North Carolina State University Athletics
Bowl Diary, Day 1
12/14/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 14, 2001
Orlando, Fla. - I've got a bag of tangerines sitting on the table and a balmy breeze is blowing through the open balcony door. Of course, it was pretty balmy this morning when our bus left for the airport at 6:30 a.m. A group of coaches, coaches families, administrators and even running back K.J. Stone's wife left Raleigh on a small charter plane this morning, and although the sky was cloudy when we took off, there were nothing but blue skies when we landed in Florida. About half of the coaches met us here, as they have been on the road recruiting, and all of the players made it down on their own.
We started with a welcome press conference at 11:15 this morning. Philip Rivers and his wife were the first to arrive - he went into the press conference and she headed to the outlets! Levar Fisher, Ray Robinson and Terrence Holt answered questions from the media and then headed to the team meeting at noon. Everybody was here on time, except for a couple of guys who had exams in Raleigh this morning - Corey Smith, William Brown, Julius Patterson and Brian Jamison will be in tonight though.
After the team meeting, the guys were welcomed with bags of tangerines and bottles of tangerine juice. Coach Amato has been raving about tangerine juice for a couple of weeks, so he grabbed a couple of bottles.
We headed out to practice about 2:30 with the biggest police escort I've ever seen. I'm sure people think the president is coming when all the motorcycles with blue lights and sirens lead us down the interstate. We practiced today at a field right next to the stadium, starting under some pretty intense heat and finishing in the cool darkness. We went full pads today, and of course had some goalline work. I think Coach Amato has goalline-withdrawal if he goes too many days without it!
"The toe" seemed to be doing pretty well today. Philip's toe may be broken, but he ran his gassers with his teammates after workouts.
Coach was pretty pleased with practice, considering the guys have been off since Sunday (from practice, that is. They've been pretty snowed under with exams!). We're all back at the hotel now (which is absolutely huge!) - the guys are showering and then heading out for some fun. I think the buses are making stops at Downtown Disney and Church Street Station tonight. Curfew is 1:00 a.m.
Tomorrow, we'll be up early practicing and then will head to the Magic Kingdom for the afternoon. I think the players don't want to admit it, but they can't wait to meet Mickey! I'm looking forward to it myself. I'll keep you posted on all the fun (and work!) that goes on down here. More tomorrow!
Note:Annabelle Vaughan is the media relations director at NC State. She'll be filing reports every day before the Pack meets Pittsburgh in the Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl on Thursday, Dec. 20..
