Technician: What has Chuck Amato brought to your defense?Fluellen: He brought a intensity level that we hadn’t seen. He’s a winner, and he’s seen winning defenses. And he’s been around that. He just brings an intensity and a winning attitude to the defense.
Technician: Amato was a pretty quotable guy. Is there any saying that seems to do a lot down there?Fluellen: His favorite saying is he “loves to see young men run.” He loves to condition us and make sure we’re in great shape. When he’s in there, he always says, “I love to see young men run,” so that’s his saying.
Technician: Has he said anything about playing against N.C. State?Fluellen: Not too much. He always feels like, N.C. State, well we should have lost to them the past couple of years — they had a good game plan for us. But he was like, “There’s no reason we’re not able to go out and beat the guys up there.” He made it evident we should go out and win, but at the same time, that team has a lot of talent. He talked about how much talent that team has on offense, especially.
Technician: With Amato changing sidelines, what does that do to the State-Florida State rivalry?Fluellen: I don’t really know what he really thinks about the game. He’s been coming at it like it’s just another game, an ACC game which we have to win. I’m sure there might be a little something in there for him, but I’m sure he won’t tell anybody about it.
Technician: The Wolfpack has had problems with turnovers this year. Is that something you know about and plan on capitalizing on?Fluellen: We see that they’ve been a little vulnerable in that section. Hopefully we can go out there and get a few more turnovers than we have. Any team that plays Florida State is going to give us their best, and I’m sure N.C. State is going to do the same thing. It’s going to be a tough game.
Technician: This summer, you said you felt reassured that the offense would get back to the run this season. Do you think that’s been the case so far?Smith: We’ve been running the ball. We’ve just been less fortunate with having big plays because there’ve been some cases with guys missing blocks. I don’t think we’ve went away from it. I definitely think we still believe in the run. This week is going to open up things. We have a dual-threat quarterback in there, so we got to make them respect both the pass and the run.
Technician: Speaking of that dual-threat quarterback, how confident is the team in Xavier Lee after last week’s performance?Smith: It was basically whoever got the job done. Xavier got in there, and he had the offense clicking on all cylinders. He’s starting this week, and hopefully he can come in there this week and do the same thing and help the offense win the game.
Technician: In your mind, what happens now to the State-Florida State rivalry with coach Amato now on your side?Smith: I definitely think it’ll be a big rivalry still. There’s a lot of guys on both teams that know each other. I’m friends with DaJuan Morgan and his brother, so we always kind of talk, talk about the game. We’ll go out there and compete and hope the rivalry will stand as it is.
Technician: State is giving up almost 250 yards a game on the ground. As a running back, that’s something you like to hear, isn’t it?Smith: It’s good, but teams get up for different teams as the weeks progress. I don’t know who N.C. State played in previous weeks, but usually when a rivalry comes, it doesn’t happen like that. But hopefully we’ll keep that trend going and get 200 also.
Technician: Do you see yourselves trying to exploit the height situation with 6[-foot-]6 Greg Carr?Smith: I definitely think we’ll try to exploit that, but they’ll likely be smart about the situation and keep the safety on top of him.
Technician: How many more years do you think Bobby Bowden can coach down there?Smith: I have no idea. That’s one of those questions that’s still up in the air with everybody. Since I’ve been here, he’s been very consistent with coaching and everything, so I think he’ll go when he’s ready to leave — I don’t think anybody’s going to run him out of here. However many years he’s wanting to be here, he’s going to be out there, I’m pretty sure.
