North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack and Hoosiers Get an Early Start
9/7/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
Click here to listen to the game on Sept. 9!
By Tony Haynes
There's an old saying that "the early bird gets the worm." But NC State (1-0) would gladly trade in the worm for a win when it plays at Indiana (0-0) on Sept. 9. The start time for the contest is shortly after noon eastern--or 11 a.m. Bloomington time.
"Our pre-game meal will be at seven o'clock in the morning," said Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato. "We'll have to wake up at 6:30, but fortunately Indiana's team has to get up that early too."
Amato will want to make sure that his defensive players are awake and limber when they take the field because their mission will be to contain one of the nation's most mobile quarterbacks.
Indiana junior Antwaan Randle El has been compared to the likes of former Florida State Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward and ex-Georgia Tech signal caller Joe Hamilton.
"I think he's better than Joe Hamilton," said NC State linebacker Levar Fisher. "He can throw the ball a lot harder than Joe Hamilton. He can hurt you in a lot of ways."
Amato likens Randle El to the man many think will win this year's Heisman. "I hate to say it, but he is as dangerous as the Vick kid," he said. "He probably doesn't throw as well as Michael does, but he does throw well and he's got plenty of athletic ability."
Amato saw all he wanted of Virginia Tech's Michael Vick in January when, as a member of Florida State's staff, he coached against the Hokies in the Sugar Bowl.
Randle El's numbers are indeed staggering. In just two years (19 games), he's thrown for 3,000 yards and rushed for 1,500 more. No quarterback in Division one history has reached those career milestones so quickly.
Capable of running the option as well as throwing from the pocket, Randle El is perhaps most dangerous when he's forced to improvise when a play breaks down.
"Any time a quarterback runs the football, whether it's a designed play, an option or a scramble, that means the offense is playing with 11 people," Amato said. "When a quarterback hands the ball off, they're playing with ten. That's how defenses can gang up on the running game with eight man fronts, because offensively, they're going to run out of blockers."
NC State's quarterback, freshman Philip Rivers, is not nearly as fleet as Randle El and, in fact, he prefers to sit and throw darts from the pocket. In his first college start against Arkansas State last week, Rivers proved that he could hit the target, passing for 397 yards in the Pack's double overtime win.
With Randle El on the other side, the onus could be on the Wolfpack offense to put some points on the board this week.
"We need to make sure we don't go out there and have a lot of three-and-outs," said junior running back Ray Robinson, who recorded the fifth 100-yard rushing game of his career when he ran for 139 yards on 27 carries last week. "We're going to have to go there and put up some big numbers because with the option-type of team they are, they could make some big plays. If they make big plays and they score a lot of points, it will be up to us to match them. It might be an offensive game, but I think our defense will hold up pretty well."
Indiana, which went 4-7 last year, is beginning its fourth season under coach Cam Cameron. This will mark the second straight year the Hoosiers have opened with an ACC opponent at home. Last fall, Indiana kicked off its season with a 42-30 loss to North Carolina.
Offense certainly wasn't a problem for Indiana last year. The Hoosiers averaged 406 yards and 26.5 points per game. On defense, however, it was a different story. IU surrendered an average of 35.1 points per game in 1999, a figure that ranked 104th in the nation.
In hopes of finding a solution, Cameron went out and lured new defensive coordinator James Bell away from Wake Forest.
"I'm extremely pleased with what I've seen so far, but you have to say that with caution because we haven't been tested in a game," Cameron responded when questioned about his team's new defensive structure. "Our defense is giving great effort but it takes some time to learn a system. This is going to be a good system, it's going to be a system that everybody is going to enjoy watching, but it's not going to happen overnight. We're just going to have to wait until Saturday and find out. This will be a difficult task for us, but it's probably the test that we need to find out exactly where we are."
The gridiron history between NC State and Indiana is hardly illustrious. The two schools have met twice, with the Wolfpack winning both games. In its first and only trip to Bloomington in 1975, the Pack blanked the Hoosiers 27-0. Playing at home the next year, NC State posted a 24-21 victory.
