No Vacation for Pack
No Vacation for Pack
No Vacation for Pack
Despite bye week, NC State have a full week of practice.
Sept. 5, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh -- For most people, the Labor Day holiday provides a long weekend and a much-needed Monday break from the norm. But while many will be spending an extra day at the beach or cooking out with friends and family on Monday, the NC State football team will get back to work. And even though the Wolfpack - a 42-0 winner over Richmond in its season opener on Saturday - will not play next weekend, head coach Chuck Amato says there will be no vacation for his staff or players.
"Come Labor Day, we have to Labor them," Amato cracked. "Were going to get this Richmond film behind us, make corrections, let them lift and do some agility drills so they can work up a sweat."
Amato has had all summer to come up with a strategy that he thinks will take advantage of a bye week before Ohio State comes to town for a Saturday, September 18th contest on ABC at 3:30. The Buckeyes, who slowly pulled away from Cincinnati on Saturday, will be back in action this weekend when they entertain Marshall in Columbus.
"We've got an extra week, an extra week that they don't have on us so we've got to take the best advantage we can without getting anybody hurt," Amato said.
With the exception of starting offensive tackle Derek Morris, NC State came out of Saturday's opener in pretty good shape physically. Morris turned an ankle on a first quarter touchdown run by freshman tailback Darrell Blackman against the Spiders and did not return.
"He's got a grade two ankle sprain," Amato said on Sunday. "We're going to put him in a boot for a couple of days. There's some swelling, but not a lot. That ankle is holding up an awful lot of weight. If it were just the calves, it would be holding up an awful lot of weight."
NC State's other starting tackle, Chris Colmer, did appear to emerge from Saturday's contest in pretty good shape. Colmer was playing his first game in almost two years after missing all of last season with the nerve condition that caused numbness and tingling in his left shoulder.
"He did well," Amato said. "He's a very physical person. It doesn't look like the shoulder was a factor with Chris. Because we've kept him out of some things, I think the biggest thing with him is his stamina. A lot of times linemen can play themselves into shape. He was gassed a few times on Saturday when he came off that field."
The win over Richmond gave NC State's its eighth straight opening day victory and its fifth in a row under Amato. Of course, the Division 1-AA Spiders really didn't have enough athletes in their arsenal to put a lot of pressure on the Wolfpack. That all will change when the Buckeyes make their first trip to Raleigh in less than two weeks.
"We're going to have a running team coming at us, which we haven't seen," said Amato. "It will be much better than what we saw on Saturday. We go so much against a passing attack with our offense, but we're going to see an awful lot of that power running with two backs. We've really got to work on that. They're not going to have a vacation this week."
