North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Gearing Up For Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl
12/10/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 10, 2001
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.-As Chuck Amato learned during his 18 years in Tallahassee, assistant coaches at Florida State aren't around for Christmas very much. By the time December 25th comes along, the Seminoles are usually on the road, preparing themselves for a big-time New Years Day bowl game.
And even last Christmas, his first as the head coach at NC State, Amato was already in South Florida getting his team ready for the MicronPC.com Bowl. This year, however, will be different. By the time the holidays roll around, the Wolfpack will have already faced Pittsburgh in the Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl on December 20.
"It's going to be different for me, I haven't celebrated Christmas at home in over 20-some years," Amato said. "I'm actually going up to Pennsylvania to be with family I haven't been with for Christmas in a long time."
And Amato hopes he'll be in a celebratory mood when he heads up north to get re-acquainted with the home folks. With a win over the Panthers, NC State would finish up at 8-4 for the second consecutive year.
"This is a big game for our team," Amato said. "You win this game and you have eight wins and you're probably in the top 25 in the country. You lose this game and you're a 7-5 football team, which is still good. But it would be nice for this group of people to finish in the top 25 and give us something to build on next year so the media can put the heat on us and say 'if they don't finish in the top 10 they've done a really terrible job.'"
Because of the early date for this year's bowl game, the gap between games won't be as large as it will be for teams that play postseason contests in late December and early January. Still, in an effort to re-acclimate his team to game-speed conditions, Amato put the Pack through an afternoon scrimmage at Carter-Finley Stadium on Sunday.
"We've got to get them focused for the game," Amato said. "We had a scrimmage that I wasn't happy with the results of, but the fact that the intensity wasn't there was expected. What we've been trying to do is to improve ourselves fundamentally, kind of like a spring practice atmosphere."
NC State quarterback Philip Rivers should be ready to go for the bowl game despite suffering a painful injury to the big toe on his left foot in the second half of the Wolfpack's final regular season game against Ohio on November 24. Rivers tested out the toe and a new shoe designed to take away some of the discomfort during Sunday's scrimmage.
"This past week I eased my way into practicing and I went through everything," said Rivers, who completed 71 percent of his passes for, 1,109 yards, six touchdowns and just two interceptions in the Pack's last five games. I went through pretty much everything and worked with some different shoes to make sure I found something that was comfortable. It's feeling better and better. If it keeps progressing like this, I probably won't even know that I was hurt by the time the game gets here."
Rivers also said the time off between the last game and the first practice on November 30th made a significant difference.
The sophomore from Athens, Alabama managed to stay injury free for 10 and a half games primarily because he absorbed fewer hits from opposing defensive linemen and linebackers than he did in his freshman season. NC State allowed just 17 sacks in 11 games this fall, second fewest in the ACC. Wake Forest, a running team that threw 101 fewer passes than the Wolfpack, finished No.1 with 13 sacks allowed.
"I owe a great deal of my success and the team's success this year to the offensive line," said Rivers, who was hit only once in NC State's dramatic upset victory at Florida State on Nov. 10. "They really got better as a unit. They did a great job of giving me time. A lot of that has to do with me just trusting them and using what I've been taught by coach [Mike] Canales as far as moving in the pocket. Overall, we did a great job and we got better week by week."
Other than senior guard William Brown, who missed some time in the games against Clemson and Georgia Tech, the five starters on the offensive line remained healthy throughout the entire season.
"When you take the number of times we passed (353) for the whole season and take the number of sacks we gave up, the percentage isn't even close (compared to Wake Forest)," Amato said.
Time off for Exams:Due the arrival of final exams, the players won't practice again until they get together for the first time in Orlando on Friday. NC State's all-time bowl record, which includes last year's come-from-behind 38-30 victory over Minnesota, is 9-9-1.
Tickets to the Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl can be purchased by calling 1-800-310-PACK or 919-515-2016.
