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North Carolina State University

Boston College's Shinskie won't take Wolfpack defense lightly

By Tim Hall

Oct 16, 2009

Dave Shinskie has heard it all.  It's not everyday you see a 25 year-old roaming around campus, let alone a freshman.

"They call me Uncle Dave and stuff like that," Shinskie told 99.9 The Fan ESPN Radio. "I think I heard Van Wilder one other time, but it started out when I first got here but it's dying down, it's funny."

Shinskie's story is one of the more unique ones in the ACC as he was released by the Blue Jays organization this past spring after playing six years of minor league baseball.  Not being done with sports he turned to his college eligibility.  Now he's quarterbacking the 4-2 Eagles who are only a half game behind Wake Forest in the Atlantic division.  A win over N.C. State and a struggling secondary could go a long way.

"Defenses have lapses every once in a while and just because of the last two weeks we're not going to take them lightly in the passing game," Shinskie said. "I'm not worried about what the other teams did against them it's about what we have to do against them."

Getting back into football mode as been a learning process.  After all he hadn't played an organized game since 2003.  So far it's been a season marked by little successes as well as huge struggles.  In the Eagles four wins Shinskie is 47-of-77 for 622 yards and 7 touchdowns.  In two losses at Clemson and Virginia Tech he is 2-of-13 for 6 yards and 2 interceptions.  Yikes.

"At Clemson I went in there and botched it, I had a bad game," he said. "Last week we played a really good team, their defense was on the ball.  I guess you have those games in college football, it's a lot of firsts for this season."

He isn't letting the two losses bother him.  The elderly freshman was only 1-of-12 for 4 yards in the 48-14 loss at Virginia Tech but he says all he can do is overcome and forget all about it.

Gary Tranquill is in his first year as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at BC, but he's been coaching for over 40 years.  He's even coached with Tom O'Brien at Virginia.  Shinskie says that his coach does have the confidence to let him throw but he doesn't want him to get ahead of himself.

"He knows that we have two awesome running backs in Josh(Haden) and Montel(Harris).  He makes it easy for you, it might sound hard in my mind but in his mind it's really easy and really simple, but he has a way of making it a little easier."

N.C. State comes into this game with the No. 4 ranked rush defense in the nation but the pass defense dropped to No. 66 in the country.   Shinskie's ability to throw the ball like he did against Wake Forest and Florida State could be a deciding factor. 

Even though he's had some early season struggles and his teammates kid him for being old, there was this old guy at Florida State that was the oldest to ever win the Heisman Trophy.  His name was Chris Weinke.

"It's something to look forward to, set my standards a little higher you know," Shinskie said.