Longtime Florida State defensive coordinator and former NC State head coach Chuck Amato has died, according to multiple reports on Monday. He was 80 years old.
A first ballot member of the unofficial Assistant Coaches Hall of Fame, Amato is best remembered for his time as a key assistant during Florida State's dynastic 1990s run. Amato spent 1982-99 at Bobby Bowden's side, spending much of that time as assistant head coach while coaching the defensive line and, later, linebackers. Amato recruited and developed numerous NFL draft picks while helping the Seminoles win two national championships and produce a record 14 straight AP top-4 finishes.
After winning the 1999 national championship -- those Seminoles were the first wire-to-wire No. 1 in college football history -- Amato took the head coaching job at his alma mater. An NC State linebacker in the late 1960s and an assistant coach through the '70s, Amato went 49-37 in seven seasons leading the Wolfpack. His best team went 11-3 in 2002; led by Philip Rivers, the Wolfpack beat Florida State to end the regular season and hammered Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl, securing a No. 12 finish in the AP poll.
To this day, 2002 remains NC State's last 10-win season, its last AP top-15 finish, and its last New Year's Day bowl victory.
Amato was dismissed from NC State after the 2006 season and returned to Tallahassee for the final three seasons of Bowden's tenure. He was initially diagnosed with throat cancer in 2009, but returned to coaching in 2012 as Terry Bowden's defensive coordinator at Akron before retiring for good after the 2017 season. The cancer came out of remission in recent years, according to reports.
Amato was remembered by the Raleigh News & Observer as "bigger than life. He had an outsized personality. He had an imposing physical presence – that big chest always protruding – and an Italian machismo about him. He never lacked for confidence, admitting to being, well, cocky."
“(Amato's) mix of intensity and discipline, along with a swagger and passion for the game, made him unique,” Rivers said upon Amato's retirement.
Curt Cignetti served as Amato's quarterbacks coach at NC State, and Manny Diaz was among the coaches Amato brought with him from Tallahassee to Raleigh.
“I got to see how a program was built from day one, and got to see how hard it is to get a program through low-level atmosphere, up and into orbit,” Diaz said, via the News & Observer “Chuck was highly intelligent but extraordinarily tough. I learned so much from him.”