Ok, he's fired. Why is he still coaching? This doesn't make any sense, just like Zook a couple years ago. Either wait til end of season, or get an interim coach.
If I was Bunting right now....he says he has several freshmen who are being redshirted for the future. Well, the only future I've got at Carolina is the next 5 games. If I'm Bunting, those guys would be playing. If they refused to play, I'd kick them off the team.
How can you have a coach that knows he's not coming back....coach the last 5 games of the season. Its ridiculous.
If you are a Carolina fan as you claim, you should know the character of John Bunting. He would never, EVER do something like play freshman who are redshirting out of spite. That's why you said "If I was John Bunting"...fortunately for us, you are not. He has stood for nothing but integrity while expressing his deep love for this university. For you to even fathom him doing something of nature shows me you either have no clue what you are talking about, or are just a fan that wants to win at all costs.
This article is the best answer to your question as to why he is being allowed to finish out the season. If you can't get it, then I question how much of a 'true' fan you really are.
UNC's Decision Could Benefit All
North Carolina?s decision to let John Bunting go over the weekend was the right move at the right time.
Bunting?s team had completely fallen apart. There was little, if any, life left, and it appeared the Tar Heels were going through the motions.
Combine their confused states of mind and the reality that a once-promising season ? albeit in August ? had collapsed into a bottomless pit.
As they were before the announcement, the Heels wouldn?t have been favored to win again. Duke?s improved play over the last month would have rendered the Blue Devils as favorites for their Nov. 25 matchup in Durham. Now, that might not be the case.
With the change formally announced at Kenan Stadium on Monday, a massive cloud rapidly plumbing northward took a detour.
Gone are the heavy weights on the shoulders of the players and coaching staff that once grasped for anything it construed as a glimmer of hope.
UNC?s decision to announce Bunting?s termination now and allow him to finish the season should provide relief for the team similar to offering water to a parched man crawling in the Sahara.
UNC can now cleanse its system and actually focus on playing a decent football game instead of extra curricular annoyances swarming the program.
For the team: This means not having to answer to peers on campus, family, friends, and most important, us media types, about their coach?s future. A clear mind lends itself to a focused mind. A focused football player makes smarter decisions and doesn?t play tight. That usually lends itself to success.
For Bunting and the staff: They too can put together game plans without contemplating their futures. They won?t teach kids whose minds are elsewhere, but rather a team capable of unifying for the stretch run.
For the program: The team and staff can play for themselves while still wearing that light blue with pride. And Baddour and coaching head-hunter Chuck Neinas can absorb oodles of information on prospective coaching candidates and position the program to make perhaps its most notable hire ever.
It also allows Bunting one last chance to teach his players a valuable lesson, one they might not cognizantly realize now, but will in time.
Their lame-duck coach just fired by his alma mater can easily walk away and cash his fat checks, but instead, he?ll provide them one last course in passion, dedication, loyalty and walking the walk in a true man?s shoes.
Bunting took his horrible news like the gentleman those who know him personally swear he is. He sat Monday before so many supporters and even some detractors despite so clearly disagreeing with the decision makers. But John Bunting loves and respects his university. He wants it to succeed, and he knows he?s got eyes watching him.
Not those of us who write or talk about this for a living or those of you who perhaps weigh a bit too much of your self-satisfaction on the performances of young men you?ll never know. He knew the 100 or so players on scholarship and contributing to the program as walk-ons were and are watching.
I spoke to Don McCauley for some time on Monday night. He was a star tailback at UNC, played in the NFL and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. McCauley?s also a wonderful person and a determined friend of Bunting?s.
His loyalty and respect for the coach is quite admirable. McCauley, however, calls it like it is, recognizing his buddy?s struggles but also amazed at Bunting?s perseverance in a capsized season McCauley calls ?the perfect storm.?
Bunting?s never boasted about the people he?s driven hours to see because old age suddenly keeps them from attending games or how he kept a promise to meet a fan from the west coast that flew in for a game, even though the Heels had just lost a heartbreaker to Arizona State moments earlier.
It?s these attributes that make the final lesson I noted earlier so crucial.
Bunting lacked success on the field, but he made men out of the Larry Edwards? (did you notice that embrace) of the world, and in the next five weeks can show the Tar Heels how to handle disappointment they?ll surely face in their lives.
From a football perspective, Carolina made a no-brainer decision. Bunting shouldn?t return next fall, but he deserves to finish this season. And a now-relaxed UNC team might actually compete and win a game or two.
But it was also the right move because Bunting will show these young men the meaning of going the distance, or rather, answering the bell.
