RALEIGH -- If the message to his players wasn't clear enough when he walked into the locker room and told them they weren't any good, Tom O'Brien made sure they would hear about it all week by underlining the point with the media.
The thrilling finish to Saturday's 38-31 win over Pittsburgh certainly had the potential to leave the Wolfpack feeling pretty good about itself, which is exactly what O'Brien was trying to fend off.
There's no reading between the lines required here. O'Brien said it in so many words: "We're not a good football team."
"Just so they realize," O'Brien added. "They have a tendency to think they're pretty good. And they're not."
And, for good measure, "I haven't done a good job coaching."
But hidden among O'Brien's self-deprecation, provoked by a performance that would send some coaches running to their cardiologists, was an implicit pride in the way his team battled back and healed wounds that were, admittedly, often self-inflicted.
The game had more than enough big plays, Russell Wilson heroics and excitement to make the grim, soaking mist worth enduring for three hours. It was also full of penalties, abhorrent special teams, defensive breakdowns and offensive-line miscues, which is what left O'Brien so glum.
"I see exactly what he sees," Wolfpack running back Toney Baker said.
"It's important that everyone else sees it too on the team. It's a great win, but we have a lot of things to clean up. The stuff that happened today will get you beat in the ACC."
But if you're O'Brien, you take it and run with it. The mistakes you can fix in practice, at least you hope you can fix them. The heart your team showed, down two touchdowns late in the third quarter, can't be taught.
Trailing 31-17 with 19 minutes to go, the Wolfpack started making plays -- lots of them. Wilson led the way, but he was far from alone.
There was Darrell Davis adjusting in mid-route to catch a deflected Wilson pass for a first down, or Wilson running for a first down on fourth-and-14, or Steven Howard reaching out to make a basket catch on the sideline to set up the winning touchdown.
And as the offense started rolling, State's defense, which was slashed to pieces by Pittsburgh freshman Dion Lewis in the first half, tightened up. Pitt ran 11 plays in the fourth quarter without a first down, including four from the State 8-yard line with less than three minutes to go after a bad snap sailed over Wilson's head.
That was more than enough to send the fans home happy, even if it left the coach outwardly morose.
"We have to face up to some facts," O'Brien said. "We were lucky enough to escape with a victory today, but going into the ACC now, I don't think that performance will get it done. We have a lot of work to do this week."
Don't be fooled, though. A lot of O'Brien's juicy sound bites will make headlines and will be regurgitated on television and radio throughout the week. But if there's one thing he said that should be taken at face value, it's this:
"After I told them they were a bad football team, I told them the only reason they won was because we now know how to play hard for 60 minutes," O'Brien said. "We've learned how to do that. You can't underestimate what a huge step that is in the life of a program. Now if I can coach them any better, maybe we'll win some football games."
O'Brien sent a lot of messages after Saturday's game. Most of them sounded like they came from his head, which was justifiably overflowing with frustration. That one sounded like it came from his heart.
