First Scrimmage Focuses On The Ground Game

NC State scrimmaged for the first time on Monday, with a heavy emphasis on the run game: according to the stats released by TOB, the offense ran the ball 55 times (for 92 yards) versus just 20 pass attempts.  Since O'Brien didn't go into very many specifics about the scrimmage's format, it's hard to know how we should take that sub-2.0 yards per carry figure.  No doubt the whole thing was basic in nature, and perhaps there was a lot of work on goal line and other short yardage situations that otherwise limit distance gained.

O'Brien noted that Russell Wilson is still working out the kinks less than week into practice, which comes as no surprise.  Nate Irving did not participate in the scrimmage:

"I didn’t play Nate today and I’m not going to play him until probably the third scrimmage. He scrimmaged during the spring so he’s over the hump that way, right now the thing I have to do is practice and catch him up. We have to get him some scrimmage time but we have to get him to the first game and make sure he’s healthy to get through a whole season. With the emphasis of what we were doing today it didn’t seem like a good idea to play him at all."

More:

"A lot of [running backs] got work today. We especially wanted to look at the two freshmen to see what they were capable of – to see if there was any natural ability there, natural instincts. And to see what their toughness factor was. See if they can take a punch and get back up."

"I think we're further [in the secondary] than we were at this time a year ago but we still have a lot of work to do and that's got to be the focus going forward."

Of course, there's gotta be some injury news: defensive back Jesse Riley tore his ACL and will miss the season.  Could we just get some minor injuries once in a while and not all these potential career-killers?  Would that be okay? Maybe some bruised ribs? Turf toe?