AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2006 > September > 13 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USInexcusable excuses from N.C. State coach
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just one man’s opinion:
We now know why N.C. State lost to Akron 20-17 last Saturday.
It wasn’t because, when N.C. State scored to take a 17-14 lead with 1:07 left, the Wolfpack was flagged for an excessive celebration penalty. That gave Akron good field position to start their winning drive.
It wasn’t because, when Akron scored a controversial touchdown on the last play of the game, N.C. State couldn’t challenge the call. The Wolfpack was out of time outs.
N.C. State, who has invested millions upon millions in facilities, lost to tiny Akron, said coach Chuck Amato, because the Zips take academic non-qualifiers. ACC schools do not.
“Do you know what kind of players non-qualifiers are, usually? They’re inversely proportional to what their grade-point average is. They can make a big difference,” said the N.C. State coach at his weekly press briefing.
Well, let’s look at that. Let’s set aside the fact that Amato’s remark was petty and insensitive to kids from tough backgrounds who have overcome a lot to get academically qualified.
It is just not a wise thing to denigrate the credentials of an opponent after they just came to your place and whipped your butt.
When you’re 23-25 in the ACC, 3-5 the past two seasons, it’s just not wise to sit in judgement of anyone.
And when you’ve gone through as many assistant coaches and first round draft choices as Amato, it is REALLY not wise to make excuses of any kind.
What will happen Saturday if N.C. State loses at Southern Mississippi? Will Amato complain because there were no direct flights from Raleigh to Hattiesburg?
Winners don’t make excuses when they lose. Winners say “we got outplayed and out-coached.” Winners take full responsibility.
Give me a break.
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Comments
By gdawginkalamazoo
September 13, 2006 01:00 PM | Link to this
How close is Bill Cowher’s new house to the stadium?
By Tommy
September 13, 2006 01:06 PM | Link to this
Chuck Amato is a sad excuse for a head coach. He’s a whiny little man, who can’t take talent and mold in into a team. He doesn’t reflect well on a school in the fine University of North Carolina system.
By mark
September 13, 2006 01:14 PM | Link to this
Tony,
Please go down the hall and smack T.Moore in the face. He gave another stupid blog today…..5429 straight bad articles for that useless journalist stealing our oxygen.
By Point?
September 13, 2006 01:19 PM | Link to this
USC, Notre Dame and Miami can all take players that do not qualify academically at other schools because they are private universities. Is there a correlation to the talent level?? I think Amato made a good point but he should have made it before the season started, not after losing to Akron. Back to my point, Frank Gore (now with the 49ers, was with the University of Miami) couldn’t have qualified at beauty school, but made it into Miami and played well. I think that definetly gives them a leg up.
By brewerfaninATL
September 13, 2006 01:30 PM | Link to this
Let’s face it: some guys aren’t cut out to be head coaches, some are best when they are coordinators. Wasn’t he Bobby Bowden’s coordinator for awhile at FSU?
By Brian
September 13, 2006 01:39 PM | Link to this
All four ACC coaches were at some sort of a public conference in Charlotte a couple years back. Each one was given the chance to describe themselves in a few sentences. All Chuck Amato said when it was his turn was “Stud.” What does that make Akron’s coach?
By gdawginkalamazoo
September 13, 2006 01:41 PM | Link to this
brewerfaninATL, I thought he was during the glory years (if he worked there now he would have been bad mouthing Troy after last weekend). That was pretty classless must want to get fired.
Did anybody see the link godawg provided on the Flowers blog today regarding Amato? If not go over there and click on it. It is hilarious if you aren’t an Amato fan.
By davedawg
September 13, 2006 01:57 PM | Link to this
Chuck Amato’s remarks were classless and below the belt. He deserves to get fired for those remarks alone.
By CW
September 13, 2006 02:04 PM | Link to this
In response to “ByPoint?”, Notre Dame does not take academically unqualified players. Notre Dame consistently has a graduation rate among the highest in the country. Notre Dame requires athletes to maintain a minimum grade point average higher than that required by the NCAA. In adition, there are no breaks in the courses to be taken, for example all must take calculus. Notre Dame takes the notion of scholar athlete seriously.
By James
September 13, 2006 04:29 PM | Link to this
That’s a bad excuse from a coach who’s seen his share of good times and bad times at NC State. I do, however, agree with him somewhat. Players should keep their grades up if the expect to play, it’s part of disciplining your players.
By Nickat Nite
September 13, 2006 04:29 PM | Link to this
NC State has way too much talent to lose to Akron. Tony, you hit the nail on the head when you highlighted the high turnover rate with Amato’s assistant coaches during his coaching tenure. This recent tirade of his just doesn’t hold water. NC State under Amato has been a consistent underachiever. It’s time for State to jettison Chuck the Chest now and hire Butch Davis or Bill Cowher if he decides to retire from the Pro’s and move to Raleigh.
By Point
September 13, 2006 05:36 PM | Link to this
No one would know if Notre Dame’s players were smart or not, they don’t have to release that information because they are a private university!!! I’ll bet Darrius Walker gets an A in calculus without going to class. ND gets every advantage to have an outstanding (USC type team) and they still can’t get it together. NBC, MSNBC, ESPN, shot at the BCS, etc and they still only pull a 4 point win over Tech…pathetic.
By The Man
September 13, 2006 06:19 PM | Link to this
mark - the greatest comment in the history of any blog! (01:14 PM)
By Ft Worth Dawg
September 13, 2006 07:13 PM | Link to this
Ken Whitten, who taught the Honors Chemistry course at UGA for years, said in class the day after Bear Bryant’s death that Coach Bryant always used the same excuse whenever Bama lost. The excuse was, “it was all my fault.”
Dr. Whitten added, “and he rarely lost.”
By Bruce Carlson
September 13, 2006 07:46 PM | Link to this
Several preseason publications predicted Akron’s upset of NC State. When one team leads in every offensive and defensive stat its not a fluke.
Amato could have said, “They were a very good football team.”
Instead he insulted Akron and the entire MAC. Truly a classless act to place before his team.
Please FEAT THE ROO!
By GWH
September 13, 2006 10:24 PM | Link to this
Well said Tony! Another overated ACC team…
By Alabama Jack
September 14, 2006 04:09 AM | Link to this
Amato needs to go to the SEC where his style will fit in. He, and his undisciplined teams, have been an embarassment to the ACC, ever since he left FSU.
By jimmy
September 14, 2006 08:13 AM | Link to this
being a private school has nothing at all to do with admittinig non-qualifiers and the comment about notre dame doing what they want because they are private is even stupider. but to the main point, there are a couple of schools who lead the world in underachieving. clemson is without a doubt the leader. every year is going to be THE YEAR and every year the do not deliver. it couldn’t make me happier to see a coach fail than tommy bowden. and if you want to check the records, bowden is averaging less than one win more per season than tommy west did at clemson. but without a doubt the biggest punk in all of college football is chuck amato. great work chuck..maybe you should stick your chest out a little farther and change the color of your sunglasses.
By godawg
September 14, 2006 09:14 AM | Link to this
Here is a pretty funny Chuck Amato cartoon that was done by the News Observer. When they start making things like this about you, it’s time to start embellishing the ole resume.
By Reggie
September 14, 2006 10:51 AM | Link to this
Ol’ Chuck better stop wearing those trademark super duper cool shades of his at least until the alumni calm down.
By Trey
September 14, 2006 11:25 AM | Link to this
The really funny thing about Amato’s comment is that NCSU has the lowest academic football standards in the ACC.
According to David Glenn of the ACC Sports Journal, NCSU is in the bottom third of ACC schools academically and will basically take any qualifier. Just like FSU, Clemson and the big SEC schools.
Moreover, since 2000 they have had the most recruits in the ACC that were not eligible to play for academic reasons. 26 kids failed to qualify or were otherwise academically ineligible for the first season.
So why doesn’t he have a winning ACC record, if lower academic standards are such a huge advantage,?
Moreover, how does Amato justify going 6-7 against the trio of Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College — three schools who are in the top tier of ACC football academics (and therefore in the top tier nationally) and who will only admit players with significantly higher academic credentials than minimum NCAA qualifiers?
And it isn’t like any of those programs have had vastly superior facilities, either. GT’s may be somewhat better now, but the others are probably worse.
By DevilGrad
September 14, 2006 12:42 PM | Link to this
Amato’s excuse is even dumber when one notes that Akron has a better graduation success rate, as measured by the NCAA (60%) NC State (50%) does. MAC commissioner Rick Chryst was only too happy to point that out when asked for a response to the Chest’s comments.
By jackets fan
September 14, 2006 12:43 PM | Link to this
As a Tech fan, I hate to say this but I think we can all see who was the reason for FSU’s success now. Mark Richt. Ever since he left, FSU’s offense has been horrid. And the other coaches that came out of there are terrible. And there isn’t any magic in the Bowden genes either, just ask Clemson. As for 1st round talent out of NC State, I didn’t know who Mario Williams or Manny Lawson were before the lead up to the draft. That tells me that they didn’t do anything on the field that impressed me. I mean, David Pollack was all over the place when he played. People knew who he was, outside Georgia. I know he didn’t have the body type and measurables of a prototype NFL DE, but he produced. Yet this guy has zero stats of note and trumps the most electrifying player in college football, Bush, come draft time? Gimme a break. That team (NC State) isn’t as much an underachiever as they were overhyped.
By Tim McCarthy
September 14, 2006 12:55 PM | Link to this
Point, Notre Dame happily publishes the football team’s average GPA. It’s consistently over 3.0, and ND is the only program in the Top 20 who can say that. Notre Dame also graduates its football players, and particularly its minority football players, at a higher rate than anyone in I-A except Stanford and Duke. And all of this, of course, is at a US News Top 20 university. Of course, none of this can be said of NC State (which institution I highly respect, having lived in the Triangle for years). And if you’d like to place a bet on the NC State-Georgia Tech game later this year, I’m game. Being a Notre Dame alum, I’ve got a wad of cash that says GT will wipe their shoes with Amato’s disaster of a team.
By Greg
September 14, 2006 01:13 PM | Link to this
Tony,
Were you at the PC on Monday or did you just read about it from the AP wire like the rest of your ilk? Here’s an article that might help you with perspective and the context of those comments.
http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_ColumnistArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149190611699&path=%21sports&s=1037645509200
By Run Up The Score!
September 14, 2006 03:24 PM | Link to this
Absolutely ridiculous and petty by Amato. Darrell Blackman grew up an hour from Penn State (in Williamsport), and Joe Paterno wouldn’t go near the kid because his grades were so awful. Miraculously, Blackman’s grades were good enough for N.C. State. Go figure!
Anyway, good job on the criticism.
Run Up The Score!
By GT
September 14, 2006 03:34 PM | Link to this
The guy lost to a subpar team. If what Amato said was true every coach in the country would be lining up to coach at Akron. Coaches are paid very big bucks for one reason, to win. If there was a condition out there that gave them the edge in recruiting, like a loophole in the tax law they would be all over it. And if you knew this before you played them, Amato, you are a bigger idiot. No, you played them to get a cheap win against a tomato can opponent. And the very sad thing about it is you won’t lose your job, but you will cost guys like Gailey his when you beat him. Like most bad coaches that have talent greater than their ability the players will get up for the big game and over play the bad coaching, but against a sleeper like Akron the heart is not there and the coaching was never there.
By gdawginkalamazoo
September 14, 2006 04:21 PM | Link to this
Run Up The Score! Saw the video of that coach. Quick question, how bad did Wilson get beat that night? Those kids looked like they were about to crack up.