Commentary - UNC: Pick Spurrier for football

The last time North Carolina conducted a search for a new football coach, it hoped to find a leader that would bolster its program onto the national scene, much like Al Groh has done at Virginia and Ralph Friedgen has done at Maryland.

But UNC didn't hit a grand slam with its hire--it got John Bunting instead.

The gradual disintegration of the ability of the Tar Heels to win on the gridiron serves as a stark contrast to the rising tide of its athletic program as a whole. While the football team has been pummeled into inconsequence the past two seasons, UNC's athletic teams have finished near the top of the list in the NCAA's all-sports standings.

UNC football was supposed to be on the same path to success, and not the highway to hell on which it currently careens. Why? Because this program is just three years removed from a Peach Bowl trip and from having two individuals taken in the top 10 of the NFL draft.

So at a time when UNC athletics are primed to peak--its field hockey, soccer, basketball and lacrosse teams will all be legitimate national championship contenders in 2004-05--the heat on the football program is as scorching as the Florida sun.

And just as any program laid up in bed, that bell will also call for a benevolent servant ready to return the Heels to prominence.

It's ironic, then, that Spurrier may very likely be standing at the door of the football program, waiting for that tintinabulation to call him to duty. He's been patient, taking a year off to bide his time, allowing Bunting to go of natural causes (or insufficient coaching, as it were) so he can send him off with a 21-gun salute.

Everyone knows that Spurrier's the man, too, as has been noted in the season preview of Street & Smith's, and as is rumored all across the Internet message board circuit.

In a New York Daily News article from Nov. 6, 2003, reporter Dick Weiss wrote that Spurrier had "definite interest in the University of North Carolina job. There is even one report Spurrier already has secretly met with Carolina officials about the job."

Even more reputable publications like USA Today have suggested that Spurrier and UNC would be a good match. But certainly, Spurrier will be the man that every school with a coaching vacancy wants to hire at the end of the season--or rather, he'll be the man for every school that wants to make space for him. The proverbial rumor mill lists Texas, UCLA, Stanford and, of course, Florida, among the other schools that will be--or already are--vying for Spurrier's offensive expertise.

Quite obviously, Athletic Director Dick Baddour could have plenty of targets not named Spurrier on his list if and when the time comes to remove Bunting. But I'm willing to bet that Spurrier would be the top priority.

All Spurrier has to do, then, is wander his way into Baddour's office, cast a sliver of light on Bunting's hideous eyesore of a program and remind Baddour that he can light up the scoreboards better than anyone in America.

Then again, Spurrier may not have to do anything at all but hold his breath, and let the winds of change chill Bunting's career after what is shaping up to be another dreary year of football in Kenan Stadium.

Those highly ranked recruiting classes the Tar Heels lured the past three seasons haven't been as strong as advertised, and now that Ted Roof and his band of recruiting mavens are in charge in Durham, UNC's ability to lure high school stars is now beginning to wallow in the shadows of Duke's resurgence and Chuck Amato's prowess at N.C. State.

Still, UNC currently has a very talented athlete in quarterback Darian Durant, and other blue chip-type players are scattered on both sides of the ball. They've also got a few new coaches to fix up one of the nation's worst defenses.

But Bunting has been the team's Achilles heel, and the crew of Baddour and company would be wise to prepare his ship for sail as soon as possible.

Football plays second fiddle to basketball in the state of North Carolina, but the Tar Heels are sitting on a gold mine of a program. UNC is a school with great exposure across the country (its merchandise is always among the nation's best sellers), so the football coaches should have the ability to recruit well both locally and nationally. Its facilities are new and gaudy, its academics are superlative, and its campus is, quite honestly, every bit as impressive as any in America.

Most importantly for the future of UNC football, however, is that the weather in North Carolina is good enough to play golf eight months out of the year. Why?

Steve Spurrier loves golf.

Spurrier also loves competition, winning and being in control. That's why he got out of the NFL. And that's why he'll come back to the college game in just a short while.

In due time, Baddour will be unable to hear above the din in Chapel Hill calling for Bunting's ouster and Spurrier's hire. Soon, he'll have little choice but to quote the ravin', and put the Bunting-induced losing behind the Tar Heels evermore.