North Carolina State University Athletics
Rivers and Holt Honored by ACC
8/26/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 26, 2002
Coach Amato to speak at Playmaker's Coaches Corner on Tuesday
By Tony Haynes
NC State's Philip Rivers and Terrence Holt have been recognized by the Atlantic Coast Conference for their performances in the Wolfpack's season-opening 34-14 victory over New Mexico on Saturday. Rivers, the junior quarterback from Athens, Alabama, was named the league's offensive back of the week after throwing for three touchdowns and running for two more against the Lobos. For the game, Rivers completed 15-of-24 passes for 276 yards.
Holt, a senior free safety from Gibsonville, is the ACC's defensive back of the week. Against New Mexico, Holt was in on eight tackles, five of which were unassisted. He also had an interception that was returned 12 yards.
Heading into its home game against East Tennessee State this Saturday night, NC State is ranked 24th in the new ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll, which was released on Monday. The Wolfpack moved up one spot from its preseason ranking of 25th.
On the injury front, head coach Chuck Amato said on Monday that freshman tight end T.J. Williams is the only player that will be questionable for this week's contest. Williams sustained a shoulder sprain in Saturday's win over New Mexico.
Kicker Adam Kiker, who missed most of preseason practice with back spasms, could very well return to the kicking rotation against ETSU. Junior Austin Herbert handled all of the kicking duties in game one, although Kiker would have been available if needed.
"He probably could have [played], but he only practiced one full day," Amato said. "I just felt like Austin had practiced the whole time and he had kicked really well. The field goal he missed was a good snap and a good hold; he just missed it. I want our people to register all of their kicks this week in both kicking off and field goals."
Also on Monday, Amato expressed his desire to keep playing a lot of people, not only this week, but for the rest of the season. A total of nine linebackers saw action in Saturday night's game.
"What it does when you play a lot of people, number one it creates morale. Morale to me is so very, very important," Amato said. "I've sat here for two years and said we don't have quality depth. What is quality depth? It's somebody who's a second stringer that you're really not afraid to put in because he has been in the war. We have that at our rover position. We've got a sophomore (Andre Maddux) who beat out a senior (Julius Patterson) who had started the last two years. We feel good about that."
A total of 58 players saw action for the Pack in the season opener, including true freshmen Brian Clark, Oliver Hoyte, Manny Lawson, T.A. McLendon and T.J. Williams. Ten redshirt freshmen played in the game along with two transfers.
Tickets Available for East Tennessee State Game:Due to the upcoming holiday weekend, NC State students will not pick up their entire allotment of tickets. As a result, some single-game tickets are available for Saturday night's contest against East Tennessee State at Carter-Finley Stadium. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by calling the NC State Ticket Office at (919) 515-2106 or 1-800-310-PACK.
