“Other than his love for his school, lively personality and work with the defensive unit, there’s not a compelling argument to be made for giving Amato more time.” (Caulton Tudor)
Dascenzo: Amato’s stock isn’t on the rise
Ah Chuck, this is late November and you’re standing across the field from that light blue color, the one that your Wolfpack Nation doesn’t like very much and dearly loves to have the upper hand against. Ah Chuck, this is THE game on your schedule every year, and you’re going to be remembered for the outcome of every time you play these guys.
Somewhere along the way to Chapel Hill, the Wolfpack’s offense got lost and never could be found. Marc Trestman is N.C. State’s offensive coordinator, and he likely has had better days than this one. Ah Marc, you’re in this too, buddy.
N.C. State’s facilities are excellent, football is a popular sport in Raleigh and basketball is rebuilding with new coach Sidney Lowe.
N.C. State looked undisciplined, unsure of everything and anything on offense. And its defense, especially early on, was stuffed by UNC’s running game.
You couldn’t find a positive within Amato’s team on this day. It lacked imagination on offense but, more importantly, it lacked execution. And those nine penalties will not set well with Amato or his coaches.
Tudor: Loss puts Amato in hot water
The end result of the Tar Heels’ 23-9 victory could well be that Amato soon joins Bunting in the unemployed ranks.
That Amato is in trouble — big, loud trouble — isn’t the question. He is.
The question is: Can he survive and return to coach his alma mater for an eighth season in 2007?
Amato, today, is where Bunting was after UNC dropped successive games to South Florida (37-20) and Virginia (23-0) in mid-October. He was fired three days later.
It’s right that Amato should be in this trouble, too. In the three seasons since quarterback Philip Rivers graduated, the Wolfpack’s offense has fallen into such a state of disrepair and misdirection that it’s illogical to assume that a great deal is going to change between now and September.
The more you read of Tudor’s article the more home runs that he hits and nails that he hammers. The following point couldn’t be more common-sensical and more on the money!!! In fact, the quote is one of the key management dictums that (during the Sendek years) proved Lee Fowler’s inadequacy to be an Athletics Director at a major University.
There’s a chance Amato will get another year. But if so, it would be a plunge into purgatory marked by a weekly referendum on his fate. N.C. State would have 12 games, each a certifiable crisis until the coach either won or lost enough games to make the eventual decision a moot issue.
In this entry after yesterday’s game, BJD shared the following information:
SFN has been been told by 2 independent sources that Chuck Amato would be fired if Chuck loses out (and maybe if he just lost today). Oblinger is ready to make the move and the big donors are squarely (not sure if unanimously) behind him. I’m putting this out there because the pressure needs to be public and intense from this moment forward.
^The idea that State needed to lose two in a row before making a change bothered us to the core because we don’t understand the difference between losing out and simply losing one of these two. Big F*ing deal?
It feels EXACTLY like TYPICAL NC State cowardly management – let’s keep changing the standard and give (insert employee here) another chance by basing our decision on a completely subjective and irrelevant standard while ignoring years of history.
The quote that follows from Caulton Tudor are another way of sharing EXACTLY the way we feel —
The East Carolina game is 100% inconsequential at this point. Either you are pleased with the direction of the football program or you are not. What does a game against ECU have to do with that?
Another thanks to Tudor for getting this right:
Even a one-sided win over East Carolina wouldn’t be enough to change the dilemma ahead. The Pack’s ACC season is over at 2-6, good for last place in the Atlantic Division. The overall record can be no better than 4-8, and the offense has failed to score more than 24 points in a game this season.
If anything, East Carolina University serves as a model for NC State’s next steps; NOT a determining factor in our future.
Two years ago this week, NC State defeated a broken ECU program 52-14 to send the Pirates to a 2-9 season on the back of a 1-11 season. Terry Holland fired a coach that was only given two years (and showed improvement in year two!) and hired Skip Holtz. Two years later, ECU is competing for a conference championships and will be FAVORED in a game in Carter-Finley.
Note that the coach didn’t need five years of failure to get his recruits in and build the program. Note that the coach didn’t need $100MM of new facilities before his clock started. Note that the coach came into a program that had been failing miserably and not recruiting well and has immediately made an impact.
Perhaps someone in NC State’s athletics administration would like to start noting the way others run their departments.
