Lowe Likes The Condition His Condition Is In

-- Some quotes from Lowe at the Wolfpack Club Caravan stop in Raleigh last night:

On N.C. State's recruiting class: "Having played this game before, there’s one thing I know. No matter how good a coach you are, you can’t do it if you don’t have the same type players that the good teams have. And we’re starting to get that. You’ve seen it all over. You have great coaches. They might get a tough team, they might get a young team, and they struggle a little bit. But they’re still the same coach. But I like our direction right now."

On whether the recruits' proclamations (Leslie predicted a top-5 finish for N.C. State) have been a bit too bold: "I’m not one to talk. You let your play do the talking for you. You don’t need to give your opponents any incentive to beat you. But you like the confidence. He’s excited and sometimes guys will say things they probably shouldn’t have said. That just means he’s got to come out and back it up now."

If we were to finish in the top five, then I can't imagine we'd lose more than, oh, let's say four games.

-- Not surprisingly, TOB did not shed any light on last month's marijuana bust.

-- Billy Randy bumped into Lee Fowler at the 'cue table and fisticuffs ensued. (Fisticuffs did not ensue.  Time and barbecue heal all wounds.)

-- No ACC team averaged more points per red zone trip than the Pack last season.

-- Lots of good stuff here: how field position affects punt distance; how kickoff distance affects field position; 4th down decision making in opponent territory.  Regarding the latter:

Between the 3 and 25 yard lines its a consistent trend, 80-85% field goal attempt 15-20 % go for the touchdown.  It rises to 60/40 at the 2 and flips to 20/80 at the 1.  The going for it actually peaks between 30 and 35 as more coaches don’t really know what to do so they just go for it.

Somebody actually punted from the 29 last year.