University of Virginia Library

Wolfpack Primed
To Face Wahoos

By JOHN MARKON

Two football programs skirting
disaster match up in Saturday's
clash between Virginia and North
Carolina State with the loser almost
destined for last place in the ACC.
The Wahoos' difficulties have been
well-documented in these pages and
elsewhere but State isn't in a
position to sit back and smile.

Only a surprising win over Wake
Forest mars an otherwise winless
State state. After being shot down
by Kent State in their opener the
Wolfpack has taken the meat
against Maryland, South Carolina,
North Carolina, Duke and last week
to Southern Conference also-ran
East Carolina.

The State program has been
slapped in a state of suspended
animation ever since Farle Edwards
retired and Al Michaels was
promoted to the head coach's job
on an "interim" basis. The resulting
lack of strong guidance from the
top has not made for smooth sailing
in Raleigh.

The Pack presently ranks
seventh and last in the ACC in the
moderately important statistical
departments of total offense and
total defense. The 21 points they
rolled up in their opener still stands
as their best scoring effort thus far. To complete a dismal picture
Michaels has already employed
three quarterbacks without any
appreciable degree of success.

The three QBs have been Dennis
Britt and Pat Korsnick, runners,
and Bruce Shaw, passer. Shaw may
start against the Wahoos but
Korsnick has been getting the
better results lately. Half-back
Willie Burden, a sophomore,
provides the Pack with a first class
rushing threat.

Nothing else seems up to the
usually high Wolfpack standards.
The offensive line has been erratic the defensive line vulnerable and
the defensive backfield, a
traditional State strength, has been
in and out.

Each week it seems that a
different department has collapsed.
Maryland throttled the offense,
Duke ran at will and bottled up any
semblance of an attack. State is
third in the ACC pass offense but
this year the ACC is a rushing
league and the Pack's 40 percent
completion rate does not impress.

The similarities between the two
teams are striking. Both have
suddenly tripped into the abyss
when they had their boosters
expecting improvement and both
have endured horrible seasons
excepting the one "big game" that
they both pulled out.

Virginia has never beaten State
in the ACC, going winless against
that crowd since 1948. In the past
those were good State teams taking
the field but this year it's different.