This Saturday, Duke and NC State will meet on the gridiron. Big deal, right? Well, due to the split of the ACC into divisions, and a scheduling quirk, these former rivals have not played football since 2003. Five long years have passed, and many things have changed. Let's take a trip back in time, shall we?
The world was a different place in 2003. Gulf War II began in March. Martha Stewart was sent to prison that June. And the largest hailstone ever recorded was found in Nebraska. America was both tense and whimsical at the same time.
Duke football was never worse entering the 2003 season. The previous 3 seasons brought records of 0-11, 0-11, and 2-10. Although improved in 2003, with a final record of 4-8, Duke was the laughingstock of college football.
NC State, however, had reached their pinnacle the prior season with an 11-3 record, including a victory over an albeit weak Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl. Chuck Amato strutted around as the King of Raleigh. Wolfpack Nation started to dream of BCS bowls. Winning ACC championships seemed mere footsteps away.
Liitle did they know when they met at Wallace Wade in late October 2003, that not only would they not meet again for 5 years, but their programs were about to switch identities. NC State walked away with a 7 point victory that day, but emerged as the new face of embarrassingly bad college football programs. After that game, State would go on to lose 2 of their last 4 games in 2003. And despite middling around the 7-5/6-6 mark for a couple of years, they hit rock-bottom with a 3-9 record in 2006.
So, they meet again tommorrow afternoon in Durham. Duke is having their best season in many, many years. NC State is horrendous. Duke is on the upswing. Once considered an automatic conference win for anyone who played them, Duke is now respectable. NC State fans complained up and down that it would be too long until they played again. In fact, there was talk of scheduling a "non-conference" game with Duke just to keep the rivalry going. Although truthfully, "rivalry" really meant "extra win". Times have certainly changed. Now NC State is America's laughingstock, and Duke is the up-and-coming stalwart. And no one would have predicted that in 2003.
4 comments:
Were those images for State and Duke that you used on page 10,000 of a google image search? I want a blog on idiot fans in the stands that scream "holding", "clip", or "facemask". They need to be kicked out. Also fans yelling at the running backs to run the other way should be shot. Every fan thinks they know better than the coach & the refs. Also, any fan that screams "first down" with the announcer along with the rest of the fans should be arrested. Obviously, the announcer that pauses to allow fans to yell it should also be arrested.
Don't worry about wher I got those pictures. That weird-looking fat wolf is the best. I agree with the "first down" chant. You hear "that's another Wolfpack FIRST DOWWWWN" every minute, and it drives me insane. Great, you got a first down. How about scoring for once? Wolfpack fans LOVE yelling that. They should be banned from attending football games at a minimum, and I wouldn't be opposed to imprisoning them for life with no parole.
I want to vote for all 6 of those comments equally. Also, I wouldn't be suprised if 'x' team beats 'y' team. That is my favorite. That way if the team loses, they didn't predict it. If they win, they say that they said they wouldn't be suprised by it.
We went to the UNC/GT game last Saturday. Every time the GT QB faked the option and dropped back to pass, the guy 2 rows in front of me screamed "Pass" at the top of his lungs.
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