The News Reporter

Bunting’s dismissal unfortunate but necessary

John Bunting is not a quitter.

That’s why many college football followers are feeling so badly about his plight.

As Bunting sees it, football is a sport where quitting is never an option … no matter how a season has started to unravel or how savagely the best of intentions can be devoured.

Unfortunately for the 56-year-old Bunting, his sixth season as University of North Carolina head coach has hit probably the lowest point in the 119 years of school football history.

The Tar Heels’ performance through seven games has been embarrassing and far below all UNC athletic expectations.

On Sunday Bunting was told that he would have to relinquish his position at the completion of the season. Many thought he would submit his resignation after the South Florida loss and even more certainly after last Thursday’s disaster at Virginia. That didn’t happen. The way it sounds, a resignation was never going to be submitted.

The dismissal is sad because Bunting is a genuine person who has a passion for football and the University of North Carolina. He not only played at UNC, but helped put the program on the map in the early 1970s.

We all have to admire the way Bunting has remained upbeat through the weekly whippings and the ever-building pressures from all facets of Tar Heel support. We have no other reason to believe that he is preparing for his team’s Saturday home game with Wake Forest with less energy and enthusiasm than he has displayed since taking the job in 2001.

Even so, for him to be told to step down in the midst of so much despair has to be devastating. Necessary, but none the less devastating.

My feeling is that Bunting has tried to keep himself on the dividing line between “old-school” methods and the more innovative, diversified coaching methods that are more and more rapidly coming into college football. That may work in some places … but evidently not in Chapel Hill.

Back in Bunting’s day as a player, teams won by out-working, out-blocking, out-hitting and just plain wanting it more than the guys on the other side of the ball.

Nowadays the game is ruled by schools who consistently recruit backs and receivers who can run 40 yards in 4.3 seconds or less. These programs are also landing the strong mobile quarterbacks and the 6-foot-7, 320-pound linemen with the quickness of most running backs. That’s not to say the UNC football program cannot recruit with the nation’s top teams, but how many “blue-chip” prospects are really dead-set on going to a school where basketball will always be king?

Why indeed did Mack Brown bolt for Texas in 1997 just hours after vowing to remain with the Tar Heels? Do you think he would have ever stood a chance at clutching a national championship trophy last January while wearing Carolina Blue?

The 2006 Tar Heel team has seemed to lack confidence from the opening whistle of the season. A reduction in the confidence level greatly affects the effort level and because of that, even the best motivational ploys of John Bunting have fallen well short of the mark.

Bunting contends that a lot of good things are happening within the Tar Heel football program right now. Whatever they are, they certainly aren’t showing up between the sidelines, and that was never more evident than last Thursday in Charlottesville, Va.

Following last month’s slim victory over Division 1-AA Furman, Bunting vowed that things would get better in the coming weeks. Suffice it to say, that hasn’t happened.

Maybe now that the reality has set in that their head coach will not be back next year, the UNC players can start reacting in a manner that will bring more positive results. Whatever the case, it is not a pretty ending.

FOOTBALL PREDICTIONS
HIGH SCHOOLS: Whiteville 32, North Brunswick 14; South Columbus 42, Trask 12; South Brunswick 24, East Columbus 22.

COLLEGES: Wake Forest 38, North Carolina 22; Florida State 28, Maryland 25; Georgia Tech 31, Miami 18; N.C. State 27, Virginia 21; Boston College 44, Buffalo 13; Vanderbilt 29, Duke 14; Southern Mississippi 31, East Carolina 22; Oklahoma 26, Missouri 17; Texas 40, Texas Tech 23; South Carolina 27, Tennessee 24; Indiana 32, Michigan State 30; Ohio State 38, Minnesota 17; Tulane 21, Army 20; UCLA 34, Washington State 21.

Return to
Index

Return to
Sports

John Bunting is not a quitter.

That’s why many college football followers are feeling so badly about his plight.

As Bunting sees it, football is a sport where quitting is never an option … no matter how a season has started to unravel or how savagely the best of intentions can be devoured.

Unfortunately for the 56-year-old Bunting, his sixth season as University of North Carolina head coach has hit probably the lowest point in the 119 years of school football history.

The Tar Heels’ performance through seven games has been embarrassing and far below all UNC athletic expectations.

On Sunday Bunting was told that he would have to relinquish his position at the completion of the season. Many thought he would submit his resignation after the South Florida loss and even more certainly after last Thursday’s disaster at Virginia. That didn’t happen. The way it sounds, a resignation was never going to be submitted.

The dismissal is sad because Bunting is a genuine person who has a passion for football and the University of North Carolina. He not only played at UNC, but helped put the program on the map in the early 1970s.

We all have to admire the way Bunting has remained upbeat through the weekly whippings and the ever-building pressures from all facets of Tar Heel support. We have no other reason to believe that he is preparing for his team’s Saturday home game with Wake Forest with less energy and enthusiasm than he has displayed since taking the job in 2001.

Even so, for him to be told to step down in the midst of so much despair has to be devastating. Necessary, but none the less devastating.

My feeling is that Bunting has tried to keep himself on the dividing line between “old-school” methods and the more innovative, diversified coaching methods that are more and more rapidly coming into college football. That may work in some places … but evidently not in Chapel Hill.

Back in Bunting’s day as a player, teams won by out-working, out-blocking, out-hitting and just plain wanting it more than the guys on the other side of the ball.

Nowadays the game is ruled by schools who consistently recruit backs and receivers who can run 40 yards in 4.3 seconds or less. These programs are also landing the strong mobile quarterbacks and the 6-foot-7, 320-pound linemen with the quickness of most running backs. That’s not to say the UNC football program cannot recruit with the nation’s top teams, but how many “blue-chip” prospects are really dead-set on going to a school where basketball will always be king?

Why indeed did Mack Brown bolt for Texas in 1997 just hours after vowing to remain with the Tar Heels? Do you think he would have ever stood a chance at clutching a national championship trophy last January while wearing Carolina Blue?

The 2006 Tar Heel team has seemed to lack confidence from the opening whistle of the season. A reduction in the confidence level greatly affects the effort level and because of that, even the best motivational ploys of John Bunting have fallen well short of the mark.

Bunting contends that a lot of good things are happening within the Tar Heel football program right now. Whatever they are, they certainly aren’t showing up between the sidelines, and that was never more evident than last Thursday in Charlottesville, Va.

Following last month’s slim victory over Division 1-AA Furman, Bunting vowed that things would get better in the coming weeks. Suffice it to say, that hasn’t happened.

Maybe now that the reality has set in that their head coach will not be back next year, the UNC players can start reacting in a manner that will bring more positive results. Whatever the case, it is not a pretty ending.

FOOTBALL PREDICTIONS
HIGH SCHOOLS: Whiteville 32, North Brunswick 14; South Columbus 42, Trask 12; South Brunswick 24, East Columbus 22.

COLLEGES: Wake Forest 38, North Carolina 22; Florida State 28, Maryland 25; Georgia Tech 31, Miami 18; N.C. State 27, Virginia 21; Boston College 44, Buffalo 13; Vanderbilt 29, Duke 14; Southern Mississippi 31, East Carolina 22; Oklahoma 26, Missouri 17; Texas 40, Texas Tech 23; South Carolina 27, Tennessee 24; Indiana 32, Michigan State 30; Ohio State 38, Minnesota 17; Tulane 21, Army 20; UCLA 34, Washington State 21.