The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1137844
148 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER I n the four decades since NC State last won an ACC football championship, the "what- ifs" have yet to fade into the sunset. That 1979 season, a year after Ted Brown left as the Atlantic Coast Conference's all- time leading rusher, ended with the Wolf- pack winning the school's seventh — and most recent — ACC title. At the time, it was tied with Clemson for the most champion- ships of any school in the league. The wait for the next one has been the longest of any team in the conference. What if, however, the 1975 running back corps hadn't fumbled six times against Michigan State, forcing an angry coach Lou Holtz to bring Brown out of his redshirt to play in the sixth game of the year? Brown then would have been a senior in '79, a surefire Heisman Trophy candidate running behind Outland Trophy-winning center Jim Ritcher. How amazing would coach Bo Rein's offense had been if those two careers were in sync? Would Brown have challenged Southern California's Charles White for college football's ulti- mate award? What if, after a 4-0 start in 1979 that in- cluded wins over East Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Wake Forest, the No. 14 Wolfpack hadn't lost three players to injury on one play after jumping out to a 14-0 lead at Auburn? Perhaps the Tigers wouldn't have reeled off 28 consecutive points in the second quarter of what turned out to be a 44-31 loss. "The one thing we didn't have was a lot of depth," defensive back Woodrow Wilson said. "We had some guys hurt that year, in- cluding that one play at Auburn. After that, we couldn't stop the run in that game. "I feel like if those guys didn't get hurt, we would've gone 11-0 that year." Maybe, after the next week's gritty 7-0 win over Maryland, a fully healthy State wouldn't have suffered their only ACC loss of the season to North Carolina at recently renamed Carter-Finley Stadium, a game that came down to two big what-if plays. The first was a fourth-and-one sweep by senior quarterback Scott Smith that came up a little short when the Wolfpack was driving to tie a 14-7 game, and the second was a controversial Smith fumble caused by UNC linebacker Lawrence Taylor late in the game that could have been ruled an incomplete forward pass by game referee Robert Carpenter. But it wasn't, and Smith never accepted that ruling then. Or now, for that mat- ter. That play became the difference between a game-tying touchdown drive by the Wolfpack and a game- securing touchdown in the 35-21 loss, which knocked the Pack out of the top 20 for the rest of the season. Rein had an excellent collection of talent for the Wolfpack, which had finished Brown's senior year in 1978 with a 9-3 overall record following a 30-17 win over Pittsburgh in the Tan- gerine Bowl. Even without Brown, who was a rookie running back for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings by then, plenty of gifted players remained for the Pack. "It was such a talented team," re- ceiver Mike Quick, an eventual first-round pick who played nine seasons for the Phil- adelphia Eagles, recalled. "I'm surprised even more of them didn't make it to the NFL. We were really talented all over the field, and people forget just how many could have gone from that team. "We weren't deep at every position, but ■ PACK PAST NC State's Last ACC Title Team A goal-line stand at Clemson's Death Valley in 1979, when the Wolfpack stopped the Tigers on four tries after they reached the 4-yard line, gave NC State the inside track to its seventh and most recent ACC football championship. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE League Titles And Bowls For ACC Teams Since 1979 Team Titles Most recent Bowls Clemson 11 2018 34 Florida State 15 2014 26 NC State 0 1979 23 Georgia Tech 2^ 1998* 23 North Carolina 1 1980 22 Virginia 2 1995* 20 Virginia Tech 4 2010 15 Maryland 4 2001 14 Miami 0 N/A 12 Boston College 0 N/A 10 Wake Forest 1 2006 10 Duke 1 1989* 8 Pittsburgh 0 N/A 5 Louisville 0 N/A 4 Syracuse 0 N/A 2 ^ 2009 title vacated; * titles in 1989, 1995 and 1998 were shared between two teams; the ACC championship game be - gan in 2005; Clemson was undefeated in ACC play in 1983, but ineligible for the league title; Georgia Tech became eligible for the ACC football title in 1983; Florida State joined the league in 1991; Miami and Virginia Tech became members in 2004; Boston College joined in 2005; Syracuse and Pittsburgh were added in 2013; Maryland left the league in 2014; Louisville joined in 2014