North Carolina State University Athletics
On Second Look, Amato Likes Pack's Potential
9/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 5, 2005
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - Make no mistake about it, NC State's Chuck Amato and his coaching staff were still plenty disappointed after they took a second look at Sunday night's 20-16 loss to Virginia Tech. But the game tape on Monday also revealed a glimmer of hope for the rest of the season. Despite out gaining the Hokies 438 yards to 232, the Pack was ultimately undone by 12 costly penalties for 105 yards and three turnovers. In typical Tech fashion, the Hokies won by not beating themselves. If NC State can somehow take a page out of that playbook, it may still have much to look forward to this fall.
Amato's cautious optimism starts with new coordinator Marc Trestman's offense.
"I think they did a really good job," Amato said. "We did an awful lot of good things. Jay was awfully poised, we ran the ball well, the offensive line did a good job and we did a good job of changing formations and spreading the ball around a lot."
Quarterback Jay Davis finished 27-of-43 through the air for 311 yards and two interceptions, although the last pick on the final play of the game came on a desperate heave towards the end zone. The 27 completions and 311 yards were career highs, prompting Amato to say after the game that it may have been Davis's best game with the Wolfpack.
Obviously, however, an improved offense won't produce the intended results on the scoreboard unless the Pack can clean up the same type of crippling mistakes and errors that contributed mightily to last year's 5-6 mark.
Limiting penalties was a major point of emphasis for NC State during the preseason, although you wouldn't have known it on Sunday. After reviewing the tape, Amato said many of the penalties that were committed on Sunday had very little to do with a lack of discipline.
"I think a good majority of them were heat of the moment," Amato said. "I don't think any of them were done intentionally or done knowingly that they were doing it. That's as far as I can go with the officiating part of it."
Defensively, the Wolfpack, which was ranked No. 1 in the nation in total defense last year, was impressive statistically, allowing only those 232 total yards and just 108 through the air. But the final output by Virginia Tech was less than Amato thought it would be while he was watching the game on the sidelines.
"I felt like during the game that we were giving up more than we did," said Amato. "I looked at the stats and saw that they had 232 yards, I thought it was a typographical mistake to be honest with you. We have so much area of improvement in all phases. We've got a long way to go. It's a great thing to start with a game of that magnitude and play as physical as we did. But those other things (penalties and turnovers) need to be taken care of."
The competition in NC State's loaded backfield will continue over the next few weeks as the Pack prepares for it next game against Eastern Kentucky. Starter Darrell Blackman made several positive plays against Virginia Tech, but also had two critical errors. One was a fumble late in the third quarter. The sophomore then left the Wolfpack deep in a field position hole when he fielded a punt at his own one-yard line. Following an NC State punt, Virginia Tech needed only to drive 20 yards for the go ahead score with 12:24 left in the game.
Blackman is still very much in the backfield picture, but Amato hinted that others will get additional opportunities.
"We've got to get Toney [Baker] more touches and we've got to get the other ones in there as well," Amato said. "They all can do some good things. Darrell probably does everything a little bit better than everybody right now, but he's got to protect the ball better. He really got whacked hard on the fumble, and had he attacked the tacklers better he wouldn't have gotten pinned back the way he did. But within a two minute period, he made two big, big mistakes. Those are things that youngsters have to learn how to cope with and stop. But when Darrell has the ball in his hands, he can do a lot of good things."
