Amato Is New N.C. State Coach

Giving a passionate acceptance speech former boss Bobby Bowden would have been proud of, Chuck Amato left national champion Florida State on Thursday to take the coaching job at North Carolina State.

Amato, 53, admitted during a noon news conference that he had slept only six hours the last two days. But the assistant to Bowden for the last 18 seasons had an overflow crowd of 300 Wolfpack alumni and supporters on the edge of their seats during his emotional, inspirational return to his alma mater.

“Nothing is easy,” said Amato, the former Wolfpack linebacker who replaces Mike O’Cain. “We have to roll our sleeves up. We’re not afraid of that. It [winning] can happen if we all get together.”

Amato, who inherits a 6-6 team, was given a five-year contract with a base salary of $185,000 a season. He offered no grand predictions of immediate success.

Amato coached at North Carolina State from 1972-1980, then spent two years at Arizona as defensive coordinator. He joined Florida State as an assistant in 1982, working with defensive linemen and linebackers.

“I would have a hard time repaying him for what he did for us here,” Bowden said of Amato in a telephone interview from Tallahassee, Fla. “Chuck is as fine a football coach as I’ve ever been around.

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Linebacker Tommy Polley, who led Florida State in tackles this season, will undergo reconstructive surgery to repair his left knee, school officials said.

Polley, who blocked a punt in the first half of the Sugar Bowl against Virginia Tech on Tuesday, injured the knee early in the second half of the game.

He suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament and partial tear of the medial collateral ligament.

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More players said they would leave school early to make themselves eligible for the NFL draft, including:

* Miami tight end Bubba Franks, a 6-foot-6, 260-pound blocker with good hands and speed. He caught 45 passes for 565 yards and five touchdowns during the regular season and added three receptions for 72 yards in Miami’s 28-13 victory over Georgia Tech in the Gator Bowl.

* Georgia Tech wide receiver Dez White, a 6-1, 214-pounder who caught 44 passes for 860 yards and five touchdowns after catching 46 for 973 yards and nine touchdowns in 1998.

* Alabama Birmingham cornerback Rodregis Brooks, a second-team All-American who finished the season in a three-way tie for the nation’s lead with nine interceptions.

* All-American linebacker Raynoch Thompson, Tennessee’s leading tackler. Thompson, a Butkus Award finalist, had 94 tackles in 12 games this season, including seven in a Fiesta Bowl loss to Nebraska.

* Texas receiver Kwame Cavil, who had a school-record 100 receptions for 1,188 yards.

* Colorado cornerback and return specialist Ben Kelly.

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Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer received the Bear Bryant Award as coach of the year. . . . Gunther Cunningham of the Kansas City Chiefs and George Seifert of the Carolina Panthers were selected to coach in the Senior Bowl. Seifert will coach the North and Cunningham will direct the South in the Jan. 22 game at Mobile, Ala.