North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Linebacker Could Miss Last Four Games
10/30/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Tony Haynes
Prior to the 2000 season, NC State football coach Chuck Amato expressed concern over his team's overall lack of depth. In fact, he often noted that the linebacker spots were the only positions with which he felt comfortable. That isn't the case anymore.Inside linebacker Edrick Smith, who saw playing time as a reserve in the Pack's first seven games, could be out for the rest of the season after suffering a shoulder injury in NC State's 58-14 loss to Florida State on October 28. The overall prognosis won't be known until after the redshirt sophomore undergoes exploratory athroscopic surgery.
"If it's just a scope, you're talking about two months, which would be the rest of the year," Amato said during his weekly press conference on Monday. "If they have to do more work in there, we're talking four months."
Smith missed most of the 1999 campaign after sustaining a serious knee injury in the opener at Texas.
Over the first three weeks of the season, NC State had a fairly solid five-man linebacker rotation, with Smith and Corey Lyons backing up starters Clayton White, Levar Fisher and Dantonio Burnette. But that was before White, a senior, went down with a broken arm in the Georgia Tech game on September 21.
"Our linebacking situation is getting very, very critical," Amato said. "Things are getting real scary in there. We're hoping Clayton will be back for the Duke game (November 11). One of those freshmen is going to have to get in there and work in practice. I'm even thinking about looking at Brian Jamison there. He's got some ability and he seems to learn pretty well."
Jamison, a 6-1, 230 pound junior, has been used as a rush end in obvious passing situations this season. Others who might also get a look this week are freshmen Roger Pollard, Chip Thomas and Andrew Purcell. Another freshman, Corrie Dawson will not play because he's still eligible to be redshirted.
Also on Monday, Amato was hardly lamenting Saturday night's lopsided loss that knocked the Wolfpack out of the national polls. His message to the team: learn from it and move on.
"What are we going to do now?" Amato asked rhetorically. "We started it, but our slogan was 'finish.' If we just do business every week for four more weeks, we can have a season that we sure didn't anticipate having, and it would be a great building block."
Now 5-2, the Wolfpack will try to begin the rebuilding process this Saturday (3:30 p.m.) when it travels to Maryland. Ignited by tailback LaMont Jordan's 77-yard run from scrimmage on the second play of the third quarter, the Terrapins (4-4) defeated Duke 20-9 on Saturday. NC State, which needs just one more win to become eligible for a bowl game, will be looking to beat Maryland for the fifth straight time.
