Chuck Amato thought he had all his bases covered. Beginning in the spring of 2003, he had a steadfast rule for all of his players: no one could talk about Ohio State.
That carried over from the spring to the summer into preseason practice. Of course, everyone knew the game was the biggest of the season. The Buckeyes were coming off the 2002 BCS national championship, and the Wolfpack was coming off what some were calling the biggest win in school history, the victory over Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl.
The Buckeyes were ranked No. 2 in the preseason Associated Press poll, the Wolfpack No. 16.
First, however, Amato’s Pack had two games to play before they could start thinking about going to Columbus, Ohio, for what would be an even bigger game against the Buckeyes than the one against the Fighting Irish that NC State just played.
However, this was quite a surprise, something that angered Amato from the day the schedule was released in January 2003.
Soon after he was hired at NC State, Amato agreed to a home-and-home series with the Buckeyes, with the understanding the Wolfpack would have an open date before traveling to Columbus.
He knew his team would open the season against FCS opponent Western Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium then expected to have two weeks to prepare for the Buckeyes, which to the surprise of many, won that 2002 BCS championship with a controversial double-overtime victory over top-ranked Miami in the Fiesta Bowl, becoming the first team in NCAA history to complete a 14-0 season.
However, when the 2003 schedule was released, instead of “open date” on Sept. 6, it read “at Wake Forest,” and Amato seethed.
It was perhaps the worst team the Wolfpack could have faced with true freshmen Mario Williams and Tank Tyler and redshirt freshmen John McCargo on the defensive line, because of Demon Deacon head coach Jim Grobe’s option-like misdirection offensive attack.
They were still learning the speed and discipline of the college game, and the Deacons feasted on such inexperience against their system.
“We had it set so that we would play Western Carolina, have an open date, then play Ohio State,” Amato said at the time. “When you have those things, you know nothing is in concrete because the conference has nine teams to schedule and try to figure out who might be the best teams, perception-wise, so that TV will pick them up.
“We know that stuff happens. I was just hoping it wouldn’t.”
It did, and none of the phone calls Amato made to the league office made a difference.
Still, he wanted to make sure no one on his team got ahead of themselves. He instituted two bans: one on his players for talking about the game against the Buckeyes and one on the media for asking questions about it.
“There is one for the player who slips up and there is one for the sportswriter who asks about it and gets it answered,” Amato said. “One will run, and one won't enter again.”
News of this, of course, reached Winston-Salem, a place where NC State has tripped up more than once over the last two decades. The Pack has lost eight of its last 10 games at Groves Stadium, and none was more important that that afternoon in 2003.
Grobe, who went on to lead the Deacons to the 2006 ACC championship and was named both the ACC and AP National Coach of the Year, convinced his team that Amato’s ban was a slight against the Deacons.
“The inference is that as long as they don’t say anything about Ohio State, they’ll kick the hell out of Wake Forest,” Grobe said the week of the game.
Amato knew his defensive line would be green against Grobe’s offense, but he had no idea that his offense would be hampered with the loss of three starters as well.
Offensive lineman Chris Colmer was out with a nerve condition in his arm, wide receiver Sterling Hicks missed the game with a shoulder injury and sophomore running back T.A. McLendon was out after suffering a non-contact injury at the newly opened Murphy Football Operations Center three nights before the game. All were in street clothes for the contest at Wake.
As soon as the Wolfpack went out for the pregame coin toss, Amato knew his team was in trouble. Wake Forest called heads, won the toss and elected to receive, which has been all but unheard of for the last three decades in football.
“I turned to the defense and said, ‘Men, they are going to test your manhood,’” Amato said. “And they did.’’
They not only tested it, they bested it.
The young defensive line jumped offsides in the first half, and they missed tackles against Wake’s misdirection.
“It was nothing fancy,” Amato said. “They just whipped us.”
The offense wasn’t much better. The first drive ended on a batted pass that became an interception. The second drive went to the Wake 3-yard line, but was backed up because of an illegal motion penalty by a freshman offensive lineman.
There were two three-and-outs, and when the Demon Deacons’ Willie Idlette returned a punt for 50 yards and a touchdown, the Wolfpack was down 28-3.
Even the best passing day — to that point — of quarterback Philip Rivers’ record-breaking career couldn’t overcome that lead. He threw for 433 yards and three touchdowns, but also had a pair of interceptions and never felt like he had all of his weapons against a motivated opponent.
The Pack lost 38-24, and much of the luster of the next week’s game at Ohio State burned off like a tobacco haze over the Winston-Salem skyline.
Amato was defiant afterwards, saying he would not make adjustments for the Ohio State game.
“We’re not changing anything,” Amato said. “There’s nothing wrong with what we are doing. The only change we have to make is that we have to tackle people. We can't have missed assignments, and we can't have foolish penalties.
“We have the right people in the right places. We just have to get them going in the right direction.”
The loss dropped the Pack from No. 11 in the AP poll to No. 24 heading into Ohio State. Rivers and company fared well in front of the largest audience to ever see an NC State game, taking the defending national champions into three overtimes after a furious fourth quarter comeback to tie the game.
In the end, however, Rivers was stopped on the goal line in the third overtime, and the Pack lost 44-38.
It fell three more times that season, at Georgia Tech, at Florida State and at home to Maryland in Rivers’ and wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery’s final home game at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Not even a 56-26 total destruction of Kansas in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando put the shine back on what was supposed to be one of the best seasons in NC State football history.
Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.
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