Amato out at NC State

[FUwolfpacker]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2676855

For what it's worth. This has pretty much been known in NC State circles for about a week. The only possible wiggle room was for NC State to beat ECU, and that didn't happen. The 4 guys who cover NC State for Rivals.com and Scout.com said a few days ago this would probably happen. It's not really a surprising decision.

As a State fan, I understand this needed to happen, but it's tough to see a NC State alum fail. Amato did a lot of good things for NC State during his time in Raleigh. He made NC State competative on a national level with recruiting, facilities, and on the field. NC State is the only team in the ACC not to lose by more than 30 points over the last 5 or 6 years, and they've only lost by more than 20 once (or twice) over that same stretch...also an ACC best. Amato's teams were always competative, but the real problem was Amato didn't win enough of those close games. Lack of on-field discipline and drive killing penalties haunted Amato and NC State over the last several years (things that almost always fall on the coaches). Amato ran a pretty good program overall though (very few kids got in trouble off the field).

It hasn't been reported on an NC State sites, but the news should come soon enough.

As of right now, people are just throwing names out randomly, but the names flying around the most are Paul Johnson (Navy coach and former GSU coach), Jimbo Fisher, Mike Sherman, and Bill Cowher. I suspect NC State officials will take a week to collect info, then try to end this thing pretty quickly, so the new coaches can get to recruiting.

[Mr. C]

What I never could understand was how a team with such obvious talent, year-in and year-out, fared so poorly on the field. Amato and his staff obviously know how to recruit and they always seemed to upset one or two teams each year that they were not suppose to beat. But then they would inexplicably lose to someone they had no business losing to. It was hard to imagine how badly coached these players were at times. I still think that NC State could become one of the best programs in the ACC with the right guy in place. They've done some excellent things facility wise etc.

I can't see Bill Cowher coaching the Wolfpack. That's a huge stretch that I think is mostly coming from someone's mind. I'm not sure i would go anywhere near Mike Sherman. As a Green Bay Packers fan, I hated seeing what an awful job he did there. He really made a ton of poor in-game decisions. I think anyone who took a shot at Paul Johnson would be making a great hire. PJ is the best coach I've seen for making in-game adjustments (an opinion that is shared by a lot of coaches around the Southern Conference). He also knows how to recruit and to win with less than the best athletes. Give him NC State's athletes and it would be something to see what he could do.

[Marcus Garvey]

Actually, the Bill Cowher to NC State rumor has been floating around for months. Didn't Cowher just buy/build a high priced home in the Raleigh area? Also, he's working on the last year or 2 of his contract with the Steelers, unheard of for a defending Super Bowl champion coach. It was my understanding that Cowher had rebuffed contract extensions.