season progresses.

Q&A Thursday evening with N.C. State football coach Tom O’Brien:

Q: A lot of guys said that when your injured starters returned, it would benefit you because the younger, inexperienced backups would have played. Has that come to fruition?
A: You don’t want to be in that position where younger guys are playing. It’s a product of what happened.

When Tom O’Brien and Jim Grobe look across the field to the opposite sideline on Saturday, in some respects it will be like looking in the mirror.

Yes, O’Brien is a lot taller than Grobe. And Grobe’s Wake Forest program is much more established than O’Brien’s in his second season at N.C. State.

But the similarities between the programs are obvious.

N.C. State's open date last week, coach Tom O’Brien focused the defense almost exclusively on the fundamentals of tackling.

"That’s all we did,” O’Brien said.

Three players, including standout linebacker Nate Irving, will return from injury for N.C. State  on Saturday against Duke, coach Tom O’Brien said after practice Thursday.

Along with Irving, , offensive tackle Julian Williams and wide receiver Geron James return after having extra time to heal over last week’s open date.

Injured N.C. State linebacker Nate Irving, offensive tackle Julian Williams and wide receiver Geron James are not practicing during this week's open date, coach Tom O'Brien said on Wednesday's ACC coaches' teleconference.

Irving and James have ankle injuries, and Williams has an injured shoulder. O'Brien said the condition of each player will be reviewed Sunday as N.C. State begins preparing for the Nov. 8 game at Duke. 

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina inadvertantly published the incorrect number in its football game notes this week for donating funds to help find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The correct digits: 90999. Text the word "cure", and fans will automatically pledge $5 via their cell phone bills.

A team spokesman said the school was given the wrong number by the organization.

Eleven ACC coaches — including UNC's Butch Davis, N.C. State's Tom O'Brien, Duke's David Cutcliffe and Wake Forest's Jim Grobe — will wear a "Coach to Cure MD" armband during their games this weekend. The American Football Coaches Association has endorsed the nation-wide
project, and football fans can support the program by donating online at www.CoachtoCureMD.org, or via text messaging.

N.C. State went 4-2 in the second half of the 2007 season.

After a 1-5 start, coach Tom O'Brien used the final six games as a "new season," a rallying cry to motivate his team.

The wipe-the-slate-clean approach worked, to a certain extent, for O'Brien in 2007 but he won't be going back to it this season.

N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien said Wednesday that he doesn't know how much linebacker Nate Irving will play Thursday night against Florida State.

Irving, who has missed the last two games with an ankle injury, is listed as probable, which means he has a 75 percent chance of playing against the Seminoles.

N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien doesn’t sound as though he is counting on linebacker Nate Irving returning to the lineup Saturday against Boston College.

O’Brien said Irving, who has an injured right ankle, has yet to get out of the training room and onto the practice field. During the ACC coaches’ teleconference Wednesday, O’Brien was asked whether Irving will play Saturday.

“I don’t believe so, no,” O’Brien said.