Chuck Amato was the man who ushered NC State football into the modern era, and in a lot of ways, the two coaches who’ve followed him have been standing on his shoulders. Carter-Finley itself is a part of his legacy: the Murphy Center, the stadium renovations, the homefield advantage—these are all reflections of the energy and enthusiasm he injected into a football program that didn’t have much of a culture around it in Raleigh.
Even though his coaching tenure didn’t work out, few have had the impact
on NC State football that he has. Walking in as he did with Philip Rivers, immediately putting a highly entertaining product on the field, and turning around a terrible run of losses to UNC, among other things, was pure lightning in a bottle. He raised the program’s profile immensely and for a brief time recruited at an unprecedented level. If he could have figured out how to effectively replace Rivers, hey, who knows what might have been.
The frustrations toward the end were stacked up pretty high, but those faded with time, while so many of his accomplishments have endured. I count myself incredibly fortunate to have been a student during the first half of his tenure, because that was one hell of a time. The electric feeling permeating the whole campus after his team won at FSU in 2001 remains vivid. The ride to 9-0 was amazing. At a time when not all the games were televised, Carter-Finley was the place to be. It’s difficult to explain the whole mood then. Just totally different from anything I’ve experienced since then.
The individual memories are great, but providing State football with a much better foundation, and raising its horizon, continues to be his legacy. He was the right man at the right time, and we’ve never had a coach like him.
