This is great. I love it when BCS teams act like this.
N.C. State coach lacks facts
By Terry Pluto
Dear Chuck Amato:
I know that it's tough losing to a school whose mascot is a plump, friendly kangaroo, but we all have our crosses to bear.
I just thought I'd mention this right now: University of Akron 20, North Carolina State 17.
I know, you're the coach of the Wolfpack, and that's not a fun job these days. They just poured $90 million into your football facilities, and your record the past two years is 12-11... 6-10 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Now, this year, you get beat by UA.
The score was 20-17, by the way.
At your Monday news conference, a reporter asked, how could you ``lose to a team like that?''
You didn't like the question.
``Should any team in the Atlantic Coast Conference lose to, you say, `a team like that'?... They were the conference champions; they went to a bowl game, and I believe they won it.''
Dear Chuck, you seem to have a few problems with facts.
UA did go to the Motor City Bowl, losing 38-31 to Memphis.
But the point you were making... I think... was to say UA is a very good and underrated team.
Why couldn't you just say that?
Instead, you wandered so deep into the excuse bunker it will take an entire platoon of Army Rangers to dig you out.
``They're in a conference that allows non-qualifiers in school,'' you told the media. ``Non-qualifiers. You need to look that one up to write stories. You know what kind of players non-qualifiers are usually? They're inversely proportional to what their grade-point average is. They can make a big difference.''
Get it straight
Dear Chuck, where do I begin?
How about with the fact that UA plays in the Mid-American Conference, which had the highest graduation rate of any Division I-A football league last season, with six of the 12 teams graduating at least 70 percent.
That includes your ACC, which had three.
The Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer article said: ``Amato indicated that he had been told Akron had 10 non-qualifiers last season.''
Oh, Chuck, where did you hear these things, from some other coach who lost to UA? Here are some other numbers you won't like, besides that 20-17 final score.
According to the university, UA had six non-qualifiers last season. The team that beat you had three. A non-qualifier is a player who has to sit out the first year because he lacked the standardized-test score and/or grade-point average needed to be eligible immediately.
Here are some other numbers: 60 percent and 50 percent.
Chuck, you won't like these, either.
Guess what 60 percent happens to be? It was UA's football graduation rate in 2005.
And that 50 percent? It belongs to your team.
Don't you hate when that happens -- the facts getting in the way of a good story?
Your ACC does not allow academic non-qualifiers to enroll, but you can do it in other ways. You can send them to junior colleges or prep schools to get their grades in order.
As UA coach J.D. Brookhart told me Tuesday, ``There's nothing wrong with taking some of these kids who messed up in their first year or two of high school -- as long as they have good character.''
One of UA's non-qualifiers is Kiki Gonzalez, who earned an extra year of eligibility and is set to graduate at the end of this season. Another is Paris McNeal, a senior linebacker on pace to graduate. The third is Andre Jones, a freshman cornerback.
A misrepresentation
Dear Chuck, not every UA player belongs on a church window, but they have had very few legal problems over the years. You might not have intended it to be so, but you sounded high and mighty, implying UA is a bandit program running one step ahead of the NCAA sheriffs.
In a Durham Herald Sun article, you mentioned UA in the same breath as ``the Boise States, the Fresno States, the Louisvilles.''
That came during your rant about non-qualifiers.
Well, Chuck, you won't like this, either. Guess who had a higher graduation rate last year, N.C. State or Boise State?
Boise State, 54-50.
Go Broncos!
If you want to play Academic Challenge, you also lose to Kent State, which was at 74 percent.
We'll leave Louisville and Fresno State out of this discussion because they don't belong in it, anyway. In fact, most of what you talked about was utterly irrelevant. Don't try to tell us that you're Harvard, or even Duke. You're a good state school, just like UA.
Here's one more set of numbers.
The NCAA has a formula called the Academic Progress Rate (APR). You need at least a 925 to be considered doing a good job academically.
Your rating is 933; UA's is 931.
Point is, no matter how you look at it -- graduation rates or APR -- the two schools are basically the same. So forget the academics, and check out what happened on the football field.
Referee's call
Dear Chuck, something else...
You didn't like the officials, especially on that final play -- ``25-Wham'' -- where the Zips' Dennis Kennedy scored the winning touchdown. It was close... very, very close. In some photos, it appeared that his elbow hit the ground before he crossed the goal line.
I don't know what happened on that play.
I do know that those officials are your own ACC officials. UA was called for 11 penalties, and you declined several others. So it's not as if the officials suddenly dressed up like Zippy and bounced around cheering for UA.
I do know that your team was in front 17-14 with 57 seconds left, and your defense allowed UA to march 67 yards in those 57 seconds to score the winning touchdown. Whose fault was that?
I do know that your team also was in front 10-7, and UA went 96 yards for a touchdown! Whose fault was that?
I do know that you should keep this in mind: You were at home, playing in front of 56,103 fans with your own league officials and had two leads in the fourth quarter -- and blew them both on drives of 67 and 96 yards.
And whose fault was that?
You remember Luke Getsy, the senior quarterback who shredded your defense in that final period? He's not exactly a non-qualifier. He has a 3.6 grade-point average in marketing management. One of his key blockers is senior left tackle Tim Crouch, who is a two-time All-MAC academic pick with a 3.5 GPA in criminal justice. The defensive player of the game for UA was a senior from Manchester High School, Mark Groza. Give him a 3.9 GPA in engineering.
Chuck, you won't won't like this, either. The MAC has had 13 games against BCS schools this season, and has come away with one victory. Yes, the loss happened to you, and maybe that's why you suddenly Fear The Roo.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Pluto can be reached at [email protected]. Sign up for Terry's free, weekly e-mail newsletter ``Direct from Pluto'' at www.ohio.com.
GO FALCONS!!!
