August 9, 2004
The Coaching Hot Seat: Part I - The ACC
This will be a multi part series, showcasing the last 3 seasons of results of various major football conferences, and how secure certain coaches will be in retaining their jobs at the end of this season and beyond. Also, I've highlighted what schools, if any, are shifting conferences before the 2005 season. Remember that moving conferences typically means more money, which ratchets up the pressure cooker that college coaches find themselves in today.
Part I - The ACC
Clemson
- Head coach: Tommy Bowden (5th year: 38-24)
- 2003 - 9-4
- 2002 - 7-6
- 2001 - 7-5
Duke
- Head coach: Ted Roof (2nd Year: 2-3)
- 2003 - 4-8
- 2002 - 2-10
- 2001 - 0-11
Florida St.
- Head coach: Bobby Bowden (29th year: 268-67-4)
- 2003 - 10-3
- 2002 - 9-5
- 2001 - 8-4
Georgia Tech
- Head coach: Chan Gailey (3rd year: 14-12)
- 2003 - 7-6
- 2002 - 7-6
- 2001 - 8-4
Maryland
- Head coach: Ralph Friedgen (4th year: 31-8)
- 2003 - 10-3
- 2002 - 11-3
- 2001 - 10-2
Miami
- Head coach: Larry Coker (4th year: 35-3)
- 2003 - 11-2
- 2002 - 12-1
- 2001 - 12-0
North Carolina
- Head coach: John Bunting (4th year: 13-24)
- 2003 - 2-10
- 2002 - 3-9
- 2001 - 8-5
NC State
- Head Coach: Chuck Amato (5th year: 34-17)
- 2003 - 8-5
- 2002 - 11-3
- 2001 - 7-5
Virginia
- Head coach: Al Groh (4th year: 21-17)
- 2003 - 7-5
- 2002 - 9-5
- 2001 - 5-7
Virginia Tech
- Head coach: Frank Beamer (18th year: 125-74-2)
- 2003 - 8-5
- 2002 - 10-4
- 2001 - 8-4
Wake Forest
- Head coach: Jim Grobe (4th year: 18-18)
- 2003 - 5-7
- 2002 - 7-6
- 2001 - 6-5
Chan Gailey, Al Groh and Jim Grobe are all recent hires, and
have enjoyed some success in their previous three seasons, thus should have no real reason to have any fear.
Tommy Bowden saved his job, and earned an extension with
Clemson's late season run.
Ralph Friedgen and Larry Coker have both amassed winning seasons in bunches during their tenures, and are extremely secure.
Bobby Bowden will be the one telling the AD when he's done, not the other way around. Frank Beamer's cemented his status as VT coaching legend.
So that leaves us with John Bunting, the UNC head coach, who's no doubt sweating bullets at the raging furnace his seat has turned into. Bunting enjoyed some success in his first season, going to the Peach Bowl with Carl Torbush's recruits. But his subsequent poor product on the field the last several seasons, combined with the recent multi-million dollar investment in the facilities at UNC and the recent free agent status of southern coaching legend Steve Spurrier, has to make Bunting's leash non-existent. Add to that the fact that Miami, Virginia Tech & Louisville are on the schedule, along with visit to MWC powerhouse Utah, the season could spell disaster for Bunting.
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Jeff said:
posted on August 9, 2004 11:26 AM — 24.197.122.162 — link — abuse?I keep hearing Spurrier to UNC rumors lately. The fact that the Heels lost a redshirt QB from last year to a non-scholarship program in I-AA (Georgetown) seems to indicate things aren't going to get any better.