Grade Chuck Amato

As Chuck enters what could be a pivotal Year Seven – how do you grade Chuck’s tenure? Consider all aspects of his reign, from on-field results to program building.

In my view, he did a great job coming in and building the program. But three below reasonable expectation seasons in a row drop his grade quite a bit. Although I am tempted to grade him out at C+, perhaps that is going too far. In light of a pretty high peak in Year Three (especially when compared to the program’s history), I’ll bump him up to a B-. For Chuck to make it here long-term, that grade needs to start trending up again.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

'06 Football Alums Chuck Amato General NCS Football

35 Responses to Grade Chuck Amato

  1. Wolfpack4ever 08/31/2006 at 5:40 PM #

    Chuck and his assistants are bringing in good talent. And he is creating a “program” here to compete. By “program” I mean quality depth. Yeah, I know he has had 7 years to build but he is competing with programs that are deep in depth and are well established.

    I believe that winning is built on good defence and Chuck obviously is building quaility D. We won early-on with smoke and mirrors — high scoring games and blocked punts and kicks.

    I think he has learned that the clown suit doesn’t cut it here and the self-promotion is not going to go over very well. But for know I am giving him a new report card and all the support I can for every game we play in. I may not like all I see on the sidelines but I love the effort on the field. As someone so well put it, “no quit” in those guys. And thye could have easily packed it in after that awful start last you.

    “What can Brown do for you?”

  2. Big Worm 08/31/2006 at 6:07 PM #

    “Having Philip Rivers covered up a lot of Amato’s mistakes and weaknesses early. Not having a suitable replacement to step in after Philip has hyper exposed all of his mistakes and weaknesses since…”

    How many mistakes and weaknesses do you see Amato having? We are ONE player – Matt Baker or his equivalent – away from going to six bowls in six years and likely finishing each of the last two years between 7-5 and 9-3 (and 4-2 or 5-1 against UNC) even with all the penalties and coaching turnover. Had we had that outcome, if this conversation was even taking place, Chuck would receive nothing but A’s. Not missing a beat after graduating the best QB in ACC history and going to six bowls in six years in a much tougher ACC than any previous NC State coach faced with a high-water mark of the second-best season in NC State history would have been very, very strong and we were an AVERAGE QB (or conservative offensive gameplan) away from that.

    As far as Chuck taking responsibility for the current QB situation goes, he’s obviously responsible for every aspect of this program. However, just like how good results are not necessarily and indication of good decision-making, a bad outcome is not necessarily an indication of faulty logic that lead to the unfortunate conclusion. Good decisions can lead to bad outcomes in all aspects of life. Our unfortunate outcome (sub-par QB play) was achieved with two highly touted QB’s that looked to be ACC caliber coming out of HS. Chuck is ultimately responsible for that unfortunate outcome, but there’s not much blame to be laid at his feet for what looks like good decisions with bad results. Recruiting is not an exact science but Chuck and Co. have been right far more often than not on the recruiting trail. Unfortunately for us, his two biggest misses happened to be at the wrong position.

    Amato’s most glaring weakness is his ability to work with or manage others. I fully believe that the overwhelming majority of the coaches that left in the last 6 years did so for better positions elsewhere, but the sheer number of them coupled with a ton of fifthhand “Chuck is a difficult guy to work for” stories don’t leave much room for reaching any conclusion other than Chuck is, in fact, very difficult to work for. I believe that attrition has hurt our program’s progress. Fortunately, Chuck has taken steps to alleviate that turnover (multi-year contracts) and should be given credit for at least partially remedying a troublesome aspect of his tenure.

  3. 93NCSU 09/01/2006 at 8:51 AM #

    Harrisek said :

    “Doesn’t promote the coaches who have been loyal”

    Either you are not an NC State fan, or you really don’t know about what you are talking. From where do you think Manny Diaz, Todd Stroud and Pat Meyer came ?

    Diaz has since moved on, but we did not have a higher position open for him. From 2000-2006, Diaz went from grad assistant (NCSU) to LB coach (NCSU) to safeties/special teams coach (NCSU) to DC (MTSU).

    The only mistake Amato has made on the coaching front, IMO, was not giving Doc the OC job.

    As for Amato’s overall grade , I think it has severla components :

    Game-day coaching : C
    Player Development : A
    Recruiting : B+
    Media Relations : A
    Fundraising : A+
    Coaching Hires : B
    Player Academics : B
    Scheduling : B

    Overall : B+

    I only give him a ‘C’ in game day coaching because he is too slow to adjust , but he must be doing something right on game days since under his guidance NC State has :

    Gone to 5 bowls in 6 years
    Lost only 2 games by 21 or more points in 6 years
    The third highest winning % of all coaches since the ACC was founded
    Beaten FSU more than any other team since FSU entered the league

  4. pdooma 09/01/2006 at 11:14 AM #

    A solid B-

    He gets some points for raising the hate level from the tarholes.

    They HATE him!

  5. choppack1 09/01/2006 at 11:27 AM #

    93 NCSU – The promotion thing may have to do w/ the fact that he’s never promoted w/in to DC or OC.

  6. RickJ 09/01/2006 at 1:51 PM #

    ^choppack1 – Marty Galbraith was promoted from offensive line coach to OC after Chow’s departure.

  7. tvp 09/02/2006 at 7:52 AM #

    I give him a B, maybe even B+. Our “peak” season was 11 wins and a #12 national ranking. Our “valley” season was a bogus ref screw job away from a bowl game. Looking at it from 30,000 feet up, that isn’t too shabby.

  8. chlt 09/10/2006 at 9:18 AM #

    Chuck Amato SUCKS.

    Yes, he is a great recruiter and a great fund raiser, but as a head football coach – HE SUCKS!!!

    He can’t keep ANY talented assistant coaches because he has such and ego and attitude problem. The ONLY reason he has had any success in the past is because Philip Rivers soaked up every ounce of information Norm Chow gave him as a Freshman and Amato rode Rivers to a decent performance the first four of years. Since then, the talent level of recruits has kept the Pack just above .500, but it is a joke how BAD we are with the talent level we have.

    I know from a VERY RELIABLE source that Bo Pelini, the D cordinator at LSU wants the head job at NC State when Amato leaves (which WILL be at the end of this year when we finish 3-8, 4-7 AT BEST!!!!). Pelini has also been the DC at Nebraska and Oklahoma and also has several years of NFL experience.

    PLUS, Bill Cower just bought a home in Raleigh and all reports say he is NOT coming back as the Steelers coach next year.

    Why keep giving Amato any more chances?? Thank him for the talent level and the facilities and go get a REAL coach in here who can lead, teach, and groom our players and take this program to the Top 10.

  9. CHUCKSUCKS 09/19/2006 at 2:07 PM #

    Chuck needs to be cut lose like Sendek was, theyre both turds that won’t flush. C’mon, what does every Wolfpack fan really want deep down inside? To beat the crap out of Carolina and that something neither one of these assholes can do.

  10. packwolf 10/27/2006 at 11:04 AM #

    CTC has been the luckiest man alive and is still sinking despite the good fortune.
    Sage advice says you don’y want to be the coach that follows Bear Bryant or Adolph Rupp.
    MOC was a pretty easy act to follow.
    CTC shows up in Raleigh along with a kid named Rivers; just as we begin a major expansion of facilities and stadium.
    The # of bowl games is expanded to the point that participation in a minor bowl is pretty meaningless but is constantly noted as a measure of great achievement for CTC.
    At just about that time the ACC begins a nose dive with national powehouses like Miami, FSU and VT, dropping out of the top 25 while unc, uva, md., duke etc. fall to depths of ineptitude not seen in recent history.
    Major non conference competition is replaced with the middle tenn’s. of college ball to pad an unimpressive record.
    PR brought us excitement and real hope despite
    CTC deciding to be his own DC and promtly came up with the worst defense in the country, literaly.
    You couldn’t design a more perfect opportunity but Chuck seems destined to totaly blow it.
    He has had good success recruiting but that seems to be fading also and the team seems to stay out of trouble, which is no small feat.
    Final grades would be B plus start, C at mid point, C minus through last year and looking like a D plus after this year.

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