North Carolina State University Athletics
Pack Prepares For Annual Spring Game
3/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 24, 2006
Chuck Amato Talks About Spring Practice I
Chuck Amato Talks About Spring Practice II
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - With spring practice about one-third of the way complete, Chuck Amato says he likes where his team is so far. He sat down with the media on Friday to talk about the status of his team to this point in the season, as it continues to prepare for the annual spring game at Carter-Finley Stadium on April 8 at 4 p.m.
Here are some of Amato's thoughts on selected players and topics:
. Junior quarterback Marcus Stone: "Marcus is better now than when we finished last season. That's the way it should be. He has really taken the approach of putting in the time on his own. With some people, it takes time. Right now, we have to get the other two quarterbacks all the repetitions we can. Sophomore Daniel Evans and redshirt freshman Mike Greco both have to get as many reps as they can. But there is no question about who the quarterback is."
. On sophomore running backs Andre Brown and Toney Baker: "Those running backs, they scare me, because we can't tackle them."
. On junior Darrell Blackman's move from tailback to wide receiver: "Darrell has really, really worked hard on the routes and the techniques of running routes. He has seen what it is like to get the ball in the open field and not have to run through 300 pounders and let your skills take over. It's like running back kickoffs and punts. I think he sees how much damage he can do. He has great hands. If we can get him the ball, he is capable of making big plays. He is fast. He can go deep. He can do an abundance of things."
. On the rest of the receiving corps: "John Dunlap has really been good so far. He's healthy, both mentally and physically. He has done some awfully good things. Lamart Barrett might be our most complete wide receiver. He is a great pattern runner. He is a young man lending his leadership to other people. Redshirt freshman Geron James is healthy. We felt all along that he might be something special. We also have Andrew Evans and Jamesly Jean and a bunch of good ones coming in."
. On the offensive line, which loses three starters from last year: "They are doing a good job. They have more pep and vigor than I have seen there. They are pretty tight. You have [senior center] Leroy Harris in the middle, who is an outstanding football player. Leroy could play defense, he is so athletic. At the tackles, we have [fifth-year seniors] James Newby and Jon Holt, who both have some pretty good experience. At the guards, we have [junior] Kalani Heppe, who was a starter until he got hurt last year, and [sophomore] Curtis Crouch, who played about 60 snaps in the bowl game. We would have liked to have held Curtis out last year, but, boy, he is going to be something special. There is a little bit of competition. [Junior] Luke Latham has played a bunch of snaps at center and at guard. We have [redshirt freshman] Andy Barbee that we have to get a lot of reps."
. On replacing three tight ends from last year: "Anthony Hill is coming back for just his junior year. Anthony is awfully good. [Sophomore] Octavius Darby is coming along awfully good. But that is really all we have. Last year, we had four of them. Anthohy Hill can become a very complete tight end, not only catching the ball, but he is tall and he can run and he has good hands. He is a really good blocker. He is 272 pounds, but he sure doesn't look it. He is sleek. If we had five of them like that, we would be real good."
. On defensive line, which lost first-team All-ACC ends Mario Williams and Manny Lawson and tackle John McCargo: "The inside people [junior DeMario Pressley and senior Tank Tyler] are all there, plus a couple of redshirts. [Senior] John Amanchukwu, who we moved from offensive guard, to defensive tackle last year when McCargo got hurt, is now a starter at end. He is an awfully good athlete. He is one of the fastest guys we have. He has worked hard and shown a lot of leadership qualities. Willie Young, this is his second year of going through spring practice. He has great tools, He can be a real, real, real, real good pass rusher. He can play the run pretty good too. He has put on about 15 pounds. Littleton Wright, a junior college player that we redshirted, is about 245 pounds. They are both relentless. If we have to keep it so simple that we only play one defense, because they both play so hard, they practice so hard, unless you try to make them think. Those three can be really good. We will be fine."
. On leadership at linebacker: "[Senior] Pat Lowery has really taken on a leadership role. I think if you look back on last year's games, he stepped up and did some pretty good things."
. On junior Jimmie Sutton stepping into a starting role at cornerback, after spending all last season as a nickel back: "You are never going to be able to tell until next fall. He played an awful lot last year, a ton. We played a lot of five, six and seven defensive backs at a time. His name wasn't penciled in as a starter on our base defense, but when we put an extra defensive back in there he was a starter. He is an athletic young man and a competitive. I think he will do real well out there."
. On competition for punter/placekicker John Deraney, with two scholarship kickers coming in this fall: "We will see how it all shakes out. If one of them can do something good and relieve John of one of his three duties, that would be good. But John has an awfully strong leg."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
