N.C. State has announced that football coach Tom O'Brien has been informed by ACC officiating coordinator Doug Rhoads that a key play in last week's loss to Clemson should have been ruled a fumble.

According to a note released to the media by N.C. State, Rhoads said a play in the third quarter was a fumble that would have given the ball to the Wolfpack with Clemson leading 24-14.

Despite breaking a four-game losing streak Saturday, N.C. State’s coaches still are shuffling their defense to look for better combinations.

Freshman cornerback Jarvis Byrd is set to make his first start when the Wolfpack plays host to Clemson at noon on Saturday. The depth chart for Clemson released Monday by coach Tom O’Brien shows Byrd starting at boundary cornerback, where he backed up redshirt freshman C.J. Wilson the previous two weeks.

N.C. State’s players hadn’t won in so long that they forgot how to react when they did.

Russell Wilson threw for three touchdowns and ran for another Saturday afternoon as the Wolfpack broke a four-game losing streak with a 38-31 defeat of Maryland at Carter-Finley Stadium.

You learn a lot about people when things go wrong.

NC State is having a dismal football season, losing all four conference games thus far, including dropping a tough one Saturday in the last few minutes at Florida State, 45-42. After the game, reporter Ken Tysiac, who covers college sports for The Charlotte Observer and The N&O, was delayed in a logjam on the stairs at Doak Campbell Stadium. Tysiac was a few minutes late for NCSU Coach Tom O'Brien's meeting with reporters. 

Tysiac was the only reporter from a North Carolina newspaper to travel to the game. When O'Brien saw he wasn't there, he stepped away from the podium and said he wouldn't start until Tysiac arrived. O'Brien did his one-on-one post-game radio interview with the Wolfpack Sports Network, then returned to the podium. By then Tysiac had arrived. He thanked O'Brien for waiting for him.

Chuck Walsh, Florida State associate sports information director, said that in 22 years of working in sports information, he had never seen a coach delay a post-game conference to wait on a reporter. 

I give prominent people plenty of grief when they dodge us. So I thought I should recognize one guy who went out of his way to talk to a reporter from back home, even on a day when he must not have felt like talking at all. 

--John Drescher

The most unexpected college football news conference quotes Monday probably came from the Murphy Center conference room when N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien was asked about Duke’s success under David Cutcliffe.

After praising Cutcliffe, O’Brien had kind words for Ted Roof, who was 6-45 as Duke’s head coach. This wasn’t intended as a slight of Cutcliffe.

N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien was asked Wednesday to predict whether Saturday's game at Florida State will be high-scoring.

Coaches almost always politely decline to answer such a question.

N.C. State freshman running back James Washington is out for the season with a knee injury suffered Thursday in practice, coach Tom O'Brien announced Monday.

Washington was the third-team running back behind Toney Baker and Jamelle Eugene. He also was serving as the backup kickoff returner.

N.C. State freshman cornerback Rashard Smith's knee injury is similar to the one quarterback Russell Wilson suffered in the Papajohns.com Bowl last season, coach Tom O'Brien said today.

Smith, a starter who's out for the season, won't require surgery and has an estimated recovery period of 12 weeks that should have him ready for the start of spring practice, O'Brien said.

N.C. State's struggling defense suffered a significant blow Tuesday with the announcement that freshman cornerback Rashard Smith is out for the season with a knee injury.

Smith had just bounced back from an ankle injury to return to the starting lineup on Saturday at Boston College. Coach Tom O'Brien had considered Smith to be part of the solution to N.C. State's defensive problems.

In addition to addressing the Wolfpack's defensive woes, N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien talked about special teams, Toney Baker, Nate Irving and penalties during his news conference Monday.

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