How did it come to this?
As most of you already know NC State fired head football coach Chuck Amato late Sunday night, which means we are in the market for a new coach for the 2007 season. First of all, I would like to say that I still believe Chuck deserved one more year. As I detailed in an earlier entry, Keep Chuck, I think that Chuck deserved one more shot to turn around the Wolfpack. Chuck has brought so much to this program and has clearly elevated us to places we have not been before. But, the people in power have given Chuck the boot and there is nothing we can do about it.
Looking back on the Chuck Amato era one can not help but wonder what could have been. It seemed like a match made in heaven: an assistant coach from a powerhouse FSU program coming back to the place where he played college football and was even a conference champion wrestler to lead the football program to new heights. Everyone could see the pride and passion that he had for NC State University. Chuck came and immediately set high expectation of ACC championships and contending nationally every year (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with setting the bar high). Then in his first year he had a true freshman quarterback named Philip Rivers. The next four years brought four bowl games, including a victory over Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl, and an excitement around the program. Fans packed Carter-Finley Stadium every week and donated so much money that in seven years we were able to bowl in both end zones, build the Murphy Center, construct Vaughn Towers, and get three new video boards. But then things started to go bad. After Philip graduated the program was at a crossroads. How were we going to replace the best QB in school history? Luckily, Chuck and the staff had put together several good recruiting classes and had a couple of QB’s waiting their turn. Unfortunately, Jay Davis was not the answer and the pack struggled to a 5-6 record, the first under Chuck Amato. The next year a GREAT defense keep us in games and a QB change to Marcus Stone lead to a 7-5 year with a bowl victory. Then came the 2006 season. We all know that happened there so lets not go over it again. Now we find ourselves discussing why Amato got fired and what is in store for the future of the program. How did it come to this?
Oh, what a match it could have been.
This article http://northcarolinastate.scout.com/2/594888.html is a good read and I think it sums it up well:
With dramatic wins over Florida State, tooth-and-nail battles with Ohio State, ESPN Gameday appearances, gleaming new facilities, headline-making recruiting victories, NFL first-round draft picks and school-record fan attendance, Amato breathed life into a moribund program and made everything seem truly possible. Many fans will always look on the renovated Carter-Finley Stadium as the “House That Chuck Built” and will wonder how things might have been different if the “game of inches” had eventually turned NC State’s way.
In the end, however, Amato’s downfall was not that he dreamed too big; it is that the details that go into consistent success and resounding accomplishments were too often overlooked. That is why Pack fans say goodbye to one of their own and wish good luck to a fellow alumnus today—and why they will hold their new coach to a higher standard for having come to know and cheer for one Charles Amato.