After a 1-5 start to last season, N.C. State was able to regroup, defeat in-state rivals East Carolina and North Carolina,and put itself in position for a possible bowl game with just one game left on the schedule.

Even though the Wolfpack didn’t clinch the season-finale win and go onto postseason play, it was no secret that the team had improved greatly since its rocky start.

Players said that they had difficulty adjusting to a steep learning curve with the new coaching staff, and it took until the midway point of the season to correct numerous mistakes on both sides of the ball.

Coach Tom O’Brien is ready to showcase an improved Wolfpack team on Saturday in his second Red-White game. O’Brien said Monday that all signs this spring indicate the Pack won’t have to wait so long for things to fall into place, as his team appears better off than it was at this same time last year.

“It’s night and day. I think everything in our program is way ahead of where we were a year ago,” O’Brien said. “We talked last year, it took us until our 13th or 14th practice before we got through a whole script of the practice. That started the first practice this spring.”

Last season, every player on the roster was undergoing their first practices with new coaches. But with that entire staff intact coming back with the same system in place, O’Brien said his team has a better understanding of what’s expected and what it’s supposed to do.

“We’re out of the huddle, we’re at the line of scrimmage, the ball’s being snapped, we’re heading in the right direction, we’re lined up on defense,” O’Brien said. “We’re starting playing faster on both sides of the ball so those things become important because they’re cumulative, they all add up.”

Unfortunately for the Pack, the progression has come without some injury carryover from last year. Toney Baker, Anthony Hill and Javon Walker, thee former starters who tore each tore knee ligaments last season, will all miss the Red-White game.

Also missing the game will be Andre Brown who, as first reported by WRAL, suffered a foot injury and quarterback Daniel Evans is still recovering from shoulder surgery.

However, O’Brien said that all these players should be good to go in the fall.

“Everybody is supposed to be cleared and be able to practice in August,” O’Brien said. “That still hasn’t changed as far as I know.”

O’Brien on Offense

With Evans not yet in practice and incoming freshman Mike Glennon not yet on campus, O’Brien said the battle for quarterback would not likely be settled until State’s opener.

Out of the three quarterbacks competing this spring, Russell Wilson has had by far the better numbers in the scrimmages.

“[The quarterbacks] are still rotating, we’re still taking a good look,” O’Brien said. “As I said coming in, we’re going to give Russell an opportunity, maybe a little more than the other two because the other two have been in the system for a full year and we wanted to see what he can do and have a better feel for that. I think he’s gotten a pretty good grasp of the offense, what is expected.”

Wilson is also a backup infielder for the Pack’s baseball team, but he’ll be in Carter-Finley Stadium this Saturday, not in Blacksburg, Va., for a three-game series against the Hokies.

“He’s a football player first,” O’Brien said. “I don’t know where the baseball team is but he’ll be out there Saturday.”

There will be just one scholarship running back, junior Jamelle Eugene, competing in Saturday’s Red-White game since Brown, Baker and Curtis Underwood are all out with injuries.

The Pack’s wide receiving corps suffered the departures of Darrell Blackman, John Dunlap and Marcus Stone, but should still be experienced as it returns five players with over 165 snaps last season in addition to the return of Hill and Geron James.

Hill was a second-team All-ACC tight end before a knee injury sidelined him before the year began. He redshirted, and O’Brien said even though Hill can only do individual drills with no contact, he was better today than he was last spring.

“He understands, even though he was out, you can only learn so much by watching and you can only learn so much by looking at tape, you need to get out and do the fundamentals. I think he’s improved to the point where he would better were he in contact than he would’ve been last spring at this point,” O’Brien said. “I would think he’s still going to be a potential All-ACC player.”

James was dismissed from the team during the final stages of the Chuck Amato era, and wasn’t even enrolled in the school last year, but has worked his way back onto the team. O’Brien set forth benchmarks for the play-making Wilmington native, who once had four catches for 91 yards and a score on a Thursday night game against Florida State, and to this point James has met them.

“People always talk about his big-play ability and you can see it. He’s a big wide receiver. He has height and he’s got size. He can block – he’s knocked a few guys and just cracks people and he goes up and catches the football,” O’Brien said. “Hopefully at the end of the semester he’ll have his academics in tune and he’ll be eligible for us in the fall.”

In order to do more at the line of scrimmage, O’Brien has repeatedly shuffled around players on the offensive line. Senior Meares Green has played half the spring at center, but recently has moved back out to his original tackle position.

And two defensive tackles, senior John Bedics and junior Teddy Larsen, have been moved to offensive guard to enhance depth.

“It’s awful difficult to learn to play on the offensive line but they’ve attacked it, they’ve spent a lot of extra time in the film room with [offensive line coach] Don Horton and tried to work on the small fundamental things that they have to learn along with all the assignments because things happen fast in there and they happen with a lot of power. In the long run, that’s going to be a good move for us.”

Like quarterback, the offensive line looks to be unsettled right up till the first game of the season.

“We’ve changed the offensive line every week that we’ve been through this,” O’Brien said. “When we get together tomorrow and talk about this scrimmage it’ll probably change again.”

O’Brien on Defense

Defensively, the Pack will be inexperienced in a number of positions, not particularly good for a team that finished second to last in the conference in run defense. But O’Brien said his team has done a good job correcting its mistakes from one scrimmage to the next.

“As we talked a year ago, after the sixth game of the year, the one thing that we had to improve on defense is not so many missed assignments and missed tackles. I think a third of our plays on defense to that point of the year were bad plays,” O’Brien said.

“We did much better in that department and it’s getting down to where we’re getting lined up, we’re getting to where we’re supposed to be and the defense did much better in tackling … I think they’re on track to where they want to go.”

The defensive line looks to be anchored on one side by Willie Young, a junior defensive end who led the team in sacks (6) and tackles for loss (16).

“He's gained some weight, he's up to 240-245,” O’Brien said. “He's learning to play at that weight. He's never been that weight before. I think that he has gotten better each and every practice. He's working hard, he's into it, and hopefully he can become [a dominant] player for us.

On the opposite side of him is the run-stopping Markus Kuhn.

In between the two bookends are two seniors, Antoine Holmes and Alan-Michael Cash. Cash led all defensive linemen in tackles with 50 despite missing a game to attend his father’s funeral.

Last season, the linebackers had two first-year senior starters and not a lot of depth behind them. Inexperience and depth looks to be the case again this year at the position.

“[Last year] you had seniors who had all been in the program, now it’s different. Nate [Irving] played a lot last year and he’s a much better player in the spring than he was in the fall,” O’Brien said.

“Ray Michel got to play a little bit and he’s doing a good job in the middle and then the move of Robbie Leonard [from safety] to the outside [linebacker] has been good for us. It’s been a move that he’s well-suited [for].”

“Who's going to back them up? I don't know, it might be like last year, we'll be holding our breath the whole time.”

However, Leonard is listed at just 194 pounds. “He might be just pushing that 200-level,” O’Brien said of Leonard’s weight.

State was a much better against the pass than it was against the run, due in large part to the now-departed DaJuan Morgan who led the team in tackles, pass breakups and interceptions.

The Pack finished 27th in pass defense nationally, compared to 91st in run defense.

To keep things steady in the defensive backfield, J.C. Neal was moved from his backup spot at the corner position to strong safety while Walker sits out with injury.

Neal and corner Jeremy Gray, who had three interceptions last year, provide key leadership as the other safety position will likely be held by one of two redshirt freshmen.

“They’re a settling influence back there. J.C. helps the other two freshmen, [Justin] Byers and [Jimmaul] Simmons lineup and get in the right spot so they can play a little bit faster,” O’Brien said. “Their leadership has been invaluable back there and they’re going to have to be good leaders in the fall.”

Also returning with starting experience is diminutive sophomore DeAndre Morgan – DaJuan’s little brother who held his own at the position last year.

Special Teams

Gone is Steven Hauschka, who nailed 16-of-18 field goals in his first and only season as kicker. The graduate student and former soccer player was a perfect 8-of-8 from 40 yards or beyond and nailed the game-winning kick in overtime to defeat Miami.

Although he will be hard to replace, O’Brien reminded reporters that Josh Czajkowski was ready to be the starter before Hauschka came out of nowhere to claim the job.

“At this point last year, Josh Czajkowski was going to be our field goal kicker. We knew about Hauschka, but we didn’t know we’d be able to get him in school down here. At the end of spring practice, Josh would’ve been our kicker,” O’Brien said.

“He’s done a nice job. He’s had to kick under some pretty tough situations the last two Saturdays because of the rain and wetness but he’s done well.”

Trying to fill the void for All-ACC return man Darrell Blackman isn’t so settled. O’Brien said nobody has worked out as kick returners while Eugene and Bowens are the first two players to get looks at the punt return job.

Senior Bradley Pierson will try to improve in his second season as punter after averaging just 37.2 yards per kick.

The upcoming Red-White game

This year’s Red-White game will operate much like last year’s, said O’Brien.

“There will be no kickoffs or kickoff returns. We’ll definitely have field goal kick and extra point kicks - if we’re able to score. We will punt and punt return if we’re healthy enough to do that phase of the game.”

The teams will be split up on Friday morning after the coaches get the injury report after Thursday’s practice. The game will be divided into the usual 15-minute quarters, but only the first half will operate under normal game conditions.

“We don’t have enough bodies to last a whole game,” said O’Brien, adding that the game clock will be a running clock in the second half to speed things up and minimize injuries.

“It’s always good to play a game. Something always happens within the framework of the game that you really can’t simulate on the practice field even though you try,” O’Brien said. “Every year something comes up that I think is really good for the football team one way or another.”

Notable players lost from the 2007 season:

DaJuan Morgan: 117 tackles, 13 passes broken up, 3 INT’s
DeMario Pressley: 41 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 2 INT’s
Marcus Stone: 36 receptions, 452 yards, 1 TD
Steven Hauschka: 16-18 FG’s, 25-25 PAT’s
Darrell Blackman: 41 receptions, 593 yards, 1 TD; 4 career kick returns for TD

Notable players returning:

Daniel Evans: 194-339, 2,030 yards, 11 TD’s, 12 INT’s
Jamelle Eugene: 172 attempts, 667 yards, 5 TD’s
Donald Bowens: 41 receptions, 598 yards, 3 TD’s
Willie Young: 48 tackles, 6 sacks, 16 tackles for loss
Anthony Hill: 45 receptions, 478 yards in 2006