Technician: What is your biggest concern heading into the 2007-2008 athletic year?

Fowler: My biggest concern is that we don’t have track and soccer and softball finished yet. That’s very disappointing because we felt like we’d have it ready by now, and everything would be up and running, and student-athletes would be able to use it.

Technician: What are you expecting from Tom O’Brien in his first season with the football team?

Fowler: Any time you make a coaching change, you’ve got to give a person a little time to get his system in and his players really in. I think we’ve got some very good players, and given breaks here and there, we can be real successful.

But I still think anytime you change philosophies, it takes a little time to get all that ironed out and make it successful. I look for really great things out of Tom in his career here.

This year I just hope things go well because sometimes when you change it’s tough to get everyone on the same page-from what I’ve seen so far, I like his discipline. I like what he believes in. The players like that-they’ve told me that they know where they stand. They know what they’re supposed to do. They know their boundaries this year, which is always good.

Technician: What would you say are some of the most important things for him to do to lift the program up to that championship level that Chuck Amato always talked about?

Fowler: It’s always about players–getting great players–but you also have to get players that’ll play in your system and do what you want to do. And I think Tom’s very comfortable with what he wants to do and what type of players it takes to get there.

Technician: What’s your take on volleyball, football, men’s soccer and women’s soccer all being picked near the bottom of the conference?

Fowler: I hope they don’t end up there. Where you get picked is important for how people on the outside see you. Hopefully what we actually have here is better than that, but I talked ever since I got here about the two soccer programs.

We hadn’t had the facilities to compete with other schools. I was hoping we were playing on it this year–it looks like we’re going to be halfway, at least, through the season before we can get in, down to playing on our new field and playing at night where fans can come.

It’s a great conference. Nobody wants to be picked last. Our minimum should be middle of the conference, not last in the league, so those coaches are fully aware of where we want to get to and what we want to get to or they’ll be held accountable in the next couple of years because, finally, we’ll have some facilities to compete with the rest of the ACC.

Technician: What do you think could be the surprise of the fall among N.C. State’s teams?

Fowler: Men’s soccer’s going to be good. They proved that last week against UCLA. They’ve got some really good players, and when you play the No. 1 school in the country to a tie, it shows you’ve got potential. Women’s soccer improved last year.

Unfortunately, in all sports, it’s the best league in the country, so going from low to high is not easy because you’re competing against the best in the country. But that’s what we expect. We expect to be one of the best in the country, so we have to move those programs forward and get much better in those programs.

Technician: What has stood out to you about volleyball coach Charita Stubbs so far in her short time here?

Fowler: She’s very dedicated to winning. Any time you make a transition and you start out by trying to do some things that they hadn’t done before, you get little negatives going. She had a couple girls that signed last year, but she came so late. So really her first recruiting class this year that are playing, mostly freshmen, are much better volleyball players.

She’s already got a commitment from a great player next year, so I look for her to turn the program around in two to three years, and we’ll be as good as anyone in the ACC.

Technician: When I say Pigskin Picks, what comes to mind?

Fowler: I always figure if I lose to Chip Alexander, they’d probably fire me. So it’s very competitive for me, but I enjoy it. I’m a sports nut. I watch games in all sports. I’ve been lucky the last two years to win, but it’s a passion of mine…I kid around a lot about it, but I’m sure I’ve been lucky picking them.