Another strong piece from Jacey Zembal, this time about Amato's return to Raleigh.
Chuck Amato was a lot of things. Brash. Arrogant at times. Caustic towards the media and other teams. He struggled at retaining assistants and didn't field questions at press conferences very well.
But as much deserved grief as he got during his time at State, there was no denying the man loved his alma mater and living in the Raleigh area. Much in the same way that Jim Valvano did at the end of his life, Amato adopted N.C. State and Raleigh as his home. As such, it's tough for me to hate on the man.
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Amato's like your crazy loud-mouthed uncle. He's always the center of attention, even when he shouldn't be, and he runs off at the mouth too much for comfort. But he's family, and he cares deeply about you and yours. The same is true of Amato.
When he belabors the point about not holding grudges, and how he insists on making you aware of all the good things he did while here, it tells me deep down that he does still bear a grudge. Why else bring it up?
But it's understandable in a way, because things ended badly, with a lot of hurt feelings only two years ago. Time will heal these slowly scabbing wounds eventually, if not overnight.
I'm glad he's not our coach anymore, but I'm glad he's a Wolfpacker. Because these days, during these trying times with basketball and football, a man who'll go out of his way to profess his love for State to the end -- on matter the circumstances -- is rare.
Chuck has always been 100% NC State. He did (w/ Rivers) do a great job of drumming up morale for the football program. Anyone has to give him (them) that. He is, now, posturing for life after Bowden, that's obvious. IMHO he got a bad wrap by the media. He shouldn't have lost his temper with them at times, but make no mistake about it, the boys in the press loved his pressers. They ejoyed goading Amato for a sound bite and he was happy to ablige. The other day I heard a certain sports talk DJ in the area (who shall remain nameless) recall how "ejoyable" Amato's press conferences were, and that O'Brien's were boring. They never seemed like they were enjoying those same press conferences when they were talking smack about him. I'm not defending Chuck's record or the shape in which he left the program, but his passion for the university was always there.
ReplyDeleteHis treatment at the hands of the university was shameful, just like Lou Holtz was allowed to walk away and Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano wer chased away.
ReplyDeleteHe may not hold a grudge, but I sure do. The 2 big money dumb asses at the WPC are on my s@#t list for this, and the media: what can one say about that pack of lying whores?
No one can ever question Chuck's love of NC State, nor his love for the Wolfpack Football Program. Chuck did a lot to improve things related to the football program and the athletic dept. in general while he was here.
ReplyDeleteHe was not, however, a very good head coach. Mostly due to his inability to relate well to his staff and the university administration, Chuck was ill-suited to be a head coach. He is a very good defensive ASSISTANT football coach, but he is not cut out to be the head guy. The fact that he still, two years later, believes he left the program in such great shape for his successor is proof enough that he hasn't a clue about the overall running of a major college football program. He has a lot of great qualities, but that is one of them.
To compare his situation (treatment by the university) to that of Jim Valvano is absurd. Chuck is a Wolfpacker and he will always be one of us but to even suggest that the treatment that Valvano endured is remotely like that of Amato is, at best, uneducated.
Jim Valvano was a great person and a great coach. He was demonized by an admin. looking to de-emphasize sports in general at our university, and was made into a scapegoat for a situation that he, frankly, was begging the university to allow him to be a part of the solution. Instead the university bowed to pressure from the media and the greater unc system, and terminated a man who deserved much better.
Chuck was nobody's scapegoat. He was a bad head coach, and when the excitement of his initial whirlwind hiring wore off, along with the graduation of arguably the best player in our football program's history (and along with it the winning records), the losing ensued, and it was time for him to go.
No one can ever question the good things he did do for the university and the football program, but it was time for him to go, and in a few short years Tom O'Brien will be showing us all what a consitent and winning football program looks like.
Chuck is trying to continue his coaching career (after Bowden is canned...errrr, retires) by talking about his successes at NC State. I hope (for his sake) prospective employers don't read NCSU message boards.
ReplyDeleteFIRE TOB!!! hes not going to show us a consistent football program, BC never was a powerhouse, but your right lets get beat over and over again in zone and not try to make any adjustments...it doesn't matter though if we save enough timeouts then maybe those can accumulate enough to make 1 win
ReplyDelete^ Dear God, I hope for the sake of State fans everywhere that you're a parody poster.
ReplyDelete