Concerning Effort

Meet Riley Gates. I do not know him personally so I cannot dislike him, however I loathe the idea of him. Gates works as a National Analyst for 247 Sports while also covering Kansas State athletics. You may be asking yourself, “Self, why would TOBsGhost give a rats rumpus about a man from the land of pheasants, tornadoes, and needlessly large balls of twine? Further, why should I?” Valid question. Gates thought he could saunter over to the Atlantic coast and start predicting how football games will play out in the land of society and running water. Can you blame him for seeking refuge from miles of corn and (probably) tepid bowls of cream of wheat for breakfast each morn? Hardly. Can you blame him for an impressive and untenable lack of research regarding said saunter to the coast? Why yes, yes you can. Though Riley receives the brunt of my ire today, this is symptomatic of a larger issue: State may not be nationally relevant in athletics, but could you at least give half a damn to look into the facts for the articles/opinion pieces you are writing or games you are calling?

Time and again, we are forced to listen to the droll and discursive ramblings of ESPN announcers who wouldn’t know Devin Leary from Denis Leary. I enjoy fictitious firemen as much as the next guy, but how insulting to never receive a cursory amount of dedication to their craft as professionals. Why are they consistently ignorant and unaware of any aspect of our programs? Our players are called by the wrong names, no familiarity exists for our personnel outside of the cue cards they receive or the graphics that flash on screen which they are now reading for the first time. Even when a talking head attempts to ad lib a description of a “Key Player” it comes out akin to, “I’ll tell ya what, Bill, this Tanner Ingle here is one level headed dude. Plays press coverage like you wouldn’t believe and even though he may not get his nose into it at the line of scrimmage, he really keeps the top on the defense.”

Riley Gates put our conference win total at a lazy O/U of 2.5 while putting BC and Wake at 4 and 4.5, respectively. I can live with a take I vehemently disagree with, like a good boy I eat my vegetables even when I don’t want to. Take a gander at a portion of Gates’ riveting rundown of the Pack:

“Bailey Hockman led the program last year at quarterback but has since transferred out. It appears that Devin Leary, who has the most experience, will take over at quarterback but we’ll have to wait and see what route Doeren goes in.”

This REEKS of “spent two minutes looking at last year’s schedule and depth chart, then compared it to the upcoming season.” What a lazy, uninformed take. Does he realize that before injury Leary was the starter and performed at a high level? An official statement may not have been made, yet any interview Doeren has done since the beginning of Spring ball indicates Leary is the starter, that he takes the reps with the 1’s, that he is our guy. Any interviews by teammates note Leary’s leadership qualities, his newfound vocal style of commanding his team, his taking responsibility and control and holding men accountable. Perform a simple Google search for any article penned about NC State football by a local newspaper, ACC pundit, or clownblogger on a SportsNation site (no, not you, Steven, and certainly not you PirateWolf you’re my guy) and you find clear, objective evidence and fact that Doeren will not be waiting to see which route he takes.

Maybe Riley has an article quota and this was hastily put together to hit numbers. It ain’t end of month. To drop this in the SACRED MONTH OF JUNE and expect to not be met with vitriol, venom, vigor, or any of the other v’s? Inconceivable. How hard is it to do your job? To take pride in your work and invest time and effort into your tasks? My father had a quote on the wall of his office by our most gifted American orator, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It read, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all hosts of Heaven and Earth pause to say; Here lives a great sweeper who did his job well.” Let us endeavor to implement this wisdom in our lives. Looking at you, sports media...