How's that song by The Hives go again?

"Hate to say I told you so, but I ......
I do believe I told you so ........"

Oh, yeah. That's it.

In arguably the second biggest game of his career, with a spot in the ACC Championship Game on the line, N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien and his Wolfpack laid a Diamond Ferri-sized egg ... again. Of course, it's easy for me to say this, but don't let my maroon-and-gold colored glasses get in the way. As an impartial third-party, ACC Sports' Jim Young explains that the Wolfpack indeed laid an egg on Saturday:

"When Tom O'Brien left Boston College for N.C. State back after the 2006 season, it created an interesting message board rivalry between fans of the Eagles and the Wolfpack.

One of the things BC fans kept harping on was O'Brien's inability to win the big game. Yes, eight and nine-win seasons were great, but O'Brien never produced that breakthrough win in Chestnut Hill that Eagle fans hungered for.

At the time, a lot of Wolfpack fans wrote off those complaints as sour grapes. Their logic: once O'Brien had time to build his program at a place with superior facilities and a deeper well of local talent, he'd take things a level beyond what he did at Boston College.

O'Brien may still do that at State, but last Saturday you can bet there were plenty of BC fans saying "I told you so," when the Wolfpack suffered a 38-31 loss at Maryland."

I tend to agree with him. The window to win the Atlantic Division seems to be shrinking, especially given that Florida State was able to back into an ACC Atlantic Division title in Jimbo Fisher's first full year at the helm.

That's what makes this season for BC so disappointing in my mind. The fact that the team was so young yet still managed to win 7 games and go 4-4 in the ACC. Pull out those two close losses to Florida State and Maryland, and BC is once again representing the Atlantic in this week's ACC Championship Game.

Now like Jim said, O'Brien could prove me wrong and finally get over the hump and into the ACC title game. It wouldn't surprise me in the least, not with Russell Wilson under center. But if I peer into my crystal ball, I'm leaning towards 2-3 more seasons of middle-of-the-Pack (pun intended) finishes in the Atlantic, before O'Brien decides to hang them up for good or gets pushed out by new AD Debbie Yow.