As this football season closed, rumors began to spread and speculation started to increase about the demise of coach Chuck Amato. Some fans and students became more and more disenchanted with the seventh-year coach as the losses piled up.

But now, a day after the official firing of Amato, fans are reacting to the news.

Brian Hilliard, a senior in criminology, said he agreed with the administration’s decision to let Amato go after the season.

“It was time for a new direction,” Hilliard said.

Steven Cox, a junior in chemistry, said he supported the firing as well and cited the continued underachievement of the recent teams as the reason.

“It was time for a change,” Cox said. “Over the past few years it’s been a drastic decline in wins. Chuck had seven years to place better than fourth in the ACC and we still never placed better than fourth. It was a good decision to make a change.”

Others felt like this season, alone, was the most disheartening part of Amato’s tenure.

This season the Wolfpack went 3-9 and lost its seven final games – including rivals North Carolina and East Carolina in the season’s final two games.

Rich Thompson, a junior in civil engineering, said the coaching staff’s inability to stop the late season slide troubled him the most.

“The losing streak was the most disappointing part of the season,” Thompson said. “We couldn’t beat the teams we were supposed to beat.”

Cox, on the other hand, said the non-conference losses to teams from lesser prevalent leagues was a major factor in the fans’ frustration with Amato.

“[Losing to North Carolina] played a part in it,” Cox said. “But losing to some teams like Akron, East Carolina and other teams like that that we should not have lost to played a big role.”

Robert Puett, a senior in mechanical engineering, said the loss to the Tar Heels was the final straw for him.

“The most disappointing part was the Carolina game,” Puett said. “I knew if [Amato] lost to Carolina again it might end up like this. I didn’t expect to lose to them.”

The continued mistakes of the players on the field was also a popular knock on Amato’s coaching tenure. Some fans expressed their frustration with the fact that every year the coach talked about fixing the mistakes, but yet they continued to happen.

“It was all the penalties,” Aaron Firebaugh, a 2004 graduate, said. “The character of the players he recruited wasn’t very good.”

But despite the concurrence with the decision, some fans recognized the positive things Amato accomplished as State’s coach.

“Nobody can deny what he did for the program for the years he was here,” Devin Daniels, a senior in mechanical engineering said.

Firebaugh agreed, but felt Amato was not the right person to maintain a top-notch football program.

“He did a great job of getting the program started, but he had a hard time keeping it up,” he said.

As for the direction the program should take in hiring its next coach, Daniels said offense has to be the priority.

Under Amato – after the graduation of Philip Rivers – the offense has struggled, averaging just 24, 20.8 and 17.5 points-per-game over the past three seasons, respectively.

“I want somebody that brings some more offense,” Daniels said. “But I’d like to have someone who is as passionate about N.C. State as Amato was.”

Puett said it was important for the Pack to hire a “big name” coach and named current Pittsburgh Steelers coach and former State player Bill Cowher as a suitable replacement along with former Pack offensive coordinator Norm Chow, who is the current offensive coordinator for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.

Puett, however, warns that if State gets an offensive-minded coach it will be important to go after a respected defensive coordinator in order to be successful.

“If you get a guy like Norm then you got to get a good guy on the defensive side of the ball, too,” he said.