Commentary
On June 28, Sports Illustrated.com’s Stewart Mandel called Chuck “Red Shoes” Amato the worst coach in America going into the 2006 season. According to Mandel, who evaluated coaches on their “last three to five seasons,” N.C. State’s three first-round draft picks proved how poorly the Wolfpack has underachieved as of late.
No. 119 out of 119 Division-IA coaches.
The You-Don’t-Belong Here award.
The worst coach in America.
Hmmm.
Chuck Amato has his problems and 2006 is an absolutely pivotal year for the 60-year-old coach. But the worst? Dead last?
I just don’t buy it.
The easiest place to start in defense of Amato is the record books. Amato is 46-28 (.622 overall) after six seasons at his alma mater. He’s missed bowl season only once in his tenure, and in the five bowls State has played, the team is 4-1. In conference play, he is a mediocre 23-25 — but the argument isn’t that he’s the best coach in the nation; it’s just that he’s not the worst.
Heck, he’s not even the worst in the state.
North Carolina’s John Bunting (who I always mistake for that guy who sells software on the TV by saying, “Please buy my product”) is 24-36 overall and 16-24 in five seasons with the Tar Heels. In that time, Bunting is 1-1 in the post season.
Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe is 26-32 overall and 13-27 in the ACC after five seasons as the Demon Deacons’ head coach. He has been to one bowl game, a 2002 Seattle Bowl win, during his tenure.
And then there’s Duke’s Ted Roof.
Poor Duke’s Ted Roof.
Do I have to talk about Duke’s Ted Roof? He tries so hard. And he’s newer than the other guys I’m talking about.
Duke’s Ted Roof is 5-22 overall and 3-17 in two and a half years after taking over in 2003 with five games left in the season. He has not, needless to say, been to a bowl.
If we are only to evaluate last year’s performance, Amato would still be on top. His team was 7-5 compared to the Please Buy My Product’s 5-6, Grobe’s 6-5 and Duke’s Ted Roof’s 1-10.
Poor Duke’s Ted Roof.
I am not, however, saying Amato is the God’s gift to football nor that he deserves a free pass to keep promising and promising national prominence while State keeps finishing outside the final Top 25.
Amato loves to tell us how all the construction to Carter-Finley is going to bring in better recruits, and how he is getting closer and closer.
That may be all fine and dandy, but this year is still a big one for the Big Chest.
Fans and the media can’t stand being close. They can’t stand being on the verge of dominance. And perhaps that’s why we see fans and some media calling for the heads of quality coaches like Georgia Tech’s Chan Gailey (who Mandel called the third worst coach after Amato and Missouri’s Gary Pinkel) and Miami’s Larry Coker.
If Amato wants to keep Raleigh happy, he has to put a quality team on the field to answer to Mandel. To answer the Sports Illustrated.com prediction that his team will finish 3-9 overall this season. To answer the media who voted the Pack would finish fifth in the ACC Atlantic Division.
But to say he’s the worst coach in America–it’s an overstatement. Like Amato, it’s a bit dramatic.
The worst coach in America belongs to someone else — probably someone at a school that puts all its money and effort into some other sport in which it has perennial success. Seriously, poor Duke’s Ted Roof.
Tanner can be reached at sports@technicianonline.com or 515-2411.
