North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Meets No. 10 Florida State
11/9/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 9, 2001
By Tony Haynes
NC State head football coach Chuck Amato has many fond memories of the 18 years he spent as an assistant coach at Florida State. During his time in Tallahassee, Amato helped Bobby Bowden build perhaps the most dominant program in college football. There were championships galore, and the joy derived from winning year after year never got old.
But this weekend, Amato will see first hand what the view is like from the other side of the field at Doak Campbell Stadium. The palatial lockerroom Amato once entered before Seminole Saturday's will now be replaced by a dark, damp dungeon that sits in one corner under the grandstand.
When Doak Campbell was renovated in the mid 1990s, everything about the facility was modernized. Everything, that is, except for the visiting lockerroom.
"I can see you coming out on the field and going to the wrong sidelines," Bowden told Amato during a special appearance on Amato's weekly radio show on Wednesday night.
"I asked your secretary if I could come over and dress in your lockerroom because I know what that other lockerroom is like," Amato responded.
Florida State (6-2, 5-1) is one the most inhospitable teams in college football. Since 1992, the 'Noles are 38-0 against ACC teams in games played in Tallahassee. NC State's (5-3, 3-3) mission on Saturday afternoon will be to end a string that has rarely been threatened since it began nearly 10 years ago.
"There will be times when it will be difficult to communicate on offense because of the crowd noise," Amato said.
Said NC State safety Terrence Holt: "It's real loud. When our offense is out there they can get pretty rowdy. But I don't think it's anything we're not used to. We've played at Clemson and that's about as rowdy a place as there is."
But Amato isn't taking any chances. During Thursday's practice, taped crowd noise was piped in at a high volume to help the offense get a simulation of what it could be like on Saturday.
But the Florida State football program hasn't become a dynasty because it puts 80,000 fans in the seats. The Seminoles win with great talent and superb coaching. Bowden and his staff go out and get the best high school talent in the country year after year and then they coach those players extremely hard.
"There are some schools that get great players and don't win, they (Florida State) coach 'em to death," Amato said. "Those great players come in there with all those headlines and they get a rude awakening. It's like, 'are you the same guy that recruited me? You didn't talk that way to me when you were recruiting me.' The intensity on the field that they're trying to teach these players is the difference."
Florida State quarterback Chris Rix has certainly benefited from the coaching he's received this season. A redshirt freshman who was one of the nation's most sought after high school prospects two years ago, Rix is well on his way to becoming the next great signal caller at FSU.
Shaky in losses to North Carolina and Miami earlier in the season, Rix has rebounded to throw for 719 yards and nine touchdowns the last two weeks.
"There's no doubt where the improvement has come and that's with turning the ball over," Bowden said. "He turned it over five times against North Carolina and six times against Miami. The biggest improvement he's made is protecting the ball better. Everything else has developed as you would have hoped for a freshman quarterback."
Like Florida State, NC State has played its best football of the season the last two weeks. The Wolfpack followed a 24-0 shutout of Virginia on November 27 with a 55-31 trouncing of Duke last Saturday. More than likely, the Pack will need to win two of its last three games to put itself in a position to go bowling over the holidays. It won't be easy. The next two are against ACC frontrunners FSU and Maryland.
But first things first. Even though the Seminoles are out of the national title picture, they are still the team to beat for the ACC crown. And so far, they have proven to be invincible when playing at home against league opponents.
"As the season has gone on they've gotten better and better," Holt said. "We always feel like we can play with them, so I think the air of invincibility they have is based on media hype. But I think they're the same great team and we have to be up for the challenge."
The Wolfpack was up to the challenge in 1998 when it shocked Florida State at Carter-Finley Stadium, 24-7. The few remaining NC State seniors who played in that game claim that there can still be a carry over affect.
"It shows that we can get it done if we believe," said senior running back Ray Robinson. "That's the thing, just believing that you can win against those guys. Teams go in there intimidated by them because of their history. But you can't go in there that way. You've got to go in there knowing you can win."
Florida State owns a 16-5 advantage in the overall series against NC State.
