North Carolina State University Athletics
Tangerine Bowl Diary, Day Two
12/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 15, 2001
Orlando, Fla. - Anyone who wonders why a football team needs to travel to a bowl site early should have been out on that practice field this morning. It was pretty toasty out there, even though we started just after 9:00 a.m. The guys went out in shells (shorts and shoulder pads), but it still didn't take long for everyone to work up a pretty good sweat. After half an hour of specialty work, practice lasted about an hour and a half. Because of the heat, we took three breaks - which the guys needed because after practice came the dreaded "mat drills."
Chris Hubert, the son of Wayne "Smoke" Hubert, our equipment manager, following tradition and went through a mat drill at the urging of Philip Rivers. It was pretty funny to see little Christopher doing drills with big Ricky Fowler and the other defensive linemen.
We bused back to the hotel after practice, where the players showered and had meetings before this afternoon's outing. The setup in our hotel is pretty incredible. Our equipment folks have taken over a ballroom and it is now a lockerroom. Every player has a "locker," which is really a chair with all his stuff on it. Another ballroom is the training room - basically the whole football complex has moved to one wing of this HUGE hotel. (There's also a room filled with video games, but I'm not sure when the guys have time to play them!).
Four buses of Wolfpackers headed to the Magic Kingdom this afternoon. We got there right in time for the afternoon parade, which meant that the players made quite an impact. When over a hundred big guys enter a place like that at one time, while everyone is sitting there waiting for a parade, you get a lot of heads craning and "oohs" and "aahs." The players were very patient with their media relations director, as I made them stop for pictures. Disney's media relations director even stopped traffic on Main Street USA so that I could snap some photos with Cinderella's castle in the background. A local television photographer was out there shooting and might send some back to the Raleigh stations. Tune in to WRAL in Raleigh tonight - I think they were going to get some of the video sent back to them.
Most of the offensive line headed straight to Space Mountain, but came right backsaying that the wait was an hour long. Olin Hannum made up for that disappointment by buying a big, juicy hot dog. He was attacking it like he attacks those guys on special teams! I know Brian Williams and some of his buddies were having their pictures made with Mickey. Maybe they'll let me borrow a copy for next year's media guide.
I have to admit that I didn't stay at the Magic Kingdom very long. The magic outlets were calling my name! Coach Amato has said all along that the guys would get worn out quickly down here. With practices in the morning, attractions in the afternoon and then outlet shopping and nightlife after that, I have a feeling that more than a few of them will be in bed long before curfew tonight.
Tomorrow we practice at the Disney Sports Complex, where we'll be the rest of the week. After that, it's off to see Shamu and the others at Sea World. I sat in front of Carlos Doggett and Bryan Peterson on the bus to Disney today and told them to be sure to sit on the front row at the Shamu show. If no one fills them in on the joke and they end up getting drenched, I might have to go into hiding!
I just saw Coach Amato in the lobby with a big smile on his face. The reason? His daughters, Selena and LuGina both arrived today. Nothing can put a smile on his face like they can. Today was a full, but good day (even better after I heard how badly our men's basketball team beat UNC Asheville). Tomorrow will be another long one - I'll let you know all about it!
