N.C. State looking for another November to remember

RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina State has been in this situation before, with little margin for error and in need of a strong November surge to maintain flickering hopes of the postseason.<br> <br> That worked out pretty well last year, so this time the Wolfpack again hope to get hot down the stretch.<br> <br> ``The desire of these young men is still there, and if you have desire, that means you&#39;re not afraid of hard work,&#39;&#39; coach Chuck Amato said Monday. ``The attitude is there. The belief is there. The want is there.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> He hopes the victories are there, too, starting this week against No. 20 Georgia Tech. Streaky N.C. State (3-5, 2-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) must win three of its remaining four games to qualify for its sixth bowl game in Amato&#39;s seven seasons.<br> <br> ``Right now, we&#39;re just looking forward to going to a bowl,&#39;&#39; defensive end Martrel Brown said.<br> <br> That means the Wolfpack will have to upset either the Yellow Jackets or Clemson next week. It won&#39;t be easy, but it&#39;s possible they&#39;re 2-0 against ranked teams.<br> <br> That N.C. State has lost four games by a combined 18 points and three straight by a total of 15 points means the Wolfpack are keeping games tight but not closing them out.<br> <br> ``When we played against Boston College and Florida State, I don&#39;t think we had more fire or were feeling more (competitive juices),&#39;&#39; guard Curtis Crouch said. ``I think we came into each game the same way. It&#39;s just nature. ... It&#39;s not like we&#39;re going into games and we get killed. Every game I think we&#39;ve played so far ... we pretty much played them close.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> The hope among the Wolfpack players is that they&#39;ll finally put together a complete game or three just like they did last year when they recovered from a 2-4 start by winning four of their final five to earn an invitation to the Meineke Car Care Bowl, where they beat South Florida to finish 7-5.<br> <br> Of course, last year&#39;s team had three first-round draft picks starting on the defensive line, including No. 1 overall pick Mario Williams.<br> <br> ``Obviously, we&#39;re not as good on defense as we were a year ago, but we&#39;re not as bad as some people thought that we may be on defense,&#39;&#39; Amato said. ``Our kids have held their own and really played pretty daggone good. We&#39;re talking the difference of a game here and a game there.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> It&#39;s been a season of streaks for N.C. State which lost two straight to non-Bowl Championship Series opponents Akron and Southern Mississippi, then beat nationally ranked Boston College and Florida State by a combined six points before starting their current three-game slide.<br> <br> ``You&#39;re winners,&#39;&#39; Amato said he told his team. ``Oh, you didn&#39;t win on that scoreboard (last week) and we&#39;ve had three in a row that way. We could&#39;ve won the last three. We could&#39;ve lost the last five. But that&#39;s the way football is. We&#39;ve got to stop those little mistakes.&#39;&#39;