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What is up with coaching apologists?


detlef
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Needless to say, there's been some talk about calling for John Bunting's head here in Chapel Hill. The only game they've won this year was vs 1-AA and they were only even close in one other so far (Rutgers 21-16). In every other game they've played they've been either soundly beaten or totally blown out. This is against good but not great competiion. Even the big boys on their schedule (Miami and Va Tech) are having off years and Clemson who absolutely throttled them is a very good team but is too one dimensional to be confused with the elite of the NCAA. I'd imagine that one of the better (but not even best) teams in 1_aa could have managed a better showing against the same teams this year. This is not a matter of not being able to get UNC "over the top" this is about fielding a somewhat competetive football team at a large, public university with a ton of name recognition.

 

None the less, every day, guys come out and defend why UNC needs to keep Bunting. "He bleeds Carolina Blue", well they're bleeding all over the field each week. "We just need to have patience", while it may be too much to ask for a guy to be a perenial contender for the ACC title quite yet, it's been 6 years and they are absolutely dreadful.

 

My favorite is when they start listing all the things he has to contend with, needing production out of young players, attrition among upperclassmen, academic standards at the U, blah blah. As if no other coach in the NCAA has to contend with the same things he does. If this was chess, they'd be saying, "Listen, he's got all these restrictions on how he can move his pieces. Hes got certain pieces that can only go straight, others that can only go diagonal, some still that can only move one space at a time. How do you expect a guy to win under those circumstances?"

Edited by detlef
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Needless to say, there's been some talk about calling for John Bunting's head here in Chapel Hill. The only game they've won this year was vs 1-AA and they were only even close in one other so far (Rutgers 21-16). In every other game they've played they've been either soundly beaten or totally blown out. This is against good but not great competiion. Even the big boys on their schedule (Miami and Va Tech) are having off years and Clemson who absolutely throttled them is a very good team but is too one dimensional to be confused with the elite of the NCAA. I'd imagine that one of the better (but not even best) teams in 1_aa could have managed a better showing against the same teams this year. This is not a matter of not being able to get UNC "over the top" this is about fielding a somewhat competetive football team at a large, public university with a ton of name recognition.

 

None the less, every day, guys come out and defend why UNC needs to keep Bunting. "He bleeds Carolina Blue", well they're bleeding all over the field each week. "We just need to have patience", while it may be too much to ask for a guy to be a perenial contender for the ACC title quite yet, it's been 6 years and they are absolutely dreadful.

 

My favorite is when they start listing all the things he has to contend with, needing production out of young players, attrition among upperclassmen, academic standards at the U, blah blah. As if no other coach in the NCAA has to contend with the same things he does. If this was chess, they'd be saying, "Listen, he's got all these restrictions on how he can move his pieces. Hes got certain pieces that can only go straight, others that can only go diagonal, some still that can only move one space at a time. How do you expect a guy to win under those circumstances?"

 

By god it would be nice if the dining public

 

 

Man, they shtink

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It seems obvious to me that some schools just choose one sport over the other on which to spend their limited resources. Here in L.A., USC spends more on football while UCLA touts the basketball. The priorities couldn't be more clear. UNC seems to prefer the roundball too, like Duke, Wake Forest, Indiana, Purdue, etc. I can name most of the good b-ball players at USC over the last couple decades only cuz they are so rare....

 

TX, Ohio State and Michigan are rare schools (off the top of my head,) that consistently do well in both....

Edited by Coffeeman
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It seems obvious to me that some schools just choose one sport over the other on which to spend their limited resources. Here in L.A., USC spends more on football while UCLA touts the basketball. The priorities couldn't be more clear. UNC seems to prefer the roundball too, like Duke, Wake Forest, Indiana, Purdue, etc. I can name most of the good b-ball players at USC over the last couple decades only cuz they are so rare....

 

TX, Ohio State and Michigan are rare schools (off the top of my head,) that consistently do well in both....

 

I don't think most here have any delusional notions of UNC being a perennial top 10 team, but I don't think it's too much to expect to rarely, if ever, dip below 5-6 wins and never, I mean never, just roll out and get pounded week after week. Case in point, Cincinatti posted a convincing win over USF last weekend, the same USF team that essentially blew out UNC the weekend before. UNC shouldn't be two significant steps below Cinci. Bunting was visibly defiant during the press conference where they announced his firing, saying that they are so close to being great. OK, so they're red-shirting a bunch of players. OK, so they've got a great class coming in (which is basically what they've said each of the last 2-3 years). That may be true and if you were 1-6 because of some untimely bad breaks and bounces, I could buy it. But they've been completely out of all but 2 games by mid way through the 3rd period and that should get anyone at a school that big fired.

 

Another stat worth mentioning, I was listening to the radio some time ago and they were announcing some Wall St. Journal ranking on colleges based on the players they have in the NFL, weighing it by, not only how many, but how good they were. UNC was ranked #10, obviously above plenty of traditional powers. Thus, there's no shortage of talent that goes through there regardless of what the relative importance of football is.

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tidbit I found on a USC blog about the UNC opening:

 

Carroll On Carolina

North Carolina fired Coach John Bunting earlier this week, which is ironic because six years ago USC coach Pete Carroll tried to get the Tar Heels job that eventually went to Bunting. Imagine the reaction in North Carolina if it was widely known that Carroll struck out in his attempts to interview for the job.

``They never called me back,’’ Carroll said. ``I never got a smell.’’

 

When North Carolina showed no interest, Carroll pursued the USC job and the rest his history. But he thought North Carolina would be a perfect place to resurrect his career.

``It was one of my favorite places in the country,’’ he said. ``It’s in a great conference. I always thought highly of North Carolina.’’

But North Carolina did not think as highly of him. Of course, he did not exactly have a sterling reputation back then, out of work for a year after being fired by the New England Patriots.

``They had no reason to like me,’’ Carroll said.

Instead, North Carolina hired Bunting, a former Tar Heel player, who is 25-42 in six seasons. That’s not quite as impressive as winning 51 of your past 53 games, as Carroll’s done at USC. Or the two national championships. The closest Carroll came to an interview at North Carolina was speaking to a booster who passed his number along to the athletic dept. It didn’t cause a ripple and soon Carroll lobbied for the USC job, where he wasn’t exactly a popular initial choice either.

``I was just someone who was an assistant for three years at North Carolina State, that was my only connection to the state,’’ Carroll said. ``I wasn’t surprised they didn’t call me.’’

Even some of Carroll’s associates reminded him this week about the North Carolina job, however.

``I don’t think they’ve written anything about it before,’’ a friend of Carroll’s said.

It should be noted North Carolina is handling this search differently. The university hired Chuck Neinas, the former executive director of the College Football Association, to help assist with the coaching search.

``I don't hire anybody, but I can transmit accurate information between the parties,’’ Neinas said. ```Each project has a little different twist, but basically what I can do is assist the university by researching a slate of individuals that they might want as a coach ... and that might want to coach for them.’’

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Thought we all agreed USC only won one National Championship with Carroll.

 

 

Oh my....suffice it say, uh, 'no'. But I don't care to rehash it here now. Let's instead focus on the undisputed things: 4 BCS bowls in a row, 3 of the 4 BCS games were wins by blowout + 1 loss by 3 pts, 3 of the last 4 Heismans, 2 losses in over 4 years.

 

And if we manage to go 11-1 or better in 2006, a 5th straight BSC bowl. I'm more than satisfied with the Carroll era - honestly couldn't be much better. And nothing you could say can change that. Leave at that, dude...

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Oh my....suffice it say, uh, 'no'. But I don't care to rehash it here now. Let's instead focus on the undisputed things: 4 BCS bowls in a row, 3 of the 4 BCS games were wins by blowout + 1 loss by 3 pts, 3 of the last 4 Heismans, 2 losses in over 4 years.

 

And if we manage to go 11-1 or better in 2006, a 5th straight BSC bowl. I'm more than satisfied with the Carroll era - honestly couldn't be much better. And nothing you could say can change that. Leave at that, dude...

 

 

I can live with that. Carroll's USC teams have done well and NC would have been fortunate to have him as their coach.

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