North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Hoping For Some Home Cooking Against Virginia
10/22/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 22, 2001
By Tony Haynes
Carter-Finley Stadium has a stunning new look this season. On one end sits a magnificent new video scoreboard. On the other end of the field, just above a new closed in section, a brand new state of the art football building is starting to take shape as construction crews continue to work ahead of schedule.
In fact, the NC State football team seems to have a little bit of everything in its new stadium this fall--except that is for a lot of victories. Heading into Saturday's 1:30 kickoff against the University of Virginia (3-4, 2-3), the Wolfpack is only 1-2 on its home field this season. Since bombing Indiana in its home opener on September 6, NC State has come up short in a pair of crucial ACC losses to North Carolina and Clemson.
The Pack hopes to turn the tide this week when first-year coach Al Groh brings his Cavaliers to town.
"It hurts a lot because we feel we owe it to our crowd," said senior linebacker Brian Jamison. "They come to see us and they're fantastic. They're always cheering us on whether we win or lose."
Indeed, fans have streamed through the turnstiles in record numbers this season. For the first time in school history, NC State sold out all of its season tickets as supporters gladly jumped on the bandwagon during the summer ticket drive. But unfortunately, there have been some long faces in the parking lots following two of the first three home games. The great programs are virtually unbeatable at home, something that Pack head coach Chuck Amato learned first hand when he was an assistant at Florida State.
"It's very important," Amato said during his weekly press gathering on Monday. "Not only do we owe to us, we owe it to our fans and our university. We need to win one for the Gipper, there's no doubt about it."
Now 3-3 overall and 1-3 in the ACC, NC State is reaching the point where its postseason bowl hopes could start slipping away very quickly if things don't turnaround. After getting off to a 2-0 start, the Wolfpack has dropped three of its last four games.
"We're down but we know we still have a lot of football to play," Jamison said. "We're taking the losses as a learning experience and we have a lot of young kids on the team and they're still trying to figure out what college football is all about. We've been making a lot of mistakes and most of them are mental, not physical."
Not only has NC State been penalized 22 times in its last two games, a handful of those flags have come at times when the Pack seemed to have some momentum. One such penalty occurred in the fourth quarter of NC State's 27-17 loss at Georgia Tech on Saturday. Down by a touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Wolfpack had moved to the Tech 31. On fourth and one, quarterback Philip Rivers ran a successful quarterback sneak that was nullified by an illegal procedure penalty. After stopping NC State on fourth and six, the Yellow Jackets took over and eventually kicked the field goal that would put the game virtually out of reach.
"That was big because if we go in there it makes it 24-24," Amato said. "We had so many the other day where penalties cost us. We've had a lot of untimely penalties."
Also on Monday, Amato hinted that Austin Herbert might be able to resume kicking field goals on Saturday. A decision will be made later in the week. Herbert was handling the punting and placekicking chores before spraining his right ankle prior to the September 29th game against North Carolina. Since then, he's only punted while Adam Kiker has taken care of the placekicking duties. Kiker is 4-4 on field goals.
