Another once promising football season, and another offseason Pack fans will spend wondering what on earth happened to a team many expected to challenge for an ACC championship. State defeated two teams, Carolina and Pittsburgh, that could possibly be considered quality opposition. Sorry, but the win over Maryland, who finished 2-10, lost to Middle Tennessee State and needed overtime to beat James Madison, does not fall into the category of quality opposition.
That’s probably enough negativity for one column. I’m aware I’m stating the obvious, but it is in times like these, and it’s not just because Thanksgiving was last week, when we should be grateful for what N.C. State football currently does have. And what we do have is a coach I’m quite sure will never wear bright red Oakleys during a night game or, in his sixth season in Raleigh, post a losing record in ACC play with three first round draft picks. Amato finished the 2005 season with a 3-5 ACC record despite three of his defensive linemen, Mario Williams, Manny Lawson and John McCargo, getting drafted in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft.
For many, the Pack’s combined record of 16-21 through three years of the Tom O’Brien era leaves something to be desired. But I still think O’Brien’s a good coach and I am even more thankful for him considering his predecessor.
To those upset with O’Brien’s current record as head coach, I suggest you begin thinking carefully about the days when Chuck ‘The Chest’ Amato was coach. At a quick glance, it might seem as though Amato wasn’t so bad. He went 26-12 and 13-11 in ACC play through his first three years, while O’Brien has gone 16-21 and 9-15 through his first three. But think about Amato’s first three years; he won games because Philip Rivers was throwing to Jerricho Cotchery. He enjoyed the moderate success any coach would be hard pressed to avoid with a pair of future Pro Bowlers he didn’t recruit tearing up defenses week in and week out. And Amato had me as fooled as anyone-until Rivers’ graduated. After going 34-17 with Rivers as his four year starter at quarterback, Amato posted a combined record of 15-20 overall and 8-16 in conference play over his final three years. The struggles Amato’s program experienced without the star quarterback he didn’t recruit showed everyone just how much ‘The Chest’ had to do with his team going to bowl games in each of his first four seasons.
As has hopefully been explained, Amato was incompetent. Therefore it would not be enough for me if the current coach’s only redeeming quality was the nature of his role as the man who replaced him. O’Brien, who built a winning program at Boston College with a fraction of the support he’s getting here, is much more than a slight improvement on a coach who knew much more about how to create flair and hype than win games. 16 players suffered season ending injuries this year. Yet O’Brien nevertheless finished the season with a win over a ranked North Carolina team in the finale of what he called the “hardest year I’ve ever been through coaching.” The win made him undefeated in three tries against UNC, the most important opponent on the schedule as far as many are concerned. His resilience rallied the team to finish the regular season with four straight victories after a 2-6 start last season. Saturday’s win over Carolina also gives O’Brien four victories over ranked teams, just three less than the total of seven victories Amato posted over ranked opponents in more than twice as many seasons. But more telling than any comparison between the two is the fact that O’Brien’s winning percentage, .432, through his first three years in Raleigh is better than Amato’s mark of .429 in his last three with the Pack. O’Brien has accomplished all this despite taking over a team full of Amato’s recruits, completely revamping the coaching staff before and during his first season, and going through all the injuries this season.
I always have and always will pride myself on the strength of my hatred for UNC, but would prefer to consider transferring to Chapel Hill over listening to anyone who would prefer we still had Amato. I am as disturbed as anyone by the amount of losing over the past three seasons and I’m not suggesting we accept losing season after losing season. But at the same time, it is important to realize that State’s losing ways in recent years are far more indicative of bad luck and the nature of the program before he took over than of inadequacy on the part of Tom O’Brien and his staff.
