Official: Wolfpack Releases Chuck Amato (Updated 9:22pm)

'06 Football Chuck Amato General148

The News & Observer is reporting that a public statement regarding the future of N.C. State football coach Chuck Amato’s will be announced tonight, but at this point there is little reason to wait.

The NC State Football team was called for a team meeting tonight at 9pm at the Murphy Center to be officially told the news that at this point is merely a formality.

The News & Observer, ESPN, and other local media sources are all reporting the unsurprising news that Chuck Amato will not return as head coach of NC State’s football program in 2007.

SFN has already shared a detailed commentary regarding the situation that is linked here. We will have much more in the coming days.

from gopack.com

Wolfpack Releases Chuck Amato
Courtesy: NC State
Release: 11/26/2006

NC State Director of Athletics Lee Fowler has announced that head football Chuck Amato will not be retained for next season.

Amato, who has posted a 49-37 overall record and 25-31 mark in the ACC during his seven years as head coach, finished this season with a 3-9 mark and failed to qualify for postseason play for the second time in three years.

“No Wolfpack fan can question the excitement and enthusiasm that Chuck Amato brought to the NC State football program when he came here in 2000,” said Fowler. “His dreams have become our dreams and that has translated itself into our great new facilities, record ticket sales and five bowl appearances in seven years.

“However, because the results on the field in two of the last three seasons have fallen far below where we feel our program should be at this point, we have decided to take the program in a new direction.”

NC State qualified for a postseason bowl each of Amato’s first four years at NC State, earning victory in three of those contests.However, the Wolfpack finished with losing records in 2004 and 2006.

Amato had three years remaining on his contract.

“Chuck Amato has been a part of Wolfpack football for more than four decades and as a head coach has raised our expectations and goals,” said Chancellor James L. Oblinger. “We appreciate everything that Chuck has done for the program and our student-athletes. We wish him all the best in the future; he will always be a member of the Wolfpack family.”

Fowler added that the search to find Amato’s replacement will begin immediately.

“Our search will be national in scope and we will begin the process through a search firm very quickly. I ask that all Wolfpackers join together in supporting our student-athletes and staying behind our program.”

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'06 Football Chuck Amato General

148 Responses to Official: Wolfpack Releases Chuck Amato (Updated 9:22pm)

  1. old13 11/26/2006 at 11:53 PM #

    ^Jed “I Know Basketball” Foulup!

  2. blpack 11/26/2006 at 11:53 PM #

    Thanks to Chuck for getting us closer to where we want to be annually.
    Now we need a new man to get State over the hump and take that next step. I think we are right to hire a consultant.

  3. Running Wolf 11/26/2006 at 11:53 PM #

    Beowolf…you nailed it and I could not have stated better than you did. The 2nd most exciting news is that we are hiring a search firm…I never thought that would happen with LF…there is hope. I am very proud to be a ’84 Grad., supporter of the WPC and the Alumni Asso. and have 6 LTR Football and 2 Basketball seats…just like last night I continue to support our Team good or bad…now we need to keep building just like we did with CF…GO PACK!

  4. Rochester 11/26/2006 at 11:53 PM #

    Now that football season is done are there any former two-sport stars on the squad who could lend us some depth on the basketball team for a couple of months? Come on down and play for a team that’s already won more than 3 games!

  5. McWufPacker06 11/26/2006 at 11:55 PM #

    I feel like the statement from NCSU’s atheletic department about the dismissal of CTC is one of the best statements I’ve read out of the department in quite awhile, they must of had the statement contracted out too.

    Lee Fowler: “Our search will be national in scope and we will begin the process through a search firm very quickly”

    ^Thank God ‘ol Jed is not gonna have a hand in this, if this is true this will be a great move. The link is also worth reading to hear Chuck’s statement, which I think shows a lot of class for someone who has been blinded by his own ego for most of this season. I have to agree with beowulf, I will be missing the Chuck Amato I saw the first three years here, not the former three.

  6. SaccoV 11/26/2006 at 11:56 PM #

    I’m not sure about the whole search firm. If Cowher is on the out in Pittsburgh, he has to be Number 1 on the list. If not, then there are some coaches that I believe State should try to lure away. Shane Montgomery (Miami, OH) who I know is not sound defensively, but is very good at getting his teams to move the ball, and Jerry Moore (App. State) who has proven that he can coach and recruit at a small school with success. I’m not saying that these two would do wonders, but I am saying that they need serious consideration. We don’t need this “search firm” to pull Rich Kotite’s name out of a hat.

  7. pack7483 11/26/2006 at 11:58 PM #

    Shane Montgomery………NO….he was 2-10 this year

  8. McWufPacker06 11/27/2006 at 12:00 AM #

    Running Wolf, I’m a ’06 Grad that doesn’t have the funds to be a large supporter of the WPC & the Alumni Asso. yet, even though I did get some cheap seats for football this year, wanna throw some of those unwanted BB game tickets my way!!!! 😎

  9. NCSU4EVA 11/27/2006 at 12:01 AM #

    I really hate that this fire comes on the heels of the Bunting replacement. Once again I feel like I am just trying to keep up with Carolina.

  10. pack7483 11/27/2006 at 12:01 AM #

    Gary Patterson at TCU….4 ten win seasons in his last 6.

  11. OwenDorm83 11/27/2006 at 12:02 AM #

    Sorry it came to this. Good luck, Chuck.

  12. c6by66 11/27/2006 at 12:06 AM #

    OK…

    I hate to be NON-Original…but lets look at the realities….

    FUF (aka IKB) hires a search or consulting firm….what is their mission?

    Are they to come up with a “list” of names? THEN let FUF take over and do the negotiations…LORDY….LORDY….deliver us…

    MAYBE, just MAYBE, the BOT and Chancellor will see thru all this ruse and actually ineract and work with the consultant…right up to the point of getting a signed contract.

    I am really nervous about this whole process….maybe it work out….maybe FUF will live up to our highest expectations….

    Jimmy V….help us….we’ll get your name on the court someway…even if I have slip in and paint it there myself…

    Thanks for the memories, Chuck…we wish you well….

  13. dthompson44 11/27/2006 at 12:06 AM #

    hey StateFans–check your clock…..seems to be about 2 hours fast….

  14. WolfPup35 11/27/2006 at 12:09 AM #

    Many thanks to CTC for what he has done while at NCSU..he brought a level of excitement and support that had been lacking for more than a decade, and the Murphy center will, in my mind, forever be known as the house that Chuck built. While it is unfortunate that he has to go, it is clearly time to move on, and I think he of all people understands that. He had a dream to take Wolfpack football to hights never before seen, and it has got to be a killer that he was unable to do that for the university that he truly and obviously loves. Good luck to CTC in whatever he may do in the future.

  15. Running Wolf 11/27/2006 at 12:10 AM #

    McWufPacker06…I started the same way and yea anytime we have an open seat you can have 😉

  16. Cali_Wolf 11/27/2006 at 12:23 AM #

    Does anyone out there not find it odd that Arizona State and NC State replaced their basketball and football (Dirk Koetter was fired this afternoon) coaches in the same year, at the same time. Wierd

    Chuck we wish you the best going forward and thank you for the enthusiasm and marketing, it has benefitted the program and our future success.

  17. pack7483 11/27/2006 at 12:24 AM #

    latest from N and O:

    http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/514946.html

  18. Cali_Wolf 11/27/2006 at 12:28 AM #

    David Cutcliffe is my number one choice……………he got a raw deal from the hicks in Oxford, MS

  19. Buck 11/26/2006 at 10:37 PM #

    Good Luck Chuck! But CHOW NOW!

  20. choppack1 11/26/2006 at 11:04 PM #

    “Jerry Moore (App. State) who has proven that he can coach and recruit at a small school with success”

    I thought Moore made sense too, until I saw his book of work at Texas Tech. Look it up – you won’t be impressed.

  21. bb1983 11/26/2006 at 11:19 PM #

    did everyone just quit an hour ago?

  22. redfred2 11/26/2006 at 11:22 PM #

    “I still don’t know what happened between 2002 and now. I don’t think anyone knows.”

    Sorry, this is a wild rant, but I think I do.

    Chuck, just like Herb, caught the dreaded and very contagious, job comfort level and complacency inducing, “This is just NC State, you’re doing SWELL!”, virus, that is passed directly from the administration down to any sports related personnel employed these days. You name ’em.

    In most cases, that virus has about a three to five year incubation period before it’s full effect renders a person incapable of remembering why he thought took the job in the first place. The first symptom, which is totally condoned by the higher ups, is a stubborn denial that anything is wrong at all, then after that, it spreads to take over every aspect from there on out.

    Sad thing is, there is no one in Raleigh with enough integrity to step up and say anything until it’s already way too late. Or at least have the decency to warn a coach that they are heading in the wrong direction while they have time to do something about it.

    When an administration is always telling you that they’re 100% behind you, and standing ready to insulate you from the outside world, at all costs and no matter what you do, it’s easy for a coach to lose focus of the original goal of ATHLETICS. It’s a lot harder to stay hungry in the sports arena after loyalties to the sport itself, take a back seat to university politics.

  23. Dan 11/26/2006 at 11:30 PM #

    I hate this decision. Hate it. Maybe I’m the only one who will say so on this blog (and I’ll probably be demonized for having a different opinion), but Chuck deserved another year.

    But, like I said before. I totally understand the argument here and realize its valid.

    The thing I cant forgive here is that his replacement wasn’t named in the same release.

    Fool me once, shame on Jed.

    Fool me twice, shame on anyone who expected anything different.

  24. BJD95 11/26/2006 at 11:33 PM #

    It was the right thing to do – best of luck to the Amato family. Let’s hope we make the right hire now.

  25. redfred2 11/26/2006 at 11:50 PM #

    No matter what the feelings were before, it’s a sad day for most Wolfpacker’s, especially one Chuck Amato. I would think he is taking this really hard and hope he lands on his feet with a good job somewhere soon.

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