Sunday night when coach Chuck Amato addressed his team for the final time — after being let go as coach — the players saw a different side of his personality.
Sophomore cornerback Levin Neal said Amato spoke to the team for nearly 20 minutes and that he opened up like he never had before.
“That’s the realest I’ve ever seen Chuck, personally. Chuck went up there, heart on the outside of his chest, had all his emotions on his sleeve. And after hearing that, I feel a whole lot different about everything now,” Neal said.
“Being on the team you don’t come in contact with the head coach much. So you don’t get to see his true emotions one-on-one. But [tonight] it felt like he was talking to me individually.”
Neal added the team did not react emotionally to the news throughout the meeting. However, when the meeting started to come to a close, the atmosphere changed.
“It got emotional toward the end because you could see it in the coaches’ faces,” Neal said. “They felt so bad about letting us down. They felt like they let us down.”
While it upset Neal that Amato was fired, he said some members of the team were not shocked when the news became official.
“Not so much surprised, but still stunned whenever he announced it finally, because the last couple of weeks everybody’s been talking about it,” Neal said. “You hear it so much, you got to talk about it among yourselves.”
Redshirt freshman defensive end Willie Young said he was well aware of the rumors the past few weeks.
“You hear rumors and stuff like that, but you don’t really believe in something until it really happens,” Young said. “And unfortunately this is one of those times when it’s happened and it’s a done deal right now.”
However other members of the team, including redshirt junior fullback Pat Bedics, expressed much more surprise than others.
“It hit us out of nowhere,” Bedics said.
Ernest Jones, a redshirt junior linebacker, said he was unaware of any coaching changes until Amato addressed the team during a 9 p.m. team meeting.
“I was in total awe,” Jones said. “It’s kind of hard to see a great man like Chuck Amato go, he’s a great person as well as a great coach. It’s kind of hard to see a person like that leave your life.”
Freshman Cedric Hickman said the most disappointing part of the decision is that he will not be able to finish his career under Amato.
“It’s a big shock,” Hickman said. “I came in knowing I was going to play under him, but I guess things just didn’t go as planned.”
Hickman, along with Young, did say they would return next season despite Amato’s departure.Young said he still wanted to accomplish a lot during his time at N.C. State.
“I got unfinished business around here I guess you would say,” Young said. “I’m looking forward to making the best of it — I made a decision here.”As for what comes next for the team and the next coaching staff?
According to Neal, the team has a 4 p.m. meeting with Athletics Director Lee Fowler today. From there, it’s bringing in the staff.
While Jones said he had no idea who the Athletic Department would pursue to replace Amato, he said he hoped the coach could accomplish what Amato had.
“I have no idea, but I’m hoping he’s as good as Chuck Amato was,” Jones said. Asked about his excitement to play under a new coaching staff, Young was unsure what to expect.
“Really that has something to do with the whole team really,” Young said. “I wouldn’t say excited because it could get worse, it could get better. You never know. You just take what it is and run with it.”
Sports Editor Tanner Kroeger contributed to this article.