Bunting revisits AJ Davis and “Puff” Thomas

Football Recruiting General NCS Football35

Apparently John Bunting is coming out with a book soon. Check here for the full interview from the ACC Sports Journal:

On the recruitment of Puff Thomas:

I remember when the offering plate got passed, I think I put a $20 bill in there and I looked over and Webster’s writing a check. I was wondering to myself, “I wonder how much he’s writing that for,” and “I wonder if this is NCAA legal?”

On the recruitment of AJ Davis:

We came to find out, this was the infamous Chuck Amato “Come to me” signing over the telephone to A.J. and getting him over on campus. We later found that A.J. possibly went off campus with either other recruits or other players, to watch the Super Bowl at some undisclosed location. We were hot that all of that had taken place and now we’re going into Wednesday morning, Signing Day. Of course his scholarship papers never showed up for us. They showed up over in Raleigh.

Football Recruiting General NCS Football

35 Responses to Bunting revisits AJ Davis and “Puff” Thomas

  1. TheACCForums.com 01/23/2009 at 1:05 PM #

    Read the full article, very very interesting read here.

  2. FullMoonRising 01/23/2009 at 1:33 PM #

    In the article, it states that Amato was “singing” over the phone. Is that some sort of recruitment lingo or does it mean that Amato was literally singing? I can’t imagine the latter would be anything but detrimental.

    Being lingo, what could he has possibly been saying that could have been worse than what Buntcakes was saying to his recruits?

  3. Alpha Wolf 01/23/2009 at 1:37 PM #

    Full Moon,

    Amato himself said he was singing over the phone to AJ. I took it to mean literally.

  4. VaWolf82 01/23/2009 at 1:57 PM #

    I wouldn’t waste my time reading something from Dave Glenn…so why would I waste time reading something from Bunting?

  5. LKNpackfan 01/23/2009 at 1:57 PM #

    Airing dirty laundry, very professional Bunting….

    …and for the love of God, please don’t drag he-who-will-not-be-named into any thread ever again.

  6. choppack1 01/23/2009 at 2:01 PM #

    Is this a spoof?

    I mean, he admits to him and his assistants, basically bribing Puff’s Dad, then talks about putting up Billboards on his way to school, but he’s mad at AJ Davis for disappearing a few days before signing day?

  7. Noah 01/23/2009 at 2:02 PM #

    Regarding AJ Davis, I doubt that Amato ever sang to him. Carolina recruited Davis through Ken Browning via Davis’ father. AJ Davis wasn’t particularly close to his dad, he lived with his mom.

    Davis himself apparently never committed to UNC. His dad “committed his son” to UNC. Davis was in our coaches office, highly upset that this had happened. The coaches (I’m told) reminded him that he and his mom had to sign the LOI and not to worry about it.

  8. BJD95 01/23/2009 at 2:05 PM #

    Why re-visit the Sendek stuff when we could just make fun of John Bunting for awhile? I miss having him to kick around sometimes.

    That said, he did beat our own clownish head coach several times. Which just goes to show how very lucky we are to have Tom O’Brien.

  9. Daily Update 01/23/2009 at 2:13 PM #

    Choppack: Most coaches are probably mad every time they lose a recruit to an arch rival. I don’t think it was any secret that Bunting and Amato didn’t like each other.

  10. TOBtime 01/23/2009 at 2:14 PM #

    ^Amen BJD95.

    Why would you write a book where your own words make you look like the doofus you were always suspected of being? Ever heard of keeping the mouth shut and having people think you’re stupid instead of talking and removing all doubt?
    In 6 mos all those books will be good for is fire fuel and you might have to pay to get folks to come and get them.

  11. Scooter 01/23/2009 at 2:15 PM #

    The most interesting thing about John Bunting’s career at UNC (regardless as to whether one is a NCSU, UNC, or whomever fan) is his termination and the guy who replaced him.

  12. Clarksa 01/23/2009 at 2:22 PM #

    In typical Amato fashion, I think he was joking when he said that he sang to AJ…and then in typical reporter fashion, it became a fact that he sang to AJ.

  13. wufpup76 01/23/2009 at 2:26 PM #

    ^Agree more or less with everything said above.

    Thank God TOB is here and the whiny children (ours + Bunting) are gone … Ok, well, maybe we should still want Bunting around, but he did find ways to beat us and out-and-out hated us

    “I couldn’t get the job done and it was all so UNFAIR. I HATE NC State. I’m going to write a book about all my recriuting and other stories and I’m going to name all the Judas’es that have ever betrayed ME. Blah, blah, blah … this is all about my vanity and ego … rabble rabble.”

  14. JEOH2 01/23/2009 at 2:45 PM #

    Wait the operative question is… who would even pay to read a book by John friggin’ Bunting?

  15. BJD95 01/23/2009 at 2:50 PM #

    Indeed, nobody could put themselves up on the cross quite like Bunting and Amato. Maybe they’ll get a sports-themed reality show together one day.

  16. choppack1 01/23/2009 at 3:07 PM #

    Dave Glenn LOVED Bunting – or so it seemed at least. I remember listening to him on his call in shows. Of course, I knew that Bunting would be gone if he didn’t do well a couple of years ago when Glenn asked him some critical questions.

    If you want to see if coach will survive in Chapel Hill or not, watch how Glenn treats them. And I firmly believe that it doesn’t matter what a coach does – if they win, Glenn loves him, if they lose Glenn will attack him THAT year, and he’ll lose his job. (Note: Glenn won’t attack them when problems first surface, because he doesn’t want to negatively impact recruiting.)

  17. Alpha Wolf 01/23/2009 at 3:11 PM #

    It bears pointing out that Jim Young of the Greensboro News-Record wrote the story. Not David Glenn.

  18. Daily Update 01/23/2009 at 3:18 PM #

    Choppack: You and have had many discussions about your Glenn conspiracies before. IIRC, you also think Glenn supports NC State coaches that will never win at NC State and attacks coaches that will win at NC State all in an effort to keep us down.

    Glenn has said numerous times that he is a huge fan/believer in TOB, but has questions about Sidney Lowe up until this point. Pretty much the same as most NC State fans I know of and read on the internet. How would you explain Glenn currently trying to keep NC State from being successful with these opinions about our coaches?

    Glenn did go after Matt Doherty…but then Doherty was also a maniac and had three all-americans threatening to leave, so that certainly seems like a story that should be covered.

  19. Sakaspack 01/23/2009 at 3:47 PM #

    Don’t know if Amato was joking or not, but at the time he said that he sang ‘Return to Me,’ an old Dean Martin tune, to AJ over the phone…………..you gotta admit Chuck jerked a lot of chains during this episode. (Where there’s smoke there’s fire!)

  20. choppack1 01/23/2009 at 3:56 PM #

    Daily Update – I give Glenn credit – he’s very knowledgable on the ACC, and I enjoyed listening to his show for the most part.

    Regarding his thoughts on our coaches, I don’t remember ever weighing in on that (but that doesn’t mean I haven’t done so, just don’t remember). I have been critical of the ACC Sports Journal and media here of their acceptance of the Robinson and Fowler regimes in particular.

    Where I am critical of Glenn is that I don’t believe that he would knowingly “hurt” a successful UNC program. I don’t recall him being very critical of Dean Smith for the whole Joe Forte/Octagon story. I also don’t recall him or the ACC Sports Journal being critical of the Mack Brown or Dean Smith teams in the early 90s, which had some very questionable characters and pretty mediocre high school grades/SATS.

    I’ve heard the rage in his voice on that signing day when we got AJ Davis instead of UNC. I’ve also heard the rage in his voice when he talks about UNC coaches who didn’t recruit well and set back athletic progress at UNC. (It’s probably the same way I sound when I talk about Robinson or Fowler.)

    I think Glenn would be a great journalist if he was prevented from covering the UNC program. My personal opinion is that he’s a huge fan of them, and wants them to succeed.

    I do think he’s capable of objectively assessing NC State’s programs – and other programs in the ACC. I think he’s probably the best overall source of info in radio, print or TV about the football and basketball programs in the ACC.

  21. Elrod 01/23/2009 at 4:02 PM #

    “Indeed, nobody could put themselves up on the cross quite like Bunting and Amato. Maybe they’ll get a sports-themed reality show together one day.”

    A great idea!! It would have to be TV (radio just wouldn’t work). Shoot, just put them together doing ACC football on the noon games, replacing Doc and Hog.

  22. wufpup76 01/23/2009 at 4:39 PM #

    ^I actually think that would be pretty funny (the Amato / Bunting combo doing football games)

    “Boy, that partial qualifier sure layed him out there, John!”

    “HA! He sure did, Chuck. We tried to get him signed a few seasons ago but just couldn’t pull enough strings! A Judas betrayed me!”

    Amato’s shrill voice would just be icing on the cake

  23. Pack Leader 01/23/2009 at 5:16 PM #

    Chuck has more coaching talent in his left knee than bunting. i take nothing he says about nc state serious. imean seriously his wife was walking around kenan stadium puting a magical new orleans “voodoo” curse or whatever to give the team good luck acouple days a week before big games. yah whatever bunting sounds like the piggy back is running low. WHAT A FREAKING NUT!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!

  24. turfpack 01/23/2009 at 7:17 PM #

    Ya’ll can think David Glenn is non bias if you want, but it will never happen-is as blue as they come- the guy infurates me to no end.
    In the Carowhina sports journal he very rarely has anything good to say of NCSTATE it’s coaches,teams or recuits.He has to like TOB because he knows he’ll kick their asses on a regular basis and Butchyboy is a average coach.(but he has all those 5 star players coming in next year.)Glenn thinks State should stop this nosense about competing with Dook&Carowhina because HWWNBN said it’s so.Plus you guys know that was in the old days and learn to take your rightful place in the bottom of the league.
    I say SCREWYOU !- WE WILL BE BACK BITCHES-SOON-HOPEFULLY WITH SID-IF NOT SOMEONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  25. Sw0rdf1sh 01/23/2009 at 7:45 PM #

    Right about now I’m starting to hope we can find a way to have BC’s number tomorrow.

    Why do we seem to have so much trouble with their BBall team?

1 2

Leave a Reply