TheWolfpacker.com - Harvey's viewpoints

November 6, 2009

Terry Harvey
TheWolfpacker.com Columnist

Terry Harvey was a two-sport standout for NC State from 1991-95. The quarterback completed 442 of 785 passes for 5,925 yards and 38 touchdowns, all totals ranking third all-time in NC State history. He also pitched for the baseball team, tossing a pair of no hitters in his career. He spent three years in the minors for the Cleveland Indians and Tampa Bay Rays organizations, reaching Double A before retiring after shoulder surgery.

Harvey now lives in Raleigh with his wife and three sons. Here are Terry's thoughts after week eight of NC State's season.

I believe you made a comment about how you hated it when the D made a change/shift at the last second. I noticed Ponder would make a motion with his leg (as if they were getting ready to snap the ball) multiple times before a snap as if to draw us out to see where the open spots will be. It seems like he was able to expose who was blitzing etc.

Did you notice it also...and should we not be doing a better job of disquising our intentions?

We talked about this a lot last week. You really notice it from teams that have sophisticated offenses. It has become more prevalent because offensive coordinators are trying to make sure they have the right play against the defense that is called.

Teams that don't huddle do this a lot, too, because they know what personnel they are going to have out on the field. They are trying to get very specific at that point with their play call to take advantage of the defense.

You are correct though. When a quarterback has broken the huddle and is going through his cadence with 15 seconds left on the play clock, they are trying to get the defense to show its hands. You'll see them lift their leg and then back up and look at the offensive coordinator. Many times the play gets called with less than 10 seconds left on the clock. There are some of those dictator offensive coordinators who want to control all aspects of the offense instead of relying on a 20-year old.

It's just a way to play cards better. It can be very beneficial depending on the schemes. Overall I do like it. Defenses shifting late was tough on me. This was one to get them to tip their hand.

Did you see adjustments last Saturday coming off the bye week?

It was kind of tough. Offensively I have always said they were pretty sound. They struggled in the second halves of Duke and Boston College. Saturday they kept coming. That may have some to do with Florida State's defense.

On defense I did notice some changes. It's tough to bring in blitz packages against Florida State because they spread the field so well and have nice athletes that can hurt you.

It's against the Duke's of the world who does not have quite that speed that I think you want to push the envelope and get in their face some more without being susceptible to the home run as much. The margin of error is smaller against Florida State rather than Duke, Boston College or even Wake Forest.

I thought the defense was appropriate for the type of offense we were seeing that day from Florida State. NC State did slow the passing attack down, which was FSU's calling card. The bad news was the Pack gave up a lot on the ground.

Most importantly though was I thought NC State showed a lot of heart. After the first touchdown, it's easy to go through the motions of here we go again, especially in Tallahassee. I thought NC State played hard, and that speaks for the coaching staff. Even when it looked bleak, they played hard and just got beat.

Overall the effort was there. It's just apparent we are missing a couple of horses and we all know that now.

I did think the special teams were not an eyesore was good. We didn't give field position just by punting. Earlier this season, we were not able to flip the field. I thought the special teams did a pretty good job.

Maryland reportedly likes to blitz a lot. How do you attack that?

I think what we saw last weekend was we do have enough skilled players to hit home runs. Owen Spencer and the rest of the receiver corps have been getting better every week in my opinion, and last week was their best game. They had an absurd high number of yards per catch. That means the receivers and tight ends are doing a great job.

I don't know if Maryland is good enough athletically speaking to execute the blitz package. They may get there a few times. If they blitz a lot, you are going to expose yourself to a home run.

What we have seen also is their offense is not that great either, and if State can get up quickly they really could put Maryland's back to the wall. I think the offensive unit as a whole has done a good job, and the offensive line has gotten better.

Depth is huge when you play teams that blitz. Veterans help too because they know their blocking assignments. The last thing a young guy ever picks up in an offensive schemes is blitz pickup. Sometimes fans wonder why these ridiculously talented true freshmen are not seeing playing time, and the No. 1 reason why is they do not understand the blitzes.

I say blitz us though. I don't see that being a hindrance at all.

What are your thoughts on redshirting versus throwing the freshmen into the fire like you experienced?

It's a double-edged sword. Yes, they are going to get immediate, invaluable experience that cannot be duplicated in practice or watching on Saturday. You do your greatest growing in the maturation process when you are thrown to the fire. There are teams all over the country that get depleted because of injuries in certain positions, but they are still being successful getting valuable minutes from freshmen.

For me it was great because there is so much you have to learn at quarterback from a cerebral standpoint. If the pipeline is full at quarterback, you should only get two or three years max from a quarterback. Other way I think it's a bad reflection on the quarterback recruiting.

On defense though it's not as big of deal. Sheer talent will play over smarts most of the time. Obviously you have to think a little bit, but defense is where the athletes play most of the time.

I will say when I was a recruit, I would look at the depth charts to see how many freshmen and sophomores are playing. Kids will tell you they are looking at the academic programs, but they are not. They are looking at the depth chart to see if young kids are playing early. That's an indication if you can play, they are going to put you out there.

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