The end of the line has come for John Bunting and the Tar Heels’ football coach will be in charge of the Blue and White football troops for the last time on November 25 against Duke. We all knew the end was in sight for Coach Bunting but many felt he would be given the chance to resign and that he would not be given his walking papers. By getting terminated I guess JB will still be entitled to the money remaining on his contract although he will never roam the Chapel Hill sidelines again.
 It is kind of sad in some ways to see a well-known man in the football community get the pink slip but football is a game and it is also a business and the results have not been good during the recent days for the North Carolina football Tar Heels. By the Heels playing on national TV(ESPN) on Thursday night the ugly side of the Heels was out there for everyone to see and the big brass in Tar Heel Town have seen enough. The over-exsposure was just too much to take. We will miss Coach Bunting but it will soon be time to begin the restoration of the UNC-CH football program. It will be fun to watch the Heels the rest of this season and see how hard they play the rest of the way. Wake Forest, N.C. State, Duke, there are some key in-state matchups left to be completed. Who will the new Heels coach be? Let the guessing begin. Bear Bryant, Terry Bowden, Steve Spurrier probably not, but there are still plenty of good names out there. How about Butch Davis, Paul Johnson, or Rich Rodriguez?
 North Carolina got embarrassed 23-0 by Virginia and our other in-state ACC role models proceeded to lose as well. N.C. State found another way to get an “L” against Maryland and the Pack is still a very undisciplined football team. Duke almost pulled it out with Miami in town but the Devils could not get in with the ball on the Hurricanes’ goal line with less that 10 seconds left in the game and Duke went down 20-15. Wake Forest(6-1) was off but they travel to meet North Carolina this week and that should be one to keep an eye or two on.
Area teams did not come with up anything to write home about unless you are a prisoner of war or MIA with NC A&T dropping their 12th straight game 26-0 on Homecoming to Howard and Guilford and Greensboro College both getting beat up on the road. Guilford falls 34-12 to Washington and Lee and Greensboro tumbles 62-21 to Averett up in Danville, Virginia. Wofford scored 28 points in the 2nd quarter to whip Elon 35-21, East Carolina rode QB James Pinkney’s 391 yards passing and 2 TD’s to stop SMU 38-21, and Appalachian went to Double 0T and finally defeated Georgia Southern 27-20 despite 4 big Mountaineer turnovers. ASU’s freshman QB Armanti Edwards rushed for 140 yards, passed for a TD and ran for a touchdown. Winston-Salem State picked up and easy win, 38-6 over Savannah State and Western Carolina lost again in overtime to the Citadel, in fact there were 3 overtime games in the Southern Conference last weekend.Â
Andy tell Jeff Summey that Baddour thinks there are some bigger fish than Bunting out there to coach the Heels, Baddour should have done this 3 years ago.
Some of the fans want to bring back Mack Brown as Athletic Director and then hire Rich Rodriguez as head football coach. Heel fans, like Mr. Koury from Burlington, are telling the Heel brass to show Baddour the door. Baddour messed up when he brought in Matt Doherty and then blew it on Bunting.
Steve Kragthorpe would be an awesome choice if Carolina chooses to go the Mack Brown style route, he is a lot like Mack, but he’s done more winning at this point in his career. Plus he has shown the ability to over achieve with the remaining talent from the previous regime.Mack even called him the best young coach in the country, if there is not more of a ringing endosement for UNC fans then I don’t know what is.
Johnson is preferable to Rodriguez due to his background. Both would be good hires, though I think Rodriguez will be out to use this more as a bargaining tool.
If you are looking for the homerun hire though you have to think Butch Davis first, not only could he recruit, but he has the ability to garner the respect of his players so they stay in line. That cannot be said of his successor Larry Coker.
Beyond that the crystal ball starts to cloud, thats why the one name to remember thru all of this is Chuck Neinas, a consultant that helps schools decide in various ways on what to do when faced with a hiring situation. Sometimes the schools have a set list in mind, sometimes he is asked to foster the search by scratch, I saw someone on a message board corralate this cat to Harvey Kietels character in Pulp Fiction. Dick Baddour will have nothing more to do with this hire than make the announcement. This is the guy who helped land Mack in Austin.
The real question is, how much of a rebuilding job is Carolina? Is the problem lack of talent or mismanagement of said talent? Allegedly UNC had bumper recruiting crops the past few seasons, that is part of the reason Bunting was given so much time dispite sub par peformances on the field. Problem is for a myriad of reasons too many of these highly touted prospects are now gone, some deservedly, some Bunting may have been too quick to throw under the bus.
Carolina football it always seems is at a crossroads, this next hire will determine if UNC gets back on the major college football interstate, or into a cul de sac with the Dukes of the world.