Small Fowler Comment From The Amato Article

Chuck Amato General NC State Administration NCS Football39

We wanted to highlight a couple of quotes from different articles regarding Chuck Amato’s dismissal from NC State.

Based on our understanding of private information as well as some comments made in the public domain, we contended that Chuck Amato never knew his job was in jeopardy until Lee Fowler actually fired him. Additionally, it seems that Fowler had no choice in the matter as the firing was mandated despite Fowler’s wish/desire to ignore the situation and give Amato another year(s). ( Sound familiar?)

Was Amato naive? Yes.

On the flip side, isn’t part of any leader’s job – in this case the Athletics Director – to have open communication with his coaches and let them know where they stand?

If you take the various quotes made by Lee Fowler throughout the season (God knows he gives you plenty of quotes to analyze) then it becomes abundantly clear that Fowler was forced to pull the trigger on Chuck. Even Fowler’s very own quotes just three weeks prior to the end of the season highlight that Fowler did not make the decision on his own.

Fowler: Do you feel like entering the East Carolina game that Chuck Amato felt he was coaching for his job?
It would be something that Chuck would have to answer… not me. I know that three or four weeks before the North Carolina game he and I had a conversation and we both knew how important the North Carolina game would be.

I can’t remember exactly when, but it was probably the Monday a few weeks before we played North Carolina, and he and I both talked about how important the North Carolina game was going to be.

Q: Is it still difficult to realize that you’re no longer at N.C. State, which I believe you thought was everything you wanted and where you wanted to be as a head coach?

I’m proud of everything I did there. To have one bad year, and for what happened, I was devastated. I never saw it coming, but that’s part of the business.

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Chuck Amato General NC State Administration NCS Football

39 Responses to Small Fowler Comment From The Amato Article

  1. WolftownVA81 04/09/2007 at 4:44 PM #

    Very charitable choppack1. You can add way too public to the list of things that disturbed people.

  2. Cosmo96 04/09/2007 at 4:48 PM #

    Lavin was doing the broadcast of one of our games earlier this year, and during the game, he talked about how someone (supposedly) in our fanbase came up to him beforehand and said how they wished he was on our sideline. I couldn’t decide whether I was more angry that someone would actually say that (if, in fact, they really did), or that Lavin was spouting off about it on the air, during an NC State game.

    One second is way too long for Lavin to have been considered for this job. I don’t hate Fowler, but despite what he may say, he was really grasping at straws there when he was seriously considering Steve Lavin.

  3. tractor57 04/09/2007 at 5:01 PM #

    Best thing that ever happened for Wolfpack BB was no Lavin and no “squid”

  4. beowolf 04/09/2007 at 6:59 PM #

    We’ve got the Squid — that was Sid’s nickname in college.

  5. choppack1 04/09/2007 at 9:03 PM #

    Lavinis full of it. I can’t imagine any NC State fan saying that unless they were just kissing his butt. What a prick for saying that. He was and is a freakin joke.

  6. highstick 04/09/2007 at 9:14 PM #

    I’ve got two words for Fowler and they remain the same today as they were several years ago! Go AWAY! You’re not wanted here!

  7. rockwolf 04/09/2007 at 9:37 PM #

    my personal favorite from the interview was this one:

    “There’s a fringe of people, 20 or 30, that are on the Internet controlling everyone’s opinions.” (emphasis mine)

    So, Fowler never meant to call us “the lunatic fringe”. What he meant to say is that we’re all a bunch of mind-numbed robots.

    I’m so glad he clarified it.

  8. class of 74 04/10/2007 at 5:32 AM #

    He is the biggest embarrassment to this university’s athletics in my lifetime. Everytime I hear his voice, see his face or hear his name it is like fingernails on a chalkboard. I said two years ago, that we needed a clean sweep out the door of our BBHC, FBHC and AD. Well two out of three ain’t bad but the worst of the lot remains IMHO.

  9. WolftownVA81 04/10/2007 at 7:56 AM #

    So, short of being a multi-million dollar doner, how does one go about dumping an incompetent AD?

  10. RAWFS 04/10/2007 at 8:20 AM #

    ^ You don’t. People should realize that men like Curtis Dail and Wendell Murphy are analogous to the “owners” of NC State’s major sports and that below that august level fans are merely supporters. Don’t fool yourself otherwise — unless there is a mass revolt, those are the men (along with the BOT and Chancellor) that make the real decisions.

  11. BoKnowsNCS71 04/10/2007 at 9:28 AM #

    “They ought to fire that guy Fowler”

  12. WolftownVA81 04/10/2007 at 2:50 PM #

    Then I guess we’ll have to wait until he embarrasses, or pisses off, the right people. Which means we all have a responsibility to keep an eye out for the absurd things that come out of his mouth and publicize them as much as possible. History has shown LF will do his part.

  13. Primewolf 04/10/2007 at 9:27 PM #

    Fowler is a disaster as a leader of our AD. It amazes me the consistent level of poor leadership we have at NC State. Our leaders don’t even know what decent leadership is. Oblinger is about a weak a Chancellor as we have had, and that is saying something.

  14. Cardiff Giant 04/11/2007 at 12:06 PM #

    Amato’s final press conference (the “Happy Thanksgiving” one) has to rank among the most bizarre episodes in the history of NC State athletics. If he didn’t realize his job was in serious jeopardy, then only one of two situations could exist (1) Fowler was telling him otherwise, or (2) Amato was completely delusional. Well, conceivably both could exist.

    It’s important to remember that of all the major tests Amato faced late last season, he failed every one of them miserably – and sort of giggled madly as he did.

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