Will Bubba Cunningham make UNC football coach hire free from political interference?
Mack Brown’s departure from North Carolina ended up being far more awkward than it needed to be, thanks to Brown’s own refusal to go quietly, the Tar Heels’ failure to send him out with a win, and the chairman of the board of trustees siding with Brown over his own athletic director about the way it was handled.
What should have been a smooth transition to Brown as elder statesman of the football program — much like Roy Williams became for the basketball program, one the athletic department was eager to make happen — ended up with hurt feelings and a public airing of grievances.
And if Bubba Cunningham thought that ended up being an unexpected hassle, one can only imagine what hiring a replacement could be like.
When John Preyer, the chairman of the UNC trustees, blasted Cunningham and his “shameful” handling of the situation, immediately after Brown’s 15-minute soliloquy in the wake of the 35-30 loss to N.C. State on Saturday, it wasn’t Preyer’s first open criticism of Cunningham nor did it calm fears Cunningham won’t have the autonomy he needs to make the right hire.
This is an eventuality that Cunningham should have been planning for since the 70-point debacle against James Madison, even without all the postgame weirdness with Brown offering to resign to his players. It was clear at that point that the program needed to go in a different direction, for all that Brown had done for it in his second tenure.
Cunningham has had more than two months to do whatever behind-the-scenes due diligence he needed to do, and there’s no reason he can’t have his top choice lined up when that coach becomes available. (Cunningham indicated this week the seasons of his candidate or candidates have yet to conclude.)
But Preyer’s remarks were the latest chapter in the trustees’ heavy-handed oversight of Cunningham, criticizing his handling of the Brown departure, issuing an unusual statement last year blasting ACC expansion on the eve of the vote to add SMU, Cal and Stanford — they weren’t wrong, but that’s not traditionally how UNC or any other school has treated internal conference affairs externally — and calling for an audit of the athletic department under Cunningham’s leadership last May.
That’s an awful lot of scrutiny for an athletic director whose reputation in the industry is impeccable and will be the public face of Selection Sunday this March as chairman of the NCAA men’s basketball committee. And Preyer’s comments certainly raise the question whether Cunningham will be left to do his job or whether he’s going to have a whole bunch of political appointees looking over his shoulder.
Brown’s return the last time around was pushed by UNC boosters who wanted him back; Cunningham has earned the right to make his own hire at such an important juncture for the football program.
The last thing he needs is being pressured to hire someone with Chapel Hill connections like Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith — a former UNC player with all of two seasons of college coaching experience — over someone like Tulane coach Jon Sumrall, a proven winner at far more difficult jobs than UNC but not a name that will likely garner much support in the country-club grill rooms of Charlotte and Greensboro the way Brown electrified that crowd.
Whoever he identifies, Cunningham needs to be left alone to do the job he was hired to do. The trustees and boosters are entitled to their opinions, and certainly have the power to act upon them, but airing those opinions to undermine their own athletic director isn’t helping anyone right now.
Former chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz already departed for Michigan State when faced with the backseat driving of a bunch of political appointees; giving Cunningham reason to leave would be an even bigger mistake at a time when the upheaval in college athletics demands a steady hand like his running the department.
The last thing North Carolina football or Cunningham needs right now is an outbreak of leadership.
Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at www.newsobserver.com/newsletters to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.
Luke DeCock’s Latest: Never miss a column on the Canes, ACC or other Triangle sports
This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Will Bubba Cunningham make UNC football coach hire free from political interference?."
