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RALEIGH (AP) - Chuck Amato had just finished grading game film from Florida State's weekend win and started watching footage to scout the next opponent.

It didn't take long for emotions to stir inside at the mere sight of some red, white and a familiar midfield logo.

That's when it hit that he is days away from a return to North Carolina State, the program he led for seven seasons.

While he has faced his alma mater once before since returning to the Seminoles as an assistant, Thursday night's game will be his first trip to the stadium he once called home before being fired two years ago.

"Everybody knows me: I'm a sensitive person and I love people and love being around people," Amato said Friday via teleconference from Tallahassee, Fla.

"This game is probably going to be tougher than last year for me and especially my family, going up there into that stadium.

"I don't hold grudges because I love that great university, I always will and I'm just not that kind of a person."

Amato, a former Wolfpack linebacker, went 49-37 in seven season with five bowl appearances, including a Gator Bowl win against Notre Dame and an appearance in the Top 10 in 2002.

During that stretch, Amato coached future NFL first-round pick Philip Rivers at quarterback and generated enough of buzz that the school was able to raise money for expansion and renovations that bowled in Carter-Finley Stadium and added an expansive football center and luxury seating.

But as Amato talked of building a program to contend for conference championships and more, he went just 25-31 in the Atlantic Coast Conference never finished higher than fourth in the league.

His flamboyant personality and barrel-chested bravado - down to his unique choices of sunglasses and bright red shoes he occasionally wore on the sideline - eventually wore thin with fans and the media.

When he finished with a losing record in '06 for the second time in three years, the school fired him the day after the season finale and hired Tom O'Brien away from Boston College.

Amato is quick to tout the stadium expansion and average of seven wins per year when talking about his time At N.C. State.

He also believes the program was healthy, saying his coaching staff was closing in on its best recruiting class when he was fired and that seven of the team's losses in his final 3-9 season came by eight or fewer points.

"You're talking about a program that hadn't won an ACC championship since 1979 and I was bringing visions of a national championship - and why not?" Amato said.

"That's the way it should be. That's where excitement comes in. But it doesn't happen overnight. If Duke would've fired Mike Krzyzewski after the third or fourth year, what a crime."

O'Brien appears to face a slow rebuilding effort in his second season with the Wolfpack (2-4, 0-2 ACC), who is 22-31 since Rivers graduated after the 2003 season. O'Brien declined to comment Friday when asked about the state of the program when he inherited it.

"That's a no-win answer," O'Brien said. "It is where it is. I came here, it didn't matter what shape the program was in. I'm the head coach and I have to make it better."

Amato said several of his former players waited to greet him after last year's game, won by the Seminoles 27-10. After receiving a line of hugs and handshakes, Amato said he "stood there and cried my eyes out."

He said he doesn't contact his former players now because he doesn't want it to be construed as him tampering with the N.C. State program, though he admits "it kills me that I can't."

At least some of his former players figure to have an emotional response to seeing him on the opposite sideline.

"As far as the juniors and the seniors on the team, it may be a little different because they actually had a chance to play for Chuck," said sophomore cornerback DeAndre Morgan, who was recruited here by Amato.

"I like Chuck as a coach, but I never really played for him, so the emotions will probably be neutral for me."

Regardless, Amato figures the emotions will be anything but neutral for him - particularly when he walks into the stadium and remembers what it looked like when he first arrived in 2000.

"That's where I wanted to be for the rest of my life," Amato said. "I'm proud of what my teams did and how they played hard and competitive. ... I've got so many friends and so many people (in Raleigh). They've been so nice to me and I can't thank them enough because I really feel that they know what I did for our university."