Former football coach Chuck Amato spent some time in Miami this summer, working with Bill Parcells at the Dolphins’ training camp. According to Amato, Parcells complimented former Wolfpack head honcho, now the linebackers coach at Florida State, saying people in the football world saw what he did at N.C. State.

“You did things nobody else could accomplish,” Parcells told Amato.

In a conference call with reporters last Friday, Amato gushed about the work he did at State, from averaging seven wins a season, raising millions and turning it into state-of-the-art facilties, to winning bowl games and bringing ESPN’s College Gameday to Raleigh.

But now as his Florida State team travels to Raleigh for tonight’s nationally-televised game, Amato wishes he had another chance with the Wolfpack instead of being fired by Athletics Director Lee Fowler after going 3-9 in 2006.

“If Duke would have fired Mike Krzyzewski after his fourth year, what a crime that would have been,” Amato said. “If Virginia Tech would have fired Frank Beamer after his third or fourth year, when his record was like 20-some and 40-some and hadn’t gone to a bowl, what a travesty — and it’s not like we’re talking about programs that were on top of the world.”

What he left behind

In Amato’s last season at State, the Pack started 3-2 overall, 2-0 in conference and off the heels of a dramatic Thursday-night win over Florida State. Wake Forest visited the next week and Amato said he believes the close loss doomed the Pack.

“There was about a 20-second period [to end the first half] where there were 12 points scored [by Wake Forest] — a field goal, a safety and a touchdown,” Amato said. “Had we won that one, there’s no telling what would have happened from that point on. The rest of the year we were so, so close and that would have just carried us over all year.”

Amato is still proud of the facilities he helped raise funds for — from the Wendell Murphy Center to the Vaughn Towers to stadium expansion — and his 4-1 bowl record, including a win over Notre Dame in the 2002 Gator Bowl and a No. 12 final national ranking.

But he also acknowledges that expectations rose too quickly.

“I remember one year when we were No. 8 in the country and on the front page of Sports Illustrated, and I asked people then, ‘Are we just visiting or is this a permanent thing?’,” Amato said. “I knew we were just visiting because it takes a while to get things going on a steady keel. But when you average seven wins a season, there’s a whole lot of programs across this country that would love to have that.”

Amato was also excited two years ago about his coaching staff’s recruiting class. On Friday, he labeled his incoming recruiting class for 2007 the best of his career. Though not all of them ended up at State and some are still coming off redshirts, Amato says State fans are seeing some of the rewards now, like quarterback Russell Wilson who had committed to Amato.

Ultimately, the final three seasons of Amato’s tenure in which the Pack went 15-20, and the growing discontent of fans forced Fowler to make a move.

“I knew what was wrong, and it would have been fixed, but I’m not one who’s going to fix something in the middle of the season, because it’s not done that way,” Amato said. “I’ve been around Bobby Bowden too long, and Lou Holtz, and know there are right ways and wrong ways.”

Lasting connections

Amato doesn’t talk to the players he left behind, or the coaches and faculty at State he had grown close to. As badly as he says he wants to, he’s afraid of what people would think and say of it.

“I want to talk to them so bad, but I don’t want anybody to feel that I’m tampering with kids that I just love to death,” Amato said.

Last year in Tallahassee, in the Pack’s 27-10 loss to Florida State, Amato said he was the last one off the field as players lined up to greet him and give him a hug.

Amato still has plenty of ties to the area. He graduated and played football for State. His wife was born and raised in Raleigh and her family still lives here. Amato’s daughter still lives in Raleigh. And whenever he gets the chance, Amato likes to visit the area he where he still has plenty of friends.

And though he’s not ruling out an eventual retirement in the Triangle, Amato says he’s not done coaching by any means. In fact, he hopes to become a head coach again in the near future.

“I will be a head coach again,” Amato said. “There’s going to be a team out there that needs a head coach to lead their program, who’s been in the wars, and has head coaching experience.”

Raleigh Reunion

Stepping onto Carter-Finley Stadium with Amato will be Todd Stroud, Amato’s former assistant head coach and defensive line coach. Players like defensive end Willie Young maintain a connection with these coaches and Young is excited to see them again.

Both Stroud and Amato recruited Young out of Florida and were part of the reason Young chose to attend State.

“People move on, and you gotta just keep living your life,” Young, a redshirt junior, said. “But it’ll be fun to play against them, and I’m excited to see them.”

Amato said this year’s game will be much more difficult for him and his family, as they return to Carter-Finley Stadium for the first time since he left the Wolfpack.

But both the players and Amato see positives in playing against each other this time, and they expect a happy reunion after the game similar to last year’s.

“It’s really about coming out Thursday night and having a great game,” Young said. “But don’t get me wrong, in the back of my mind I know we’re playing our old staff, so it’ll be an exciting environment.”