North Carolina State University Athletics
Quotes From Chuck Amato
9/20/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 20, 2001
Here's what NC State football coach Chuck Amato had to say about Saturday night's clash at SMU.
ON LONG LAYOFF BETWEEN GAMES: "Last year, by Sept. 21, we had played four football games. This year, by that time, we will have not played our second football game. Part of that is because of the television and the Indiana game and part of that had to do with what went on this past week and there's nothing we can do about it. We started doing our normal routines that we do on Monday. We actually did get a little bit ahead last week preparing for Southern Methodist."
ON NOT PRACTICING AFTER TRAGEDY: "I just didn't think that we needed to go out there with what went on. It was just something that we could do to show how sensitive we were to the situation in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. We knew by 3:00 that day that the Ohio game was postponed we felt very strongly about that. We brought the guys in and talked about it very briefly. I was very concerned that we might have kids that had family and friends that they couldn't get in touch with that might have been affected. There was only a handful that did because we don't have an awful lot of youngsters from up that way. I? just felt that it was the least we could do. We weren't going to go outside and risk getting someone hurt because our minds were somewhere else. We were watching television all day like you people were. I'd walk by the lounge and there would be 15 players watching TV because they were concerrned. It's something that will last the rest of our lives because it will change how we think and how we do things."
ON AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT: "We've got to improve in the kicking game. Blocking for the extra points and field goal teams was very, very bad (in the first game against Indiana). They could have blocked every one we kicked. Coverage on kickoffs got better as the game went along, but we must improve there as well. We have to work on recovering an onside kick as well. We must correct that. We were winning 21-0 and didn't kick an extra point. We have to tackle better. Obviously we have to block better as well, that's just the fundamentals of football."
ON QB PHILIP RIVERS' ACTIVITY DURING THE WEEK: "We went out and scrimmaged on Wednesday (9/12), so that was sort of our game for the week. On Thursday, they went out and played pitch and catch. On Friday, they watched film. Saturday, they were completely off and Sunday we ran them pretty good. Knowing Philip, though, he was probably in the back yard throwing the football to his father, little brother, little sister or his mother. I forgot his wife, she can catch the ball too. That's five receivers right there.
ON SMU IN 2001: "They've got 19 of 21 starters back and they look awfully fast defensively. They've made mistakes that have turned their games around in the kicking game with turnovers and big plays. They are well-coached and they'll be ready like everybody else. If our players don't believe what you people write in the newspapers, we'll be ready to play on Saturday. That's all we can ask them to do."
ON SMU SECONDARY: "There's no question that they have more experience back there, but so does #17. He was a true freshman that day too. We are going to work on getting ourselves better every week. We can worry about ourselves more than we can worry about the opponent."
