North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Tangles With Tech
9/20/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Tony Haynes<><>
NC State football coach Chuck Amato will have two major goals when his team opens its ACC schedule against Georgia Tech on Thursday night. The top priority, of course, is to win. Secondly, he'll use the game to show off his program to a national television audience, including prospective recruits who, by the way, didn't need to check their local listings to know that the Wolfpack would be on ESPN.
"If somebody wants to watch a college football game on Thursday night, whether they like NC State or not, they've got to watch us. That's the best selling thing we can have," Amato said. "The best recruiting thing we can do is to go out and win. It's going to be good that we can call all these players Monday through Wednesday and remind them to watch us on Thursday. If they watch you and you win and it's exciting, it would be positive."
Recruiting value aside, the game is also important because a victory would give NC State a 4-0 record for the first time since 1994. Georgia Tech (2-1), however, has always proven to be a stingy opponent for the Pack. The Yellow Jackets have won the last five games in the series, and nine of the last 12.
"Georgia Tech's a good ball club," said NC State safety Adrian Wilson. "They have a good quarterback, good skill players and they've got eight returning starters on defense. We're going to have a challenge ahead of us."
But one player Tech doesn't have this year is quarterback Joe Hamilton, who engineered one of the nation's most explosive offenses last season. With Hamilton pulling the trigger and cerebral offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen calling the plays, the Yellow Jackets led the nation in total offense (509 ypg) and ranked second in scoring (40.7 ppg).
No one person can replace a player of Hamilton's caliber. And apparently, three can't either. Three quarterbacks-George Godsey, Jermaine Crenshaw and Andy Hall-have taken turns running the Friedgen offense in Tech's first three games. Godsey, who is more of a drop back passer, has had the most successs, hitting 47-of-82 passes for 544 yards and seven touchdowns. Crenshaw is somewhat of an option specialist while Hall is somewhere in between.
"We've kept it simpler this year, only because of the nature of the people that you work with," said Georgia Tech coach George O'Leary. "We're doing what George Godsey can do, and I'm really pleased with the progress that he has made. I think he has gotten better and better with making quick decisions. But still I think you're going to see a lot more stuff added each week now."
Last weekend, Godsey threw three touchdown passes in Tech's 40-13 victory over Navy. In their competitive 26-21 loss to second ranked Florida State two weeks ago, the Jackets crossed the Seminoles up by calling on Crenshaw, who hit four of five passes for 30 yards and rushed for 36 more. Georgia Tech's unpredictable quarterback carousel has forced NC State to prepare for a little bit of everything.
"They're very diversified offensively," Amato said. "They shift, they move, they motion, they could have nobody in the backfield or they can have a full-house backfield. They run the option, they run the power game, they throw the ball and they bootleg. They absolutely do it all."
In other words, it's a good thing that NC State is coming off its strongest defensive outing of the year. Last Saturday night's 41-0 shutout of SMU couldn't have come at a better time. The Wolfpack defense will now get a chance to test its newfound confidence against one of the most creative offenses in college football.
Speaking of creative offenses, NC State heads into Thursday night's contest as the nation's top ranked passing team (399 ypg). The Pack is also ranked third in total offense with an average of 506.5 yards per contest.
"They're averaging about 50 passes a game, so we should get home about 4:30 in the morning," joked O'Leary.
As a former defensive coordinator, O'Leary understands that the best way to disrupt a big-play passing attack is to put a lot of pressure on the quarterback. Amato is also a former defensive coach, and he knows the Jackets will try to come after freshman quarterback Philip Rivers.
"He's going to get a sense of what it is like to have four, five, six and even seven very fast people coming at him," Amato said. "We've definitely got to step up in the line to make sure we give him the protection he needs so he can concentrate on getting the ball to the people downfield."
And when he looks to go deep downfield, Rivers will try to connect with one of the league's best big play receivers. Koren Robinson leads the ACC in yards per catch with an average of 19.8. Though he only touched the ball eight times, Robinson recorded 213 total yards against SMU.
After opening with a pair of comeback wins, NC State looked like a very confident football team its one-sided victory over SMU. That confidence will definitely come in handy against Georgia Tech.
"Success breeds success," Amato said. "We could be sitting here at 1-2, but we're 3-0. They feel good about themselves and they should. If we can keep them feeling good and teach them to concentrate on what they're doing, we'll continue to get better."
