It’s been an emotional week for the NC State community. On Monday, former NC State legend Chuck Amato passed away at the age of 80.
“Chuck was an amazing personality and [I’ve] known him a long time,” Current NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren said. “When I got here, [Amato] used to come to practice every now and then and come up and sit in meetings. Just a huge personality, a great mentor to coaches and players alike, and a great alumnus.”
Doeren Pays His Respects to Amato
As an athlete for NC State, Amato was a conference champion in two sports: football and wrestling. Later, as NC State’s head coach, his 2002 Wolfpack won 11 games.
Amato’s 11 wins stand out, as no other State team has even reached 10 wins.
Doeren reflected on Amato’s impact on the sport.
“I want to take that moment and wish his family and everyone who knew him the best wishes that we can,” Doeren said. “And thank him for what he did for the sport of football and so many players and so many staff and opposing coaches. You know, going up against a guy like him, he was great for the sport of football.”
Getting Back to Health
NC State probably saved its best performance for the Louisville victory in Week 5. Unfortunately, that effort cost the Wolfpack as several starters went down with injuries. State was left shorthanded during the Wake Forest game in its 38 to 14 defeat to the Deacs.
The bye arrived at the right time for State. Doeren hopes some of his players can come back as soon as this week.
“The depth of your roster is a critical piece, and we hope to get some of them back,” Doeren said. “We’re day-to-day on Kamen Smith (OT), JoJo Trader (WR), Duke Scott (RB), and Tristan Teasdale (SAF). So any day; could be this week, could be next week. We hope to have all.”
The offensive line has shuffled around quite a bit this season, so getting Kamen Smith back soon would help add some depth and experience back to this group.
And Duke Scott is a player who can move the chains for this offense. The Wolfpack struggled to get any run production against Wake Forest.
As a team, State only netted 15 yards rushing against the Deacs. If Scott is healthy, he can provide the biggest boost to CJ Bailey and this offense.
Preparing For The Time Change
Doeren knows how traveling from coast to coast can impact a person’s internal clock. This week, his staff deployed some creative tactics to help minimize the dramatic effects of traveling and playing three time zones away.
“Thankfully we have fall break so there’s no school here Monday or Tuesday, which allows us to change our routine and practice in the evenings,” Doeren said. “So we’re out there at midnight practicing and had incredible energy last night. [The] guys did a great job. The goal of this being that we understand how to play at that time of the evening.”
Doeren has done his research and has even spoken to another coach in the conference whose team made a similar West Coast trip last year. Doeren recalled how the coach told him, “We played pretty good until the fourth quarter, and then it was 1:30 a.m., and our guys just didn’t have it,” Doeren said.
This season, NC State has seen several leads evaporate in the fourth quarter under its normal time zone, so traveling three zones to the west will present a big challenge for this team.
Stanford will likely hang around in this game due to this West Coast advantage. Doeren is trying to do everything he can to help put the team in the best position this week.
“We’ll fly out there on Wednesday and land, and then we’ll practice Wednesday night at game time, just to be used to the clock piece of that,” Doeren said. “It worked well for us when we went to Cal a couple years ago, so we’ll follow that same routine.”
There’s still an opportunity for NC State to finish strong this season.
“Six games left, one at a time,” Doeren said. “Look forward to the opportunity to finish well. That’s something that we take a lot of pride in and look forward to the opportunity to start that this Friday.
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