Coaching Changes
UNC announced this week that they have hired former Miami Hurricanes and Cleveland Browns head coach, Butch Davis, to replace recently fired John Bunting. Davis turned a reeling Miami program around. However, Carolina is in a drastically different situation than was Miami in 1995 when Davis took that job. In Miami, Davis had an awesome recruiting base in the same town, and an even deeper pool of talent in the state of Florida. In North Carolina, Davis has to compete with 4 other in state D-I programs to compete with. The good news is that one of them, Duke, is out of the football picture right now. However, Chuck Amato (N.C. State), Jim Grobe (Wake Forest) and Skip Holtz (East Carolina) have all made a recruiting name for themselves in the state. Competition for recruits does not just include the in-state guys; Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee), Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) and Tommy Bowden (Clemson) have all had success recruiting within North Carolina. Thus, there is greater competition for the top talent than there is in Florida and N.C. has a far less bountiful talent pool than the Sunshine State. Can Davis do it? Yes. Why?
Well, both Chuck Amato and Jim Grobe could be gone at the end of the year. First, Chuck Amato faces the 2 biggest contests of his tenure at N.C. State in the season's final two weeks. He needs a win against UNC worse than anything and a win against ECU would go a long way to keeping his job secure in Raleigh. However, losing one, or even both, of the games could spell the end for Chuck. I think that would be the wrong decision and would UNC an upperhand for the next few year, but there is a great chance that Chuck has to win the last 2 in order to keep his job. Jim Grobe has had a miracle year at Wake Forest. History tells us that Wake Forest coaches leave after having comparable seasons. Grobe can do no wrong at Wake; however, he's not going to get the respe
ct on campus that an under-achieving Skip Prosser gets. There are some schools, like Michigan State, that I think Grobe would leave for. But, he needs to be careful in choosing his destination. A football school looking for a coach would be stupid not to bring Grobe in. Wake Forest needs to wake up and give Grobe and his staff a BIG raise or someone else will and Wake will be without a single football coach. Heck, if State does push Chuck out, then my vote for his replacement would go to Grobe. We have some extra money left over from not hitting a home run in the basketball coaching search.ACC Championship
Georgia Tech will represent the Coastal Division; but the representative for the Atlantic Division will come down to a match-up between Maryland and Wake Forest at Maryland on Nov. 25. Wake Forest is having the best season in school history. The 'Deacs are 9-1 and are in the top-15 in the country. For the first time in school history the 'Deacs will play a third consecutive primetime television Saturday night game against the Hokies of Virginia Tech. The resurgent Hokies are out of the conference title hunt, but they are looking to improve their bowl potential. Well, back to the point at hand. Wake Forest has never played in any of the games now known as the BCS bowls. The Orange Bowl would be the 'Deacs destination were they to win the ACC Championship in Jacksonville, Fla. It's amazing to think that the 'Deacs are just one botched field goal attempt for making an argument for a birth in the National Championship game in Arizona. Both Wake and Maryland have flown under the radar all year and are going to go head
to head for a chance at the BCS. I will admit that I have been waiting for Wake to falter, but now I am pulling for them. They are the best story this year besides Rutgers. The 'Deacs play hard and honest, and that is why I am picking them to take care of the 'T(w)erps next weekend. Ralph Friedgen seems like a seedy guy. Marykand plays dirty and has had their success this year fall into their lap. They don't deserve the opportunity to play Georgia Tech, the 'Deacs do. I don't see Wake being able to tople the Yellow Jackets. Tech just has too much offense and the Wake defense, as good as they are, will not be able to shut-out the Calvin Johnson led crew like they did Florida State. I wouldn't bet against Wake, because they coninue to prove everyone wrong. I just hope those "Wake" basketball fans don't turn into "Wake" football fans in the next couple of weeks, because that would be an insult to the players, coaches and true Wake fans intelligence. So, Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Patriots, Cowboys, FSU(football), Miami Heat, Detroit Piston and whoever is doing the best this year fans, stay away from the 'Deacs. They don't need your bandwagon love, because you'll be off just as soon as some other team you know nothing about wins a game or 2.Photos:
1. http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2004/football/nfl/12/02/butch.davis/p1_butch2_all.jpg
2. http://www.covers.com/images/2006/180x180/grobe_jim061016b.jpg
3. http://www.gnu-bee.com/football/helmets/wake_forest.gif
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