Gray: I have never claimed to have insider information. As you say, anyone who is not the Chancellor, the AD or a handful of big money donors, and DD really knew that situation. DD may not have known it either. Some of those may have a strong desire for revisionist history based on a current situation.
I will say that I have history on my side on this one. Heck, we fired a beloved alum after the second pass at the trifecta. There is absolutely no way we would not have fired a guy from the Midwest, who was viewed as a bit of a gamble, who had called out the fans, whose recruiting had seemingly stalled out, who lost to an ECU team with a first year coach which then in turn proceeded to lose almost every game afterwards. Nope, sorry. He was toast if he lost to UNC. I fully expected us to lay an egg and for the walking papers to come swiftly.
The reality is that day Charlie Brown actually kicked the football, or Toby got his date with Pam. Pick whichever analogy you want. Maybe it was the day that the Mississippi River ran north, and we had a seismic shift in the football alignment in the state of NC. Maybe it is a little simpler and DD finally decided to stop playing scared (though he did go back into his shell in the second half). Whatever it was he won.
I don’t think for a second that he didn’t know that was make or break. I don’t think for a second he wasn’t darn serious about the jobs he was chasing. He was chasing jobs that really weren’t good fits because he knew how thin that line was. He had a high water mark year last season, beating FSU and UNC and still only finished 8-4. There’s a lot there for DD yet to prove.
The good news is that the most important part of managing is staffing, and DD seems to be doing that well. Do that and keep them all fed, and DD doesn’t have to be all that good. Things will take care of themselves. That’s why I hope we paid $$$ to those good assistants.
