North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State and Minnesota Wrap Up Bowl Preparations
12/27/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
Ft. LAUDERDALE, Fla. - All the press conferences, banquets, and joint appearances are now over. All that's left to do for the football teams at NC State and Minnesota is to play the game.
The game is the MicronPC.com Bowl, and it will be played Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. eastern time.
"We're ready to play a game," said Gophers coach Glen Mason. "You think about the life of a college football coach and a player, you go through two-a-day practices until you get sick of each other, and you get sick of blocking and tackling each other as you get ready for that first game. You finish the season and all of sudden you have 14 or 15 practices in five weeks, and you're watching the same film, meeting with the same guys and blocking the same players. It's time to play a game."
Said NC State defensive tackle Jeff Fisher: "We're here to play and we're here to win."
The Wolfpack concluded the physical aspects of its game preparations when it went through a two-hour practice on Tuesday morning. A scheduled walk through at Pro Player stadium on Wednesday afternoon was cancelled because the grounds crew was putting in some finishing touches on the playing surface.
NC State's pre-gameday routine during the regular season did not include a walk through at the stadium anyway. In head coach Chuck Amato's first season, Friday's were normally reserved for extra film study and team meetings.
When it takes the field on Thursday night, NC State will be making the 19th bowl appearance in school history. This will mark only the seventh time Minnesota has competed in a bowl game, although the Gophers are back for the second straight year after making it to the Sun Bowl last season.
The MicronPC.com Bowl certainly isn't winning any publicity wars. With Pro Player Stadium set to host the Dolphins-Colts NFL playoff game this weekend, plus next weeks National Championship game between top ranked Oklahoma and number two Florida State, the contest between the Pack and Gophers has received very little media coverage locally.
"Don't tell those players at Minnesota at NC State that this game doesn't have any significance because it does," Amato said. "You can call it what you want to; if you want to say that this is the preliminary and [the Florida State-Oklahoma contest] is the main event, that's all well and good. But we're glad to be a part of this. I'm as excited now as I was last year."
Last year at this time, Amato worked on a Florida State staff that was preparing to take on Virginia Tech in the National Championship game.
