ACC improving its coaching stock

By Marc Hudgens  |   Friday, January 04, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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Last year fans saw the involuntary departures of several ACC coaches -- North Carolina State's Chuck Amato, North Carolina's John Bunting and Miami's Larry Coker. This year they witnessed the demises of Duke's Ted Roof and Georgia Tech's Chan Gailey.

Watching the past two revolutions of the ACC's coaching carousel, the conference has seen a net change of five new coaches, with the key phrase being "net change."

There are six total changes if you count Tom O'Brien, who left Boston College for Amato's job at N.C. State. Because he stayed within the AC, though, there was no change as far as the conference was concerned.

The net conference replacement since 2006's end is:

Bunting replaced by Butch Davis.
Coker replaced by Randy Shannon.
Amato replaced by Jeff Jagodzinski (via O'Brien).
Roof replaced by David Cutcliffe.
Gailey replaced by Paul Johnson.

While the verdict won't be out on the newcomers for another year or two, on the surface it appears the conference upgraded its head coaches.

Particularly in Boston College's case, as Jagodzinski led the Eagles to their first Atlantic Division title this year and subsequent ACC championship game appearance.

North Carolina improved marginally under Davis, netting one more conference win from 2006. But the Tar Heels still ended with a terrible 3-9 mark. Miami actually backslid under Shannon, going from bowl-eligible under Coker to irrelevant in Shannon's first season. But then again, the program was an undisciplined mess to begin with. The Wolfpack under O'Brien improved by two wins (one conference), but like North Carolina, they still ended with a losing mark.

But, hey, Rome wasn't built in a day, right?

Still, it's easy to argue that Davis has a stronger résumé than Bunting given his championship-level success at Miami and NFL experience with the Cleveland Browns.

Although Shannon had no prior head coaching experience, he was a linebacker on the Hurricanes' 1987 national championship team and has pro experience both as a player and a coach. Moreover, he's the disciplinarian-type leader the program direly needs.

O'Brien had a 75-45 record at Boston College compared to Amato's 49-37, but Amato's mark was only possible because of the excellent Philip Rivers years, a 34-17 mark between 2000-03. That holds water because Amato's three-year record since Rivers' departure was just 15-20, with all three of those season marred by losing conference records. So there are justifications for those coaching changes.

Throw in that the conference still has a BCS title-caliber coach (Frank Beamer of Virginia Tech), another one who brought his team from doormat to champion (Jim Grobe of Wake Forest), one who drastically improved from last year (Al Groh of Virginia), and you have a huge improvement. Not to mention Jimbo Fisher's inevitable takeover of Florida State whenever the legendary Bobby Bowden decides to do the right thing and step down.

Although there may not be just one reason as to why the ACC has been so horrific, a clear one is the lack of strong coaches. Granted, a lot of the newcomers are unproven at their schools, but at least they appeared to be more promising candidates than their predecessors. Even if three of the six total coaching changes become truly successful and everything else remains the same, the conference would become enormously better. And, quite possibly, future ACC teams may be taken more seriously by the BCS when it comes to at-large bowl berths.

The ACC needs all the help it can get (the conference's bowl record this year was a very poor 2-6), and its teams were 4-10 against ranked, non-conference opponents. Furthermore, the last time the ACC champion won the Orange Bowl was January 1996, when Florida State edged Notre Dame. Certainly, the conference lost a lot of respect over the past few years, and justifiably so. But at least many programs are now cutting bait with the tired status quo and going in what appears to be better directions in the hopes of making for a brighter future.
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About Marc Hudgens

Marc Hudgens has been with RealFootball365 since 2007, covering college football, specifically Clemson and Oregon. He also writes for SouthernPigskin.com covering the ACC. He enjoys the acidic wit of Hunter S. Thompson, is a freelance graphic designer and has written several screenplays. He ...
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