What Happened, Chuck? (Updated 11/12)

State is close again but Clemson knocks the Wolfpack out of any of Chuck Amato’s ridiculous bowl dreams (ahhh, Boise in December) and the losing streak continues.

That is now FIVE IN A ROW with the opportunity to drop two more to our most heated rivals – UNC-CH and East Carolina. (Link to Sunday morning’s Caulton Tudor piece – “Heels could make Pack squirm”

N.C. State and Chuck Amato will walk into a situation that smacks of an ambush this coming weekend in Kenan Stadium.

In what will be Carolina coach John Bunting’s final home game, his players would like nothing more than to carry him off the field with an outcome that could put Amato’s coaching future in jeopardy.

Amato already is in hot water with the fans as his seventh season winds down. His overall ACC record is 25-30. A third straight loss to the Tar Heels, particularly these Tar Heels, would be enough to put Amato’s job security in jeopardy and to create the same sort of speculation and scrutiny that Bunting experienced.

On paper, this State-Carolina game looks like a dud. A 1-9 team under a lame-duck coach against a 3-7 opponent on a five-game losing streak. But given the potential stakes, there’s good reason for high suspense.

State is now guaranteed our second losing season in the last three years. So, we thought that it was most appropriate to refer back to Chuck Amato’s
post-game comments

from EXACTLY two years ago today! On November 12, 2004:

You could have the best defense in the country and yet not go to a bowl. Would you have ever believed that?

This is the first losing season this great university has had in seven or eight years, but it won’t happen again.

To be honest…we can TOTALLY understand how Chuck Amato could have felt so comfortable making that kind of statement. Take a look at the recruiting success that had produced the high-level of talent that Chuck knew was in the program.

Considering the strength of the talent in the program at the time and the obvious momentum that was still being enjoyed by the Pack in 2004, OF COURSE Amato would have never been able to have foreseen failure like the Pack is having AGAIN this year. Any coach who hasn’t been able to see his deficiencies that have existed for seven years is sure as hell not going to be able to foresee the future impact of shitty coaching on the talent for the future.

Link

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105 Responses to What Happened, Chuck? (Updated 11/12)

  1. JimValvano 11/11/2006 at 4:21 PM #

    WAS THAT NOT A TOUCHDOWN?!?!?!

    He got pushed out of bounds…that was a touchdown!

    Am I confused??? Is that rule only in the NFL and not in college? All I know is that he caught the ball and was clearly coming down in bounds till he was knocked out of bounds…looked like a touchdown to me.

  2. Micky McCarthy 11/11/2006 at 4:21 PM #

    No action as long as Jed Fowler is here, so forget about it.

  3. IrishTiger 11/11/2006 at 4:22 PM #

    Lee Fowler I bet is still behind his man….Yuk!

  4. drhammondo 11/11/2006 at 4:24 PM #

    Jim–that rule is only in the NFL.

    And I agree, a change has got to be made–and unfortunately, we do not have an administration that will make one.

  5. IrishTiger 11/11/2006 at 4:24 PM #

    JimValvano…you’re right but once again we are our own worst enemy…5 chances inside the 5 yard line and we have little bitty Daniel run up the middle…Yuk to the call not to Daniel.

  6. JimValvano 11/11/2006 at 4:32 PM #

    I still don’t understand why you go for a touchdown in that situation anyway. Take the points. The game wasn’t on the line…yet. Amato has done that too many times this year and then in the end we lose a close game where the three points could have swung a little momentum our way or in the end we lose by two or three and we coulda had the points had we not tried to score a touchdown on fourth and goal.

  7. wufpaxno1 11/11/2006 at 4:32 PM #

    Boy, bringing Cowher in as A.D. and coach would solve two problems now, wouldn’t it!

  8. drhammondo 11/11/2006 at 4:41 PM #

    I don’t know if it was SFN that I read this on–but Lee Fowler has only fired one head coach in his tenure at NCSU, and it was the Women’s Volleyball coach. This does not bode well for our current situation. Fowler will not do anything, nor will Oblinger. It will be the call of the Board of Trustees if a change is to be made! The members of the board can be seen here…

    http://chancellor.ncsu.edu/trustees/members.html

    Find their e-mail addresses (their companies are listed in their bios), and send them well-thought-out, RATIONAL e-mails regarding the current disposition of our football program. They cannot continue to endorse an administration that will accept mediocrity!

    I’m afraid this is the only way to get results, sending e-mails to Fowler will only get you a dismissive, form e-mail in return, one saying that we need to stay the course and support the current staff, as he does.

  9. Running Wolf 11/11/2006 at 4:43 PM #

    What the H*@L… 3 and 7 and we will be lucky to win anymore games…why the heck have we not gotten Bill Cowher…or done something? This is a horrible season and I blame two folks…Chuck Amato and Lee Fowler…it makes it very hard to keep buying season tickets and all the other additional costs involved when we are this BAD!

  10. tvp 11/11/2006 at 4:44 PM #

    It’s amazing how each of our games follows basically the same script.

    The only real difference between this game, GT, Maryland, WFU, and UVa is the amount of points score.

    We start very slowly, fail to score much if any in the first quarter, almost never take a lead, keep it close, need to score a TD on a late 4th Q drive, and throw an interception.

    Amazing.

  11. crpagpalp 11/11/2006 at 4:50 PM #

    “Boy, bringing Cowher in as A.D. and coach would solve two problems now, wouldn’t it!”

    Too bad that is no longer allowed

  12. VaWolf82 11/11/2006 at 4:53 PM #

    He got pushed out of bounds…that was a touchdown! Am I confused???

    The rules in college are different than the NFL. The WR has to get one foot down in bounds. As I understand it, that was the right call.

  13. beowolf 11/11/2006 at 5:04 PM #

    Everybody’s shocked.

    Excuse me for asking, but why?

  14. whitefang 11/11/2006 at 5:09 PM #

    I really hoped that somehow we would put it together with a late season surge and we WOULD get to a minor bowl. Yeah I too have gotten to the point where I can’t stand Amato’s coaching. And our typical minor bowl ain’t much for sure, but it is the best we could have hoped for anytime in the forseeable future. I know many State fans think that we are better off losing so Amato gets fired and we get a new coach. I feel that way too in the back of my mind. But face it, it isn’t gonna happen. It is all DOWNHILL from here. Does anyone really think Fowler is even capable of pulling the trigger on Amato? The man defines the word incompetence. Do you think Oblinger gives a crap? Board of Trustees? HELL NO THEY DON’T. If they did Fowler would not be in Raleigh.
    Short of some kind of recruiting miracle which none of us can see happening, or a brain transplant in the coaching staff, we are surely going to be mired in the mud for many years. I can’t for the life of me see any reason a highly rated recruit would even consider us at this point.
    God I hope I am wrong.

  15. graywolf 11/11/2006 at 5:15 PM #

    Sad, but about what I expected. Wait until next week after we lose to Carolina and watch the greatest meltdown in the history of NC State football.

    Out head coach now has a conference record that is WORSE than Mike O’Cain’s.

  16. legacyman 11/11/2006 at 5:16 PM #

    Perhaps some highly recruited players might want to attend a very good University and play for their sports program. We can’t win all of the time as no one else can either. The rough spots are difficult for some to handle but then they don’t have much of a history of observing our sports programs. Any time we can have a good run in something we should be very thankful. We have to work like heck just to stay even much less excel.

  17. chilly water 11/11/2006 at 5:21 PM #

    wow, this carolina loss is gonna be BAD, REALLY BAD

  18. blpack 11/11/2006 at 5:24 PM #

    It used to be ‘pictures and promises’ was how we were recruited against. Now we have a nice house with no furniture. We are wannabees. Talk the talk, but can’t walk the walk. Whatever phrase you want to use. Bottom line is no bowl this season, again and look at the standings. Look where we are.

  19. WAWolf 11/11/2006 at 5:28 PM #

    Same script, different week. This season is Groundhog Day. It’s seasons like this I’m glad to be living in the Great Northwest so I won’t even be tempted to tune in and watch the same scenario play out week after week. I got you, babe.

  20. Wulfpack 11/11/2006 at 5:33 PM #

    Well, at least we played them close. That’s about the only thing this joke of a program has going for it. We suck.

  21. NCSURulez 11/11/2006 at 5:37 PM #

    I will never pull for UNC – against anyone – but I will say that if we lose next week, it will hurt me the least of any loss against UNC ever.

  22. MrPlywood 11/11/2006 at 5:44 PM #

    Chuck also said this after the game: If we can learn to play defense like that consistently for the next ten years, we’re going to win an awful lot of football games. We’ve got one more game that we need to play that way this year, and that’s the East Carolina game.

    I sure hope he pays attention to the UNC game. Thanks for giving them some bulletin board material Chucky. You just might seal your own fate.

  23. gopack968 11/11/2006 at 6:04 PM #

    It may seem funny, but the volleyball coach story is somewhat instructive. Fowler allowed a terrible volleyball coach, hated by players and assistant coaches and unable to win any conference games, to fire her entire staff and have one more year. She did exactly that (a friend’s wife was one of the assistants). The next year was worse and then Fowler finally fired her.

    CA has been pushing assistants under the bus for years, either directly or indirectly. Fowler is just not capable of holding the higher profile individual accountable.

  24. newswolf 11/11/2006 at 6:20 PM #

    It is funny. The only coach that he fired, won 1 ACC game in a 4 or 5 year period. That is basically Fowler’s bottom line. So by I Know Basketball’s standards Amato is doing twice as well as the former vball coach.

  25. Astral Rain 11/11/2006 at 6:28 PM #

    Well, given Fowlup’s incompetence, best course right now would be to put Amato on notice, maybe force him to out Trestman and the OL coach (do we have one?) , and give him just 1 more year. I expected 5-7, 6-6 at best this year, with a lot of close losses- so I’m getting what I expected.

    Really, I don’t know what the best idea is right now- at least b-ball has some hope a couple years down the road.

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