I'm not sure why it took so much flaming and questions about job security before Chuck finally started to take his job seriously.

The first couple of years he got outcoached in some games (maryland comes to mind a few times).

But this year he just got outworked for the first half of the season.


Finally, he got guys to stop commiting penalties and turnovers and what do you know we won some games.

Obviously, this year was still underachieving because our defense proved to be dominant for the second straight year.

However, players play and coaches coach. And to blame the sheer ineptitude of Marcus Stone and Jay Davis on Chuck Amato is unfair.

Like Packbacker has said on a few occasions, it shows a lot that we are able to win so many games despite consistently getting a blank at the QB position.

I'm sorry we squandered the talents of a guy like Mario Williams, but hopefully we can land guys like him in the future.


I can't let Chuck totally off the hook for the last two seasons, but I do have a little faith in him after seeing that he finally addressed the issues that were KILLING our program.


Here's to eventually finding a capable QB and attempting to rebuild a dominating defense.

1/3/2006 1:18:19 PM

wtf

i agree with a rallydurham post

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 1:22 PM. Reason : *]

1/3/2006 1:19:44 PM

eh, we're a basketball school anyways.

1/3/2006 1:20:14 PM

10/10

1/3/2006 1:20:43 PM

im beginning to get fed up with his attitude towards a lot of things.

From what I hear he disrespects his entire coaching staff...and that I can't stand. Discipline and respect go hand in hand and I want to be able to cheer on a coach that is a genuine, nice guy.

I agree with changes in the 2nd half of the season, but I can't help but think maybe chuck needs to change somethings in himself as well.

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 1:23 PM. Reason : .]

1/3/2006 1:22:02 PM

I agree with most of what you said. I would keep him on the hook for not even thinking about the qb situation until AFTER Rivers was gone. I mean, our only option last year was Jay Davis? The kid just flat out doesn't have the tools to be a D1 QB. Obviously he has had some time to think about it now because we have a legitimate recruit in Marcus Stone, while he has the tools hasn't been able to put it together yet. We also have some other qb options for the next few years.

1/3/2006 1:22:57 PM

Chuck has run a lot of coaches off over the past few seasons.


Some (Noel Mazzone) should have been beaten with a stick rather than just fired.



Others (Doc Holliday) should have been allowed to beat Chuck with a stick before leaving.


Hopefully, we retain Trestman... he seemed to finally figure out that we are not a passing team, and when we started using our stud RB's we looked like a half decent team for once.

1/3/2006 1:23:35 PM

Quote :

"From what I hear"

You heard that from an assistant coach? Didn't think so.

rallydurham with the decent post/thread - gg

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 1:24 PM. Reason : t=y]

1/3/2006 1:23:58 PM

i hear trestman is hard to get along with, but I think it's because he's quirky in that mad scientist sort of way...while I think chuck just doesn't give his coaching staff the respect they deserve and tries to add to the recipe a bit too much.

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 1:26 PM. Reason : errudite, don't believe me if you don't want to...just saying what I hear(which makes sense to me)]

1/3/2006 1:25:42 PM

I guess I think that's quite a claim to make with no named source or reason to believe you.

I hear Chuck is really nice to his assistants and even takes them to Amedeos - I've seen him there with a couple.

1/3/2006 1:28:28 PM

i never said he wasn't nice to them. I'm also not saying it's fact, just what I hear from people very close to the situation...and it seems to make sense to me.

1/3/2006 1:30:42 PM

you said he disrespects them - my bad.

1/3/2006 1:32:58 PM

Quote :

"Like Packbacker has said on a few occasions, it shows a lot that we are able to win so many games despite consistently getting a blank at the QB position."

I'd agree...I do wish the defense had at least been more consistent this year, because they showed their amazing talents when they showed up to play. I don't really blame Chuck for the lack of a QB--I realize it was difficult to recruit people to come here when Phil was the obvious starter and it looked like Jay would be a solid replacement.

I think a lot of the anger toward Chuck came from the attitude, though. The guy is always optimistic about the program and that can really rub you the wrong way when you're looking at a 2-4 record. I will say, though, the second half of the season definitely restored some of my faith. It takes some fucking balls to come back from that.

I still think if we sign a real QB (BS), we'll do fine next year. And even if we don't, we do have some options (Stone is slowly developing, there's that kid from Nebraska, maybe even just throw Burke in to the wolves). We're going to take some real hits on graduating starters from the defense, but I still think we can be solid (although without Mario, Manny, Hoyte, and Hudson, definitely not the killer D we've had the past two seasons).

And yes, the constant train of assistants doesn't help our program any. I can understand why great coaches leave here to go to established football schools, but we really need some continuity on both sides of the ball.

Quote :

"Hopefully, we retain Trestman... he seemed to finally figure out that we are not a passing team, and when we started using our stud RB's we looked like a half decent team for once."

That's another thing...the willingness to utterly change the system deserves some credit in itself. When we had a quarterback we played an all-out high-scoring pass attack; this season we switched to a grind-it-out ball control style. A lot of coaches would've taken a lot longer to make that adjustment, if ever.

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 1:48 PM. Reason : thank god Tulloch isn't graduating]

1/3/2006 1:44:12 PM

Fuck this, Chuck needs to get jumped in a dark parking lot and be made to understand what we fucking expect.

We beat a shitty 1st time bowl team in a shitty bowl. No shit we didnt have tons of penalties, we KILLED them.

He hasn't addressed the thugs, or the penalties, or the lack of recruitment at crucial positions or the inability to garner the respect of his players and fellow coaches.

1/3/2006 1:55:18 PM

That may be one of the most ignorant posts I've read in Sports Talk since THABIGL was suspended.

1/3/2006 2:06:45 PM

^ I concur

1/3/2006 2:08:03 PM

Noen, "you're out of your element donny."

1/3/2006 2:18:32 PM

Chuck Amato: Saved by the grace of Andre Brown

1/3/2006 2:19:07 PM

^ on that note


The "legend" of Marcus Stone.


Built on the back of Andre Brown.

1/3/2006 2:20:57 PM

^^What can Brown do for you?

Well he can sure save Chuck's ass

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 2:22 PM. Reason : .]

1/3/2006 2:22:41 PM

Wow, I agree 100% with rallydurham.

He's been on a roll lately with posts.

1/3/2006 2:27:02 PM

Quote :

"wtf i agree with a rallydurham post "

yeah wow same sentiments here

1/3/2006 2:29:32 PM

those calls on the goal line during the bowl game just really pissed me off....you dont call two QB sneaks with parade all americans in the game....you give them the damn ball and tell them to do their job

1/3/2006 2:31:11 PM

^uh, when you are an inch away from the endzone, there's nothing wrong with running one, even two qb sneaks. they should have gotten in. it's not the same situation as phil in columbus a few years ago, both of these were legit opportunities to get in the endzone. also, last year in chapel hill, ta couldn't punch the ball in even after the touchdown take-back. a qb sneak on that occasion may have done the job as well.

as for the chuck assessment, he dodged not one, but two gatorade showers like a gangsta.

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 2:36 PM. Reason : ]

1/3/2006 2:35:03 PM

Quote :

"I'd agree...I do wish the defense had at least been more consistent this year, because they showed their amazing talents when they showed up to play. I don't really blame Chuck for the lack of a QB--I realize it was difficult to recruit people to come here when Phil was the obvious starter and it looked like Jay would be a solid replacement."

I also think it hurt us badly becuase we put all of our eggs in the Shaeffer basket and he screwed us. We quit recruiting everyone else on our board becuase he'd committed to us (He was a silent verbal for about a month before signing day, and never told our coaches he was waivering. We found out on signing day).

If we had him now, we wouldn't have such a problem. With Davis (highly ranked), Stone (Highly Ranked) and Shaeffer (Highly ranked) we had our 3 guys.... surely one of them would be the QB we'd hoped for.

Instead, Davis had a noodle arm, Stone had trouble learning the offense, and Shaeffer bolted for Tennessee.

Switching coordinators only hurt the situation, and Chuck began signing them to multi-year deals when he hired Trestman.

I agree with the thread, and although I'm not happy with Chuck's year... I think he did the best he could with the hand we were dealt.

[Edited on January 3, 2006 at 3:00 PM. Reason : ]

1/3/2006 2:59:57 PM

Quote :

"We beat a shitty 1st time bowl team in a shitty bowl"

You're damn right


Sincerely,

Louisville

1/3/2006 3:02:13 PM

I'm with your first post on this one, you little tigershark.

I'll admit, I was quite quick to jump on the fire amato bandwagon, but after some reconsiderations I think we can straighten some things up and keep some coaches around.

It wasn't necessarily the wins that put me back off of the fire Amato thing, there was a lot of coercion from different peers here and there...

1/3/2006 3:20:26 PM

Quote :

"Finally, he got guys to stop commiting penalties and turnovers and what do you know we won some games."

i still cannot believe that he somehow figured out how to stop the penalties. it had been a season and a half of stupidity, and then all of the sudden, they just dried up. WTF?

1/4/2006 7:59:44 AM

he started letting mario williams dole out the beatings for screwing up

1/4/2006 8:22:57 AM

Quote :

"i still cannot believe that he somehow figured out how to stop the penalties. it had been a season and a half of stupidity, and then all of the sudden, they just dried up. WTF?"

Hats off to whoever threw the flag at the Walk of Champions. It worked

1/4/2006 8:31:34 AM

I think a lot of the reason we stunk it p was our schedule. We started off against a great VT, then a week off, then a cupcake. You can't expect to be good after that.

I'm not worried about our QB situation next year so much. Trestman worked wonders in Davis, and he has even more time with Stone.

1/4/2006 10:22:09 AM

Worked wonders with Davis? How so, he got better but still sucked baws.


Stone actually has a foundation for improvement. He's got physical tools that Davis could only dream about.

1/4/2006 10:27:35 AM

Hopefully Trestman will have Brent Shaeffer to work with.

1/4/2006 10:35:06 AM

^^I think you answered your own question...at least Stone has the tools. I will even admit that Davis was a lot better than last season through the GT game. We just killed ourselves against VT and UNC, then he sucked balls against Wake and Clemson. I think Davis's problem was the lack of a deep threat and he checked off too early. Stone doesnt know how to check off, but at least he showed some flashes and he has one hell of an arm. I am curious to see how he develops as the starter over the spring.

...you also have to remember that Tresman is running pro-style practices. The starter gets 90% of the snaps at QB, and the backups (total) get 10...or around those figures. Hopefully more reps will help him as much as it did Davis.

[Edited on January 4, 2006 at 10:41 AM. Reason : ]

1/4/2006 10:38:54 AM

Hopefully we will have Brent Schaeffer, but even if we don't we will still have Stone, and he will be better next year.

Compare Davis this year with last year. Yeah, he was still bad, but he made much better passes, didn't force things as much, didn't get flustered as easily, and generally made better decisions. Another year and he would have been good.

1/4/2006 10:44:32 AM

Quote :

"I think Davis's problem was the lack of a deep threat and he checked off too early."

I think he had the capability to throw deep--he had a couple of nice long TD passes, although they certainly didn't move at the speed that Stone's do.

But Davis had a HUGE confidence problem that just got worse and worse as the season progressed.

1/4/2006 10:57:29 AM

well, he threw a 30 yarder to Brian Clark against GT that didnt make it to the endzone that looked like it took all his strength, and was a trick play. He threw an 80 yarder the same game that was a slant and brian just burned the defense after he caught it.


Then there's that toss from the 45 against UNC at the end of the game that he had to throw a million miles in the air and took forever to get to the endzone. Then there is that pick in the endzone at wake that was clearly picked off from a lack of arm strength...about a 30 yarder. If you're gonna underthrow, at least make sure it gets there quickly before the defender has time to make a play.

I just dont remember him making any good plays beyond about 25 yards where there wasnt YAC. No problem with YAC, except when you cant make the short pass becaues they're stacking the box.

[Edited on January 4, 2006 at 11:36 AM. Reason : ]

1/4/2006 11:35:46 AM