North Carolina State University Athletics
Amato, Triangle Coaches Share Laughs
7/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
July 20, 2006
By Tony Haynes
Durham, N.C. - Six weeks before the start of their respective seasons, four college football coaches from Triangle area schools took part in a relaxed give and take on Thursday during the annual Triangle Pigskin Preview Luncheon to benefit the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. The program featured NC State's Chuck Amato, Ted Roof of Duke, North Carolina Central's Rod Broadway and North Carolina coach John Bunting. The atmosphere was so jovial at one point that Amato and Bunting actually agreed on something!
Each coach was asked to name his school's most intense football rival. Amato pondered the answer to the question as if the answer was really in doubt before giving the obvious response: "It's got to be the University of North Carolina. It is the most intense game that we play."
Bunting then said, "Me and Chuck are in agreement."
Once the laughter died down, Amato responded "that's the first time."
So it was that the coaches and about 400 fans chuckled their way through 90 minutes of fun and frivolity.
In answering a few questions, Amato, as usual, drew on his Italian heritage. Asked what disc was currently in his CD player, the sixth-year Wolfpack coach answered "Mob Hits."
Later, when asked what book he was currently reading, Amato said "you're not going to believe this but it's the Godfather. You can't listen to mob hits until you read the Godfather first."
There was, of course, an opportunity for the coaches to talk a little football as well. As NC State prepares to begin its 40th season at Carter-Finley Stadium, Amato was prompted to reminisce about the very first game there, a game in which he participated as a Pack linebacker in 1966.
"It's hard for me to remember because I was only six," he cracked. "It was a huge day to go from Riddick Stadium to Carter Stadium. They had to go out and raise $2.1 million to build that stadium. The jumbotron that we have in the stadium now costs that much. I can just see coach [Earle] Edwards standing out there and saying `what do we need all this stuff for?'"
And how did Amato perform in that 21-13 Wolfpack loss to South Carolina?
"How did I play? Great!" Amato said. "I had 73 tackles, two interceptions and I ran four of them back for touchdowns. It's hard to only intercept two and run back four for touchdowns."
Details embellished, it was, in other words, a game he would rather forget.
Next week, all 12 ACC coaches will gather in Jacksonville, Florida to answer serious questions from the media during the league's annual ACC Kick off.
One issue that's sure to come up is college football's expanded schedule. Like every other Division one school, NC State will play 12 regular season games this season. While the extra game will allow schools to pocket a little extra revenue, the grind will likely take its toll on the players.
"Everything is about money and you need it," said Amato. "But what we have is a 13-week window to play 12 football games. That means you might have one open date. If you play that 12th game during Thanksgiving and you're fortunate enough to win a championship, then you would have a 13th game (the ACC title game) the week after that. That would be 13 games in 14 weeks. That's hard, it really is."
For NC State, the long grind will actually begin in two weeks when players report to campus for preseason drills. That's two more weeks for coaches to crack a few jokes and share some laughs before really getting down to business.
