BlogPoll Roundtable III

The BlogPoll roundtable rolls on, and Straight Bangin' is kind enough to host the action. Below are the roundtable questions, followed by my answers.


Which unheralded player on your team will be the hardest to replace? Which seemingly inconsequential player could make the biggest impact?

Most difficult to replace: linebacker Pat Thomas. Not a great player by any means, but a guy who started for several years, was reliable from week-to-week both from a health standpoint and a performance standpoint, and who was one of the team's leaders. Replacing his experience won't be easy.

Tight end TJ Williams certainly isn't inconsequential to Wolfpack fans, but what with Heath Miller being in the same conference, TJ hasn't garnered any outside notice. TJ has been solidly unspectacular to this point in his career, and has about 800 career receiving yards. Williams isn't exceptionally fast, but he has good hands, and Jay Davis often ignores receivers who are 15+ yards past the line of scrimmage, meaning he'll be looking to Williams a lot.


Which regular-season game that won’t feature your team would you pay the most money to see this season? Why? Which rivalry game would you most like to attend?

It's tempting to pick a game involving Southern Cal or Louisville, because I think those teams are a lot of fun to watch, but as much as I like watching these two teams do their thing, the matchups on their schedules aren't very compelling.

I would love to catch the Michigan/Iowa game in person. I find this game a lot more intriguing than the other huge Big Ten game (tOSU/Michigan), mostly because I think the former could end up being more nationally significant than the latter. Drew Tate is a lot of fun to watch, and Iowa's Kinnick Stadium strikes me (from what I've seen) as having a great atmosphere.

As far as rivalry games go, it's the Iron Bowl for me, and it is not close. It's hard to imagine anything like Auburn/Alabama.

If your team were a rapper, who would it be and why?

I tend to prefer other things, but I'm going to give it my best shot. I figure I've absorbed enough rap after four years of college.

NC State is LL Cool J: they're producing lower-quality material than they used to, but at least they look good doing it.