Postgame Pizza

Yes, there was finally pizza yesterday. The Papajohns.com Bowl organizers splayed four fresh pies along the trophy table yesterday and I swear Kenny Britt was eyeing one of the cheese ones the whole time. Through the MVP trophy-awarding to Mike Teel, through the game trophy awarding to Greg Schiano, and the coach's handing of it to Bob Mulcahy, the whole time. And yes, Kenny was the first under the rope and at the pizza when the "ceremony" broke up.

George Johnson folded up two boxes, Jamal Westerman corralled him, grabbed a slice and then put it in front of the PureDigital camcorder he got during bowl week, zeroing in on the food while intoning in a deep voice, "This is the first piece of pizza I've seen all week." George started heading toward the locker room, caught me watching him, shrugged sheepishly and when I said, "What, you're not sharing?" he went over to the support staff. And cheerleaders. And a minute later came by me with an empty box and said, "See, I shared. And now I have nothing left! They ate all my pizza."

Coach Gary Brown's entire family posed with pizza slices on the field, John McNulty's adorable little blond daughters went nowhere near the mess of the stands and Pete Tverdov really did not want to leave the field.

There really was absolutely no post-game on ESPN yesterday? Nothing? Well, I never did get any pizza myself (people in the press box SCARF food), but I did see some pretty touching moments because of it. And of course I'm happy to share them...

First, the outpouring for Bob Mulcahy was truly something else. Greg Schiano had talked about sending Bob off with a win before the game, Jason McCourty told Courtney Greene to give Bob the game ball even before Courtney had a full handle on his N.C. State-killing interception, and Bob choked up afterwards, when he was telling - or trying to tell - me about seeing the crush of defensive players come at him. Greg immediately gave the Papajohns.com trophy to Bob, and after seeing her daddy hug Mr. Mulcahy, Greg's daughter went and hugged Bob's leg. The Rutgers kids, meanwhile, broke into a chant of "Bob Mul-ca-hy" to the same tune of "De-rek Je-ter." Later, Bob couldn't get much past, "The manner in which they've carried themselves..."

Bob also, incidentally, told me he'd asked the president if he could at least finish out the school year, if he'd "give me that courtesy" so he could "leave in dignity," but Richard McCormick was unbowed. I never saw McCormick yesterday, btw.

Inside the locker room, it was the usual post-win chaos. I accused Rob Cervini of lying to me. The day the new two-deep came out and he was the new holder, I talked to him. Since he was a quarterback at St. Joe's, since he's run the option as the scout team QB for two years, I asked him if he had a trick play that day. He swore he wasn't going to be pressuring Greg for anything right now, that he was happy just getting to hold.

Then, on his very first varsity snap EVER, he takes a field goal snap, runs right and scores a touchdown. "They put it in the day after I talked to you," he said. I rolled my eyes, he very seriously said, "Really, it was after we talked," and then, when I was going to hassle him some more, Jason ran over, rubbed his head and screamed, "St. Joe's! St. Joe's!" Maybe if St. Joe's wasn't in The Record's prime coverage area, I might not like these cute little high school ties so much, but... St. Joe's is and I do and I thought it was funny when Mike Teel said Don Bosco has to work on its pipeline.

And in case you were wondering, Rob could've decided to pitch the ball to San San Te. Now San San's no ordinary kicker, but I don't know that he could've juked that one defender the way Rob did. Oh, and one last thing about Rob. The regular thing to say when asked if you had nerves is, "No way." If you're one of Greg's pet quotes, like Mike, you say, "No, we prepared and we knew what we were doing." When I asked Rob if he had nerves, he immediately said, "A ton! Are you kidding?" He said he kept practicing it last night, before bed, confusing his roommate Edmund Laryea. And he said he was sure they'd at least give him one hold before calling it.

While we're talking trick plays, from my angle, Anthony Davis' pass into the endzone was not pretty. He threw into double coverage, it totally could've gotten picked and no one seemed to care afterwards. "He's an athlete," Kenny said. "You should see him jam a basketball," Greg said. I couldn't find AD myself afterwards. He probably didn't want to hear me mocking him.

There was nothing but reverence when talk turned to the guy who was indeed supposed to throw the ball for N.C. State, Russell Wilson. Tiquan Underwood kept shaking his head over him, calling the freshman "a heckuva player." And when I asked if he, an offensive player, was really watching N.C. State's offense, he said, "How could you not watch him? He was incredible."

Okay, I hope that fills in some of what ESPN missed. I wrote about Kenny and Joe Martinek for tomorrow's paper and after a 6am flight, with a screaming baby next to me the whole time, I think I need a break...

Comments

[DJ Spanky]

Thanks for filling in some of what we who watched it on TV missed. Extremely nice of ESPN to cut away almost immediately to Sports Center.

[Millard]

ESPN couldn't wait to award NC State the game, and yet when Rutgers won, they couldn't wait to get out. I am not one of these people who claims a bias everywhere against our team, but, I've worked in TV and these are only people with feelings like anyone else. The way they knew the NC State players and could barely pronounce some of our names demonstrated it. I have a sneaking suspicion they'd have blown the break and given us a little more coverage had NC State one. It reminds me of being in the Black Bear in Hoboken after the WV third OT, and them just rolling up the screen the instant the game ended.

ESPN cut out with a shot of Coach Schiano, and the line: "So, the PapaJohns.com bowl goes to Coach Greg Schiano and the Wolf Pack of NC State." Fitting end to the awful coverage. I'd rather read the blog! I also noted how they made excuses for the face mask not really being a facemask, that his hand was just near it. Huh. Wonder how the helmet got turned around then. And when Evans took the field after our final FG, they said he was "41 seconds away" from a win. Uhhhhhh, no. You could say that when Teel came back to take the knee, but Evans?

I think the coverage is going to alternate between apathy for Rutgers and anger for a while. I was happy to see there was no talk of Rutgers injuring "another" quarterback. When our defense is so smothering, it forces these quarterbacks to run -- and when they play running back, they get tackled like one, or hurt themselves. Glad our guys, as usual, were nothing but class.

I'm sorry you didn't get any pizza, though.

[millard]

Ugh, had NC state "won," not ONE. I'm typing to fast. Sorry.

[double R]

i love your posts like these. i'm looking for some vids tho, i remember last year you have vids or maybe at least in the vids of the toronto trip no?

happy new year aditi!

[rutgersguy]

Great insights and tidbits as usual Aditi. I especially love the stories with regards to Bob, if he was gonna be let go it should have been at the end of the year. Of course McCormick wouldn't show his face, I don't expect him to be around any future bowl games and the like. Also I believe his days are numbered, I give it 2 years max before he's gone. It's Zoffinger that the alumni and fans need keep pressure on to be removed.

Nice little tidbit on Cervini. I wasn't sure on the design on that play, I was wrong in my thinking. I thought it was designed to look like an option with a possible pitch to Te, but I didn't think it was ever designed other than having Cervini run it in with Te just being there as a decoy to hold a defender. A pitch to a kicker on an option seems a little too risky but just a decoy of the kicker and running straight in seems like a better calculated risk. Brock had a nice seal off block on that play too, gave Cervini just enough room to get in.

[David]

Aditi- Thank you so much for this, I was so angry there was no ESPN post-game. Great writing as always!!!!!!

[RUGRAD]

Not to mention the fact that Cervini makes the play of his young career, and they keep referring to him as "Andrew DePaola" during the broadcast. I mean, the numbers aren't even close. 16 vs 40? Just look at your press guides, gentlemen.

[Peter]

Hi Aditi:

Got back from Birmingham and watched the game on ESPN. Was it me or were there some horrible spots by those refs? A really bad venue, although did appreciate the historical significance of the place, thanks to a recent HBO special on the integration of college football. I didn't see any souveniers except for a program and some mini football helmets. What's up with that???

Thought our crowd was loud although not surprisingly there was some grumbling in the stands at halftime! Classic Jersey attitude! Met some really nice NC State fans after the game congratulating us on the win.

As a PR guy, my only conclusion after the timing of the new interim AD announcement is that they are inept or spiteful (or maybe both). Not that it got alot of attention (although ESPN did announce it during the game), but why announce on the day of the game? Although I heard in the media it was leaked, I don't buy that one bit. Usually things are leaked on purpose anyway. McCormick must have been going crazy given the attention and affection that Mulcahy got. Was McCormick even at the game?????

[bronxkid]

It's wonderful that the AD is so widely loved by the fans and players, but it's only fair to mention that his misconduct was well documented in the ad hoc committee's report. He ran an insular, unaccountable football program with the complicity of the Prez and Board of Governors. Mulcahy was unjustly made the scapegoat, but there was ample cause for his dismissal.

[DJ Spanky]

bronxkid, you are incorrect. The independent audits found that Mulcahy committed NO WRONGDOING WHATSOEVER, but they did cite the lack of oversight by the President and the BOG. Their insinuation was that wrongdoing COULD have happened because of this, but their conclusion was that it didn't. Stop buying into Josh and Ted's fantasy.

[bronxkid]

DJ Spanky: Sorry, but it's not my imagination or love of newspaper reporters that prompted my post. The committee excused Mulcahy's misconduct and incompetence by citing the lack of administrative control and the seeming lack of wrongful intent on the part of the AD.

Page twenty seven of the report discusses Mulcahy's failure to timely disclose to his superiors the employment of his son by Nelligan Sports Marketing. The report states that "Mr. Mulcahy's actions give rise to the appearance of impropriety." Page twenty five of the report quotes the Conflict of Interesrt law defining that very conduct as a breach of the ethical standards for public employees set forth in the statute.

Page six of the report explains the competitive bidding requirement dictated by the University's Procurement Dept. for the purchase of commodities, equipment and supplies. Page nine of the report describes the AD's disregarding of that policy in April 2004 in connection with the Nelligan deal for the purchase of equipment and a new scoreboard at the stadium.

These are just two examples of the improper operation of the football program that breached either the law or the school's internal rules and are readily evident in only a cursory review of the report. Most fair minded people would normally consider such behavior malfeasance in both the legal sense and the more general sense of violating the public trust. If nothing else, it also amounted to extreme incompetence.

To insist that Mulcahy did nothing wrong or doesn't know the reason for his dismissal is simply not right. The Board of Governors and Prez are also responsible for the operation of an insular and unaccountable football program, but that doesn't excuse the AD's actions nor does the fact that he could have actually been guilty of influence peddling in connection with the hiring of his son by Nelligan.

[bronxkid]

I misquoted the report. The actual words are "give rise to the appearance of a conflict of interest." It's this seeming impropriety even when there is no illicit gain by the parties that also amounts to a violation of the ethical standards for public employees in the Conflict of Interest law.

The report is filled with Mulcahy's improper actions and is thirty five pages in length. It's impossible to read it and then conclude that the AD did nothing wrong.

[DJ Spanky]

You said:

"It's impossible to read it and then conclude that the AD did nothing wrong."

Yet many people, including newspaper reporters OTHER THAN JOSH AND TED, did exactly that. I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with you about this, but the refutations to your "accusations" have been discussed and documented in many different places on the web already. Even more telling is that since McCormick could not even give Mulcahy a reason for why he was fired, that speaks volumes about what was, or in this case wasn't, found.

[bronxkid]

DJ Spanky - It's not a pissing contest. The factual portion of the report details the AD's unethical and incompetent behavior. You should take the time to read it. I'm not making any accusations other than those stated in the report. If you want to believe that Mulcahy never read the report and therefore doesn't know the reason for his dismmissal - that's fine, but it's a little hard for me to believe.

Please direct me to the citations in the report that state Mulcahy didn't act unethically or incompetently and the documented refutations you mention. The only wrongdoing of which he seemingly isn't guilty is influence peddling. The committee did choose to excuse his failures by citing the lack of supervision by his superiors. All I'm saying is that it's intellectually dishonest to suggest that the report therefore exonerates the AD or that he never received an explanation for his firing.