I fell for it...

Lawrence Jordan: I admit it. I let the Wolfpack fans affect my better judgment. I should know better.

After an off season of listening to how strongly NCSU finished in the conference last season, beating WFU, Miami, and UNC, I failed to realize those teams collectively finished 3-9 over their respective final three games in conference.

After listening to how tough NCSU's schedule was last year, I didn't notice that they only played 2 (BC and FSU) of the 4 teams that finished with 5 wins in the conference. The Wolfpack went 0-2 in those meetings in 2008.

After hearing about Russel Wilson's superiority all summer, I never noticed the "playmakers" that were his supporting cast. His starting RB (Baker) was coming off a two year recovery from leg injury and still beat out the incumbent RB from 2008 (Eugene). His starting WRs (Spencer and Williams), known for their big plays, were inconsistent with their per game number of catches.

After hearing about the momentum NCSU would gain from "light" schedule in the early season, I forgot that the Wolfpack has not won their first game of the season against an FBS opponent since 2002.

After watching the Wolfpack and Gamecocks play last night, I realized I made the classic error of listening to the unbridled, frothing Pack enthusiasm. The NCSU offense performed worse in 2009 than it did in 2008. The NCSU defense might have "held" USC to 7 points, but that was more a result of the ineptness and inaccuracy of Garcia and the USC offense.

As usual, the bark of the preseason was much worse than the bite on the field in Raleigh last night.