Have any of you emailed Bubba?
- Thread starter WoadBlue
- Start date
As I think it is a general response, and not written by Bubba to me (it makes no reference to the specifics I noted), I assume it is no breach of anything for me to do so:
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. This has been a frustrating start. And there is no doubt that we all – Coach Fedora, our staff and players, and everyone associated with the football program – are disappointed by last season’s record, as well. We all want a successful football program that competes at the highest level, and it is difficult to be patient when you open the season 0-2 and lose to an in-state opponent. Still, I ask that you continue to support this team, including Coach Fedora.
As you know, Coach Fedora has led this program through some tough times. He came to Carolina in the midst of an NCAA case and coached the team through one-year postseason ban and a reduction of 15 scholarships. Despite that, Coach Fedora’s first five teams were bowl eligible and he brought stability to our program when we needed it most. Last year, we were hit hard by injuries – something Coach Fedora does not like to discuss because he doesn’t want to use it as an excuse. But it is a reality.
We are not pleased with how we have begun this season, and we need to show better discipline and results. We are committed to developing a consistently outstanding football program, and Coach Fedora has proven his ability win games with student-athletes who are dedicated both on the field and in the classroom. He is driven to make this team the very best it can be, and I will work with him every day to ensure that we try to improve.
Again, thank you for your comments and for your support of Carolina.
Sincerely,
Bubba
Bubba Cunningham
Director of Athletics
The University of North Carolina
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. This has been a frustrating start. And there is no doubt that we all – Coach Fedora, our staff and players, and everyone associated with the football program – are disappointed by last season’s record, as well. We all want a successful football program that competes at the highest level, and it is difficult to be patient when you open the season 0-2 and lose to an in-state opponent. Still, I ask that you continue to support this team, including Coach Fedora.
As you know, Coach Fedora has led this program through some tough times. He came to Carolina in the midst of an NCAA case and coached the team through one-year postseason ban and a reduction of 15 scholarships. Despite that, Coach Fedora’s first five teams were bowl eligible and he brought stability to our program when we needed it most. Last year, we were hit hard by injuries – something Coach Fedora does not like to discuss because he doesn’t want to use it as an excuse. But it is a reality.
We are not pleased with how we have begun this season, and we need to show better discipline and results. We are committed to developing a consistently outstanding football program, and Coach Fedora has proven his ability win games with student-athletes who are dedicated both on the field and in the classroom. He is driven to make this team the very best it can be, and I will work with him every day to ensure that we try to improve.
Again, thank you for your comments and for your support of Carolina.
Sincerely,
Bubba
Bubba Cunningham
Director of Athletics
The University of North Carolina
Definitely a form letter. People need to start preparing for him to not be fired.
Just like Bunting. The same kind of form letters were sent out to those who wrote to call for Bunting to be replaced.
The Bunting defenders won, and UNC football lost.
If they take the time to come up with a generic response, that means a lot of people are complaining.
I still want fedora to be the guy. I always have. And it would be a lot more convenient if he was the guy, considering he’s already here. But if it’s true that he burned bridges with N.C. high school coaches, then our problems run a lot deeper than just bonehead playcalling and preparation. I just don’t see how he can still turn this thing around. I don’t hate the guy, I just want to see us winning again.
Canned response. Probably always have some version on file and just fill in the blanks for coaches name and current excuses. But don't stop emailing. Might be a generic response, but they know folks aren't happy. And they know if folks aren't happy long enough that it turns into lost money at some point. And Bubba isn't stupid. He is well aware that unless their is an incredible turnaround to the season that the bottom could easily fall out in regards to support.
The fact he included this paragraph makes me think all Fed needs to do is win one game this year to save his job. If you're seriously considering letting him go, you don't include excuses for past failure in the statement.
There are still people who accuse me of hating Bunting. From everything I know about him as a person, I have very little doubt that I would like him a great deal. But he was never going to get it done for UNC football.
Fedora had a chance to get it done, but he hasn't. And he has shown no signs of growing as HC. All signs now ought to be fairly easily recognized as negative.
I suppose it is possible for him to overcome it all, but unless he is willing to learn from the past, he will achieve nothing. And he is the kind, as he has admitted, to ignore what went wrong in the past.
I think the best move is to fire Fedora now and openly search for a new coach. The second best move is to plan to fire Fedora and search for his replacement now, telling serious candidates that Fedora will not be back.
If Bubba intends to keep Fedora and fails to demand that Fedora retool his staff, starting with a new OC to bring fresh ideas (meaning he is not tied to Fedora in any way), then Bubba is negligent and should be replaced no later than summer 2019.
Kool’s point is my primary concern. The Rams club will need a significant uptick in donations for us to be able to pay fed’s buyout, and go get a high quality coach that can steer the ship in the right direction.
Fedora has made the same mistakes over and over again. I agree that there is no indication that he can turn this around. We’re not far from the point where fans will get so frustrated they will actually begin to organize efforts to get him ousted. Email campaigns are one thing, a boycott is another. I’m sure season ticket requests will be abysmal next year if they keep him.
Then stop rewarding mediocrity with contract extensions. Are these guys morons, or just content with mediocrity?
As Shakespeare said, therein lies the rub. More and more I fear it is the latter.
As Shakespeare said, therein lies the rub. More and more I fear it is the latter.
Is there any stories about him burning bridges with N.C. High School coaches?? Interested observer as a Tar Heel fan and as someone who knew of a HS player who was getting some attention from UNC but never an offer
Supposedly there are. I don’t pretend to have any inside info, but several posters have claimed that is the case. Maybe someone else can chime in. That kind of thing does happen all the time. It happened at my high school a few years after I graduated.
Not having lived in NC since the last century, I certainly can't know anything about any burnt bridges. But I do think the Dick Crum case is instructive, and not in a simplistic way.
Crum was a great MAC coach at Miami of OH. He beat 2 SEC teams in bowls (how many SEC teams has Fedora beaten? Fedora even lost to the worst SoCar team in at least 15 years, on a neutral field). It was widely known that Crum's Redskins could have finished as high as 4th, possibly 3rd, in the Big Ten. Naturally, Crum assumed that his OH ties would mean that he could get OH talent to UNC, not to replace the NC and VA talent that Dooley had used, but to fill in gaps and add a great deal of depth. Crum knew that the weakness of Dooley teams, and all top ACC teams, vis a vis the SEC's best was depth: the ACC lacked it, and the SEC and Big Ten had it.
Crum's vision was correct. He didn't need to sign the top OH players, who would go to Ohio St, Michigan or Notre Dame, occasionally Penn St or Michigan St or Purdue or Iowa or Nebraska. If he could sign 2 or 3 midwestern players per class who were, in our terms, high 3 star recruits, and keep the NC and VA players that Dooley signed, then he could win ACC titles and bowl games, and even compete with the best of the SEC - and that would mean National Title hunts.
But the plan never worked in practice. Back then, when the Big Ten controlled the CFB TV deal (and I am not really exaggerating: the Big Ten benefitted from exposure at least twice as much as any other league), it struck every OH player and HS coach as nuts to think of going anywhere in the South not SEC, if you had any Big Ten offer. So the kind of OH players Crum expected to land for UNC, adding a couple more 'star players' and much more quality depth, elevating UNC from very good to great, able to beat SEC champs, continued to sign with Purdue, Illinois, Mich St, etc.
Back then, very few HS coaches thought in terms of anything other than placing their kids locally. And that means that when they got a whiff of a college coach who did not seem totally focused on them and their players, they would get upset. As Crum knew about OH HS coaches expecting coaches from colleges across the entire midwest to be in OH recruiting, he expected NC and VA HS coaches to react the way HS coaches in IL and IN did: accept that colleges in their states always looked out of state for signees. And tight-lipped Crum had no idea how to explain to HS coaches in the South that he had no intention to insult them or their players and expected area players to make up the bulk of the roster.
Over just 2 or 3 years, talk began that Crum did not respect NC and VA HS coaches and teams. And the timing could not have been worse for UNC football. Dooley was laying the necessary foundation for VT, as an independent, to rise a bit and build a growing fan base, with primarily VA and NC players.
Remember that Dooley started at VT when Crum started at UNC: 1978. Below are their annual results, Dooley on the left and Crum on the right:
4-7 5-6
5-6 8-3-1
8-4 11-1
7-4 10-2
7-4 8-4
9-2 8-4
8-4 5-5-1
6-5 5-6
10-2-1 7-4-1
7-4 (at Wake) 5-6
And while UNC was still winning, UVA hired George Welsh from Navy. Welsh was brilliant, and UVA's rise would drive a dagger into the heart of Crum's program, because it doubled the blows delivered by Dooley.
Like Fedora, Crum was tight-lipped. He never wanted to explain anything. And people assumed that meant either he felt he was too good to explain or that he simply did not care. By 1984, even many UNC fans felt Crum was far too arrogant for the long term good of the program. And Crum was much more willing than Fedora to rethink and start over. Crum came to Chapel Hill determined to run the Veer. He changed because he realized it take him 3 or more years to get the players to run the Veer well and that he had players to win big not running the Veer.
Here is the take-away - Crum never meant to insult NC and VA HS coaches, but he did. And once he had, he could never undo it. And with Dooley at VT and Welsh at UVA, that killed Crum's program as a winner able to claim the conference title.
What did you expect, a private confession that Fed is on the hot seat and could be fired between now and xmas?
He wants people to be hopeful because he wants people to buy tickets, shirts & hats and to show off a decent gameday to future recruits.
I'm not sure if I can use a full hand to count the number of times an AD has publicly said anything other than "we fully support coach x" the week before firing them.
Cunningham runs a tight ship, not very leaky, so don't expect a big public heads-up.
He wants people to be hopeful because he wants people to buy tickets, shirts & hats and to show off a decent gameday to future recruits.
I'm not sure if I can use a full hand to count the number of times an AD has publicly said anything other than "we fully support coach x" the week before firing them.
Cunningham runs a tight ship, not very leaky, so don't expect a big public heads-up.
UNC doesn't pay the buyout. The big donors do. The question is are they going to step up and do it. I don't think they will unless it's for a bigger named coach. They aren't donating an extra $14 million for a coach with little to no experience on the P5 level.
If that’s the case why didn’t they hire a Big Name coach when Butch Davis was fired...I have never seen these so called Big Donors come thru...So why would I think they would now...
Who do you think paid to bring in Butch Davis? And the reason they didn't "come through" after Butch was two fold. 1. No big name coach wanted the job knowing sanctions were coming and 2. Many of them were upset at Butch being fired and/or the way it was handled and walked away. Pissed off donors don't come to the table to hire unproven coaches.
I understand that they don’t offer everybody that they look at but from sources close to the situation they were under the assumption that an offer might come especially considering some of the offers that have/were been handed out over time
Giving Fedora an extension a few years back could be Bubba’s tombstone as our AD if he isn’t careful. I get the whole sentiment that he helped lead the program through all the mess, scholarship reductions, etc but he’s simply not a good head football coach. We have so many holes in our scheme, discipline, player personnel, coaching staff, off the field issues, etc. it’s bad all around, not just in one area. That is a sure fire sign of a terrible leader. A good leader identifies the weakness and works tirelessly to fix it. Fedora chooses to “forget” issues (aka losing to ECU consistently) or chooses to stay the course (offensive staff and offensive play calling for example) which are the signs of an egomaniac prick who refuses to self reflect. Our football program is a dumpster fire right now with no sign of improvement in the near future.
Deems May wrote a couple of articles back then saying much of what you say about the big money boosters (the ones with real football interest) being pissed off so badly that they might pull back. My impression from him then was that at least some of them were not overly thrilled with Fedora being hired.
Never give an extension more than minimal when a coach has just 1 big season. 1 big season can be a fluke.
I never had that worry. As soon as we hired Chizik as DC, I was saying that while Chizik would not be my first choice, if Fedora were to leave, we'd be fine having Chizik take over. He could hire a sound staff.
The program would be better off if someone else had waved big bucks at Fedora in 2015. Now, not even Southern Miss would pay him the average USA HC salary.
I live in the area of pretty big high school football talent, Weddington, Myers Park , Butler, Mallard Creek and Sun Valley (Sam Howell) UNC is a back up choice for most of these higher rated guys... What Kills UNC football has always been the same thing for many years, Huge basketball success.. Basketball is No 1 and its by a country mile.. Kids want to go to Clemson as example where football is God and all other sports are Non existent ...
I get the 'came in during a difficult time where we had a bowl ban, reduced scholarships, uncertainty'. And I know this went on longer than expected. With that said, our recruiting was pretty good during that span - maybe as good as it would have been if we hadn't been under all that. Problem is we didn't turn those classes into equivalent football teams. Now that recruiting has started to drop off our results are getting worse.
Kids want to go to Clemson because of Dabo and their success. It has nothing to do with their basketball team sucking. The "blame basketball" excuse is BS.
It can be overdone, but it is real. The flip is also true. How many top basketball recruits are as happy to sign with schools that have very small basketball fan bases as they are to have offers from UNC, Dook, Cuse, Louisville, KU, UK, IU, Mich St, Michigan, Ohio St, etc.
The key is to have your school's fan base and administration and boosters be passionate about both sports. And then find the right coaches. UNC and the fans and boosters will NOT tolerate mediocrity in basketball, which screams that they care about the quality of the basketball program. They are proven to tolerate mediocrity in football, which likewise screams that they do not really care about football success.
The latter is what we must change. And that must start with an end to fans excusing and defending mediocrity.
Kids have been going out of state for 35-40 years, Not just to Clemson but all over the Country , North Carolina high school has had some of the greatest talent in the US over that period jumping state.. If the Basketball team stunk like most of the Power house college teams like Bama Clemson LSU auburn etc... then The excitement factor for football could lure them..
I agree. Success is what they are looking for If they have options. If you are a 2 star recruit with offers from UNC, ECU, App State, etc the. We are in the mix Bc we are the best option. If it’s par vs par, we lose every time because we don’t have any sustained success. That’s reason #1.
I'm not in agreement with the bball school makes us stink at football. The best football recruits want to go to a good football school - I don't think they would care if that school also had a good bball program. In bball and football, the top 10 doesn't change that much from year to year and the top 10 teams generally have the best recruiting classes. A little easier to jump in bball because you only need a few players but it still holds true most of the time. The last 4 games of 2016 is a big reason why we are in this position. Lost all our momentum, make 2015 look like a fluke.
So why hasn't there ever been a school dominant in both basketball and football for a sustained period of time? All the basketball blue bloods suck at football.
UNC was ready to open up the check book for Chris Petersen, but we couldn't lure him away. Fedora wasn't the top choice, but he was a hot name.
A dominant basketball program is just an extra incentive, assuming that the football program is also attractive enough. A dominant basketball program has no impact on the attractiveness of a football program. This idea is silly
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