A hot topic for discussion over the last 10 days or so is sports fans, internet message boards, and their impact on hiring and firing coaches. Let’s take a look at a few of these public comments in chronological order:
He remained steadfast in his support; Bobby even said he would hire Jeff all over again, even knowing what he does now about how it would end. As for why things didn’t work out, he didn’t point to statistics or won-lost records.
“Because you all ignited it,” he said to a small room of reporters. “You listen to eBay and e-mail and all that junk, and you all kept writing about it and that fans it and makes it grow and grow, and it becomes a cancer. That’s why.”
John Bunting and Ron Zook both failed to meet arbitrary performance standards for their positions. A “change†was doubtlessly called for. It was done WHEN IT WAS DONE to appease the loonie lynch mobs. “Loonie lynch mobs†exist within every fan base and they all react in quite predictable fashion. The Internet is “free rangeâ€. That is not likely to change. You will see more and more “coaches on hot seats†getting mid-season terminations simply to appease the angry mobs “on the boardsâ€. “Anything to shut up those crazies” is a seminar taught at AD Conventions.
Technician: What is the biggest issue facing N.C. State athletics?
Fowler: Well, today the biggest issue facing us is getting a new football coach…But other than that, the biggest challenge? It’s probably the message boards on the Internet. There is so much negative stuff coming off the boards, and I think that drives the newspapers. Then the papers are constantly chasing stuff that’s being talked about on the Internet. But I think that’s the biggest challenge facing all ADs.
There are so many people on the Internet, and you never know who they are. You don’t know if they are affiliated with N.C. State in any way. It’s like an anonymous letter, and when I get an anonymous letter, I throw it in the trash. So, you write things that are just hateful to a lot of a people without any knowledge of what’s really going on.
I believe that each of these quotes hit on some interesting issues, but none of them hit the bull’s eye. Let’s look at where they fall short:
Bobby Bowden
Ignoring the ebay comment, Bobby’s comments may be the closest to hitting the mark. Bobby blames the media for blindly repeating comments from the internet further inciting fan unrest. Bob Lee’s column expands on this point:
There is one sportswriter for the N&O who apparently never interviews coaches or players and maybe never attends games. His articles are simply one and two day old regurgitations of “message board†prattle. In other words, his “sources†are fuzzy-cheeked dorm rats and 45 y/o Little League right fielders.
It should be obvious to even the most casual observer that the mass media (MM) has its fair share of idiots (Barry Saunders leaps immediately to mind). But the MM will usually have at least one fact (sometimes wrong, often incomplete) on which to base their comments. In the case of John Bunting and Jeff Bowden, the facts are indisputable…they didn’t win enough. In each case, you would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to see this point.
But Bobby’s comments are certainly correct in that once the MM smells blood; they will continue to swarm the wounded until it has been completely devoured. Sometimes it will start with message boards….and sometimes it is simply recycled from other parts of the MM. (More on managing the media later.)
State has certainly suffered this year from recycled garbage.
– Starting with the idiot Doyel, State BB fans are labeled as unrealistic and impossible to please. We still hear that same swill spewed out seven months later during State’s first big basketball game of the year.
– Stewart Mandell labels Amato has one of the worst coaches in college FB and three games into the season, Mark May starts speculating on national TV that Amato might not even survive until the end of the season.
In both cases, complete and total BS is repeated ad nauseum with absolutely no effort put into fact checking the original story. (Do we even need to bring up the idiot Saunders and his take on low-blow Chris Paul?)
Bob Lee
Now Bob Lee’s comments may be totally correct. Lord knows we have enough trouble keeping track of our AD…I am more than willing to let BLS keep track of his (better known as Prince Tassel-Loafer). However, there are plenty of valid reasons to have fired Bunting in the middle of the season. Here are a few:
– We’ve already discussed the herd-mentality of the mass media. How do you think that UNC would have been portrayed over the last month or so of the season? How many callers to Bunting’s weekly radio show would have been cut off in the middle of their comments? What would have happened to recruits that were either “committed†or were considering UNC? By announcing that Bunting would be let go at the end of the season, all of these things were immediately controlled.
– How do you think that the 100 or so UNC FB players felt before the announcement? They knew what was being said and they knew that Bunting was in trouble. With a single announcement, the players were taken off of the hook. They were under no additional pressure trying to win in order to keep their coach employed. They were free to go out and play for themselves.
– Before the announcement, what was the worst-case scenario for UNC fans? Was a 1-10 record the worst-case?….No! I believe that the worst-case scenario would have been a miracle win over ND or GT followed by wins over State and Duke. This exact scenario kept Bunting employed two years ago. It may or may not have been enough this year…but it sure would have been enough to keep the Bunting Battles going on the message boards. It would also have been enough to give the MM fuel to blast UNC for firing a coach that had “shown improvementâ€.
Obviously, I was not privy to any of the discussions that ultimately led to Bunting’s dismissal. But I seriously doubt that calming the internet message boards had anything to do with it. I have to believe that it was done to control a bad situation, to make sure that it didn’t get any worse, and to make sure that UNC could move past the Bunting era with the least amount of additional pain.
Lee Fowler
I am sure that many of you will be shocked (Not!) to read that that Lee Fowler missed the mark completely. How many adults with triple-digit IQ’s have trouble identifying a pimple-faced kid (or idiot) masquerading on a message board? How difficult is it to ignore a complete and total idiot posting on a message board? How difficult is to tell that Wolf98764 is really a UNC fan?
Lee’s problems don’t come from any of these sources. Lee’s problem is that he tries to ignore a bad situation rather than manage it. He prefers to “hope for the best†rather than work to achieve the “bestâ€. Specifically, he seems to utterly ignore the W/L record accumulated by the coaches that are supposed to report to him.
The fan unrest displayed for the previous five seasons in basketball and more recently in football had absolutely nothing to do with anonymous fans, imposters from other fan bases, or from people with no knowledge. The fans that are giving LF headaches are simply grown adults with average memories that can tell the difference between winning and losing.
BTW, Lee’s attempts to marginalize State fans that aren’t happy with losing by labeling them as the lunatic fringe didn’t win him any friends either. He can label discussion of W/L records as “negative†if he chooses, but I doubt that he can convince anyone that those discussions are wrong or worthless.
PARTING THOUGHTS
The large majority of State fans, grads, and season ticket holders don’t fall into the elite category of High Rollers. I’m talking about the people that can pick up the phone and call the AD or the chancellor and get through to them. The sorts of people that have corporate jets to lend, have their names engraved on buildings, and frequently get to schmooze with the coaches. While we can debate the effect of message board posters, there is not really any doubt that these High Rollers can play a major role in all aspects of the university and especially in the athletic department.
Here’s a little blurb that most people have already seen from Dave Glenn:
“I’ve been around this university for a long, long time,” a former BOT member told the ACC Sports Journal. “I know the decision-makers, I know the trustees, and I know many other (N.C. State) people, and it is almost impossible to find anyone of influence who is standing in support of Chuck Amato right now. To my knowledge, among those folks, there is absolutely zero support for keeping him.
I can’t help but wonder where all of these High Rollers were in 2001 at the conclusion of the basketball season. The 2000 basketball season was looking pretty good until a seven-game losing streak took State from a near certain NCAA bid back to the NIT. That disappointing season was then followed up by a 13-16 season. Yet Herb maintained support from the High Rollers until the very end.
Do the actions of this week signal a basic change in the way the High Rollers at State handle losing? Or do the actions of this week and those from 2001 illustrate the differences in the way that Chuck and Herb handled the Big Wheels? BLS may be right about what goes on at AD conventions…..but I’m betting that “Who not to piss off” is frequently covered at coaching conventions.
