North Carolina State University Athletics
Coach Amato's Quotes Following Monday Scrimmage
8/16/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 16, 2004
Coach Amato's Scrimmage Quotes "The defense was much ahead of the offense, which is normal. It started off really good. The first team offense went right down the field and scored against the second team defense. The first defense went out and did their job. Then it kind of sputtered up after that. The kicking was pretty good. We've kicked some long field goals the last few days of practice, which is very, very important. We ended up on the goalline and the defense just totally dominated. It's really a defensive drill, so they should dominate it. You send 11 people after the football and we tell the offense out of 16 plays, if they throw more than two they have to run a gasser. The ones should dominate it because we go with the ones against the twos on both sides of the ball. "We held out some people. T.J. Williams didn't practice. We held out T.A. [McLendon]. I tell you what, T.A. has done really well. The other day he tweaked a hamstring but he probably could have gone. Those two young kids (Bobby Washington and Darrell Blackman) need all the work they can get; it was a blessing in disguise, really. T.A. has earned his stripes. "We'll assess the quarterback situation. They were both with the first offense and they were both with the second offense. It's hard to look at their stats because sometimes when they're with the second group it becomes skewed. We're going to start making a push on that position. It's working out pretty well." Question: What do you mean by push? "As far as making a decision. We don't want to go to kick off, but if we have to we will." Question: Did one stand out more than the other today? "No. One was 10-for-22 and the other was 9-for-22." Question: How did the young running backs do? "Fair. At times, Jimmy Brown couldn't have run behind the line. It's new to them. You get two young running backs in here and you put them in a stadium where they watched some games, it's a little different than when you're going in practice when you're doing thud and things like that. They've got a lot of talent and all they're going to do is get better. That's why they need all the work they can get." Question: As far as kicking, is that any one guy or several guys? "Deraney really had a good day kicking. Today we didn't do any punting; we did that the other day. That one there may end up becoming a question if the other one (Tucker King) ends up doing pretty well. If we could get somebody to do one thing of it it would probably be a big help. King has gotten off some huge punts, and he gets the ball off in a hurry."
