North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Has Little Time for Celebration
10/13/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 13, 2002
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.-For many NC State football fans, the celebration over their team's 34-17 win over archrival North Carolina is only just beginning. But when head coach Chuck Amato and his staff awoke early Sunday morning, the party was already over. After knocking out his weekly television show late Saturday night, Amato pretty much put the game to bed about the same time he himself hit the sack.
"I got to bed at around 1:30 [Sunday] morning and then it starts all over again," Amato said on Sunday. "The fans can celebrate for the next 365 days; it's a big win and a nice win because of the rivalry. But we can't dwell on the past-we've got to go forward. We have another mission this week."
That mission will be to prepare for a Duke team (2-5, 0-3) that is much improved after enduring two consecutive winless seasons. Ranked 10th in the coaches poll and 13th in the AP writers poll, the Wolfpack (7-0) will indeed be trying to launch itself into some rare air when it faces the Blue Devils. Only one team in the history of NC State football has ever won its first eight games without a loss: the 1967 team that featured a hard-nosed linebacker named Chuck Amato. This week's ranking in the coaches poll marks the first time the Wolfpack has been ranked in the top 10 during the season since Lou Holtz's 1974 squad was ranked No. 10 in October of 1974. Amato was a defensive coach for NC State that year.
"Are we worthy of [the ranking]? I think so," Amato said. "We're getting better. Slip one time and you'll see what they really think about us. You're in elite company when you get up in that area. It's good to be there; it's good for the kids and it's good for the fans. If the season were over today it would be great; we'd be undefeated. But it's not that way."
Amato said that NC State came out of the North Carolina game in pretty good shape injury wise. Center Jed Paulsen, who missed three games after suffering a knee injury at Navy, returned to the line-up and played every offensive snap without incident. And then there was T.A. McLendon. Just 11 days after undergoing surgery to stabilize the broken bone in his wrist, the rookie running back rushed for 164 yards and two touchdowns against the Tar Heels.
"I was really proud of the way he played under the conditions, being a young person who had gone through probably the first operation he's had done to his body," said Amato. "It shows you he's a pretty tough kid mentally."
McLendon's 12 touchdowns this ties the NC State freshman record held by Ted Brown. McLendon is also the first rookie to put together three consecutive 100-yard rushing games since Tremayne Stephens pulled the trick in 1994. With five receptions on Saturday, senior receiver Bryan Peterson has now caught a pass in 32 straight games, which leaves him just two games away from the school record held by Jimmy Grissett.
