Dick Badhair

He's starting to sound good to me.

 

I do think Spurrier could turn things around there...He's an amazing college coach. I'd rather look elsewhere, though. Shannon at Miami seems really intriguing to me.

 

Blue Heels
UNC football continues to struggle, with fans beating the drums for Bunting's firing


By Lenox Rawlings
JOURNAL COLUMNIST

Carolina blues: Some North Carolina football fans can't see straight right now, and it has nothing to do with the rain. It has everything to do with the outpouring of spitting-mad criticism after a 56-24 debacle at Virginia.

You can hear the downbeat drumbeat everywhere: "They're terrible, fire the coach."

As the emotional reactions spread, Coach John Bunting's chances for surviving decline. The Tar Heels (2-10) finished dead last in the ACC last season. They rallied past Division I-AA William & Mary in the opener and gave up 549 yards against a Virginia team that drove for seven touchdowns on its first seven possessions and added a 100-yard kickoff return to the insult. Marquis Weeks did the same thing two years ago, against the same team.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that influential Rams Club members are accelerating their campaign for change in the athletics department. The big dates include a meeting today, a home game against Georgia Tech on Saturday and another home game against Louisville the next weekend. Bunting could soften voices with two wins, but Carolina will enter the subsequent five games as prohibitive underdogs capable of implosion.

Outsiders consider Bunting's dismissal inevitable, but the Carolina administration often defies convention and occasionally operates in a vacuum. Donors who want something done yesterday express frustration over the mutual-admiration society ruled by Chancellor James Moeser and Athletics Director Dick Baddour. They are insulated by contracts that will take Moeser to retirement and Baddour through the 2006-07 academic year, when he would presumably retire.

Despite objections, Chapel Hill trustees backed Moeser's recommendation to extend Baddour's contract for three years. Baddour has supported Bunting and vowed to avoid a weekly referendum on the coach's future. Moeser supports Baddour and favors calm waters.

Baddour's detractors - perhaps a majority of Carolina voters, if they could vote - blame the boss for letting Mack Brown get away, for failing to hire Jim Donnan or some established coach in 1997, for promoting assistant Carl Torbush under pressure from players, for firing and unfiring Torbush one season before ultimately dumping him in 2000, for failing to sign Frank Beamer or another experienced coach, for hiring Bunting out of desperation and for generally fumbling his oversight of a program ranked No. 4 when Brown departed.

Carolina's leaders could ignore events and deflect lobbying longer than most administrators, but both require contributors to keep the machine running. Chancellor Moeser has said he needs to raise $1 million a day. Baddour controls a $40 million budget that didn't produce a single male team champion in 2003-04, the first such shutout in 51 ACC years. Baddour might wind up with a half-empty football stadium or worse and reluctant patrons if the losses keep mounting.

Bunting inherited a mess, and he still has a mess. Carolina has lost 17 of its past 21 games. Carolina hasn't intercepted a pass since picking off two against Wisconsin in the third game last fall - the only two interceptions of the entire season.

The Tar Heels tackle like alligators. They also pursue like alligators, which infuriates the embarrassed residents of the Tar Heel everglades. There are no simple answers. If Carolina fires the coach, does it have Plan B worked out? Will Plan B work? Baddour's track record suggests not. In football, the climb back is long and tedious. Just ask Maryland or Clemson.

 

IF he were to go UNC for a couple of years, where do you think his next stop would be? NFL? another college? Retire?

I think he wants Macks job.

 

Steve to TX, and Mack back to UNC. Mack still has a house here in NC.

 

Well yeah. I think losing the coaches they did, after season one, that hurt. But you replace them. The guys that they put in there, they were promotions, and promotions aren't necessarily positives. In this case, the defensive coaching staff has sucked since the first couple guys left.

Bunting was the heart of a defense that was barely adequate, with the SB champs under Vermiel. They dismissed him after Vermiel left, saying Giunta was the guy who made it work. But Xs and Os weren't what was getting it done for them.

The thing I end up questioning with Bunting is whether or not he had a plan. He hadn't really been in the college game, he'd never led a program before. In college you can find guys who've done that- it's much more of a leap-frog thing where you can be a head coach of a very successful Div II or I-AA program, and then move up to only being a coordinator at a mid-major. Bunting hadn't had that, and after he lost some of his coaches, I think you see that the guys around him aren't as knowledgeable, not as able to lead.

I think 2001's success really hurt, in retrospect - losing coaches, and you had players leaving early. I think that made him think that he needed continuity moreso than to build, so he didn't go out and get the necessary coaches/recruiters that would've built a program.




>>Steve to TX, and Mack back to UNC. Mack still has a house here in NC.

Why would Brown want to come back, though? Sure, he's got a house here. I imagine he could buy a house anywhere. I don't see a silver knight on a white horse coming to save this franchise over night, and I hope the team itself administrates a program, not a patch.

 

well another big knock on Bunting is that he doesn't even use the good assistants he has on staff.

Back in the mid 90s UNC had one of the BEST defenses led by the defensive line - these guys were giving up about 200 yards a game not 500.

The NFL is right now full of UNC defensive linemen from that era ( Peppers, Holliday, Sims, Ekuban, Ellis - maybe more) that were coached by Ken Browning.

So where does Bunting have Browning? Coaching tight ends. And Browning is proving capable there with good UNC tight ends the last few years - but why in the hell doesn't Bunting have Browning coaching the defensive line where help is needed and Browning has proven more than capable?

Could it be because Bunting is supposed to be the "defensive expert" and Browning was one of Mack and Torbush's boys?

Bunting not only isn't developing his talent and recruits but he also doesn't appear to understand how to utilize his coaching staff.

One more sign that Bunting has no clue.

 

agreed. Browning was a fine coach. And apparently a great recruiter as well.
Mack's teams could always find the outstanding athletic 250 lb players and get them into positions. Some grew and became offensive linemen, some became more athletic and became TEs, DEs, and so on. I think Browning had a good deal to do with that, back when I followed UNC more.

Now, UNC has the better part of its coaches/recruiters - Browning, and the WRs coach, on O. He's gone through DCs, probably has gone through defensive schemes, and has no continuity. Some of the positions have gone through a revolving door at times, and that's part of the problem with having a guy who's never run a program, sitting under an AD who has no advice to give.