The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/337646
JULY 2014 ■ 27 visiting teams when they come in, with a lot of energy in that building. "Women's golf — that was pretty special for us to finish No. 10 in the country, and softball upset Georgia in the NCAA Tour- nament. When you have the right coaches in place, it's just a matter of time. We just need to continue to provide the resources that they need." What are your thoughts on your new hire to coach women's tennis — Simon Earnshaw, who won nine men' and wom- en's NCAA Division ii national champion- ships at Armstrong Atlantic State? "We wanted to hire someone who had a great track record. Nobody in the pool of can- didates had achieved at the level Simon had achieved at. Simon's reputation as a coach is such that Division I programs don't want to play his teams in the fall because they are just fearful they are going to lose. That will bode well for us. "He's a guy who has waited for the right opportunity, just as [women's basketball coach] Wes Moore waited for the right op- portunity. We're it — this is it for both of those men. They are going to do great things for us." A frequent topic of conversation this spring has been the 2014 football sched- ule. How did this schedule come about? "It's complex. Presbyterian and South Florida were contracts I inherited. The other two [Georgia Southern and Old Dominion] we created to give our team a chance. We have 74 freshmen and sophomores on this team, and a new quarterback with zero wins in the ACC. "They need some wiggle room early in the year for a couple of years to be able to run different schemes and also work different combinations of players without fear they are going to lose the game when they do that. "The fact that we are young, that we have a new quarterback, all of that plays into the schedule. "What gets lost in all of this is we happen to be in the ACC division with FSU, Clemson and Louisville. They are all three finished in the Associated Press top 15 last year, and they are not going to take their foot off the gas. That's a different world than being in the Coastal Division. "We have built-in competitive elements in our conference schedule already. Then we have UNC. Every third year we have East Carolina, which for us is a very meaningful and emotional game. "We have decided to play a power confer- ence opponent every year starting in '17. We'll play eight ACC game and one power conference opponent. And that actually starts in '16, when Notre Dame comes to Raleigh. "We have an SEC school that we are close to signing a contract with that will have a million-dollar buyout. I didn't schedule the LSU contract. [LSU cancelled a home-and- home for 2017 and 2020 with NCSU and paid a $100,000 buyout.] Those terms were already signed, sealed and delivered. The next one will have a million-dollar buyout to better insure that it will get played. We will probably be able to announce that in the next month. "We're always going to play an FCS school, preferably in the first game of the season for the reasons I already outlined, and then we could play one or even two Divi- sion I teams that are not in the power five conferences. Then we'll have nine that are very challenging with the focus being Florida State, Clemson and Louisville. We always have a crossover opponent in the Coastal Division as well. Soon it's going to be Vir- ginia Tech. "I think that's enough. We might get to the point, if we do terrific, where we worry about being one of the four teams in the playoffs. Then we'll worry about schedule strength. Right now, I'm worried about getting back to bowls and signing great recruiting classes. Our ability to play FSU, Clemson and Lou- isville every year, although it's much tougher than it would be in the other division, is help- ful to us in recruiting. Great players want to know they are going to play that caliber of team every year." There has been some discussion about the NCAA changing how conferences choose the teams for league title games in football. "That's still alive." Would that potentially lead to some re- alignment in the divisions or even scrap- ping them? Would you be interested in that? "I've always been interested in scrapping the divisions. We only play Duke some crazy small amount of the time. [NC State's next game against Duke is scheduled for 2020.] If you are in a true rotation, and maintain your permanent partner — which we would want to do with UNC, you are going to play more schools in your conference, and it's going to feel more like a conference. "We don't have any support for that in the Coastal Division. The schools understand the imbalance right now in competitive equity, and they like the way it is." The ACC seems like it's settled on eight conference games. Do you feel like that has been put to rest? "I voted for nine conference games. I wanted nine. The vote for eight plus one [non conference game against a power conference opponent] was eight to six; it was very close. If there had been one more vote it wouldn't have happened. I've been, I think, consistent. I would have liked to have played nine ACC games without divisions. But that's not where we are. "What I am genuinely excited about is the new office areas for women's basketball and volleyball, and beyond that the Walk of Fame and History and what that's turned into. It is spectacular. Literally there is nothing like it in the country because of the shape of this building being elongated. It allowed us the space to do some things that other places don't have." ■ Yow on the renovations to Reynolds Coliseum 26-28,30.32.Interview With Yow.indd 27 6/27/14 12:02 PM