There is an interesting post over on The Red and White From State about how Chuck Amato can be the one to save the football program by hiring a Tar Heel. I know what you are thinking, “Please don’t say hire John Bunting,,” but I won’t don’t worry. The article makes some good points and essentially tells us what I’ve been saying all along: Mark Trestman is terrible. Wolfpack fans all remember how bad Noel Mazzone was, and for those of you who don’t, the job Mazzone took after NC State was at Ole Miss. Halfway through the season he got fired DURING A GAME. You have to be pretty terrible to get fired during a game , thats how bad he was, and Trestman is worse! I digress, the article over at the Red and White states a case as to why NC State should hire Frank Cignetti from UNC and it convinced me that it maybe worth keeping Chuck if he made this move.

So Where’s The Light At The End of the Tunnel? Ah, here’s the best part.

Frank Cignetti will be out of a job soon. Cignetti was the coach that made little Fresno State a scoring monster, a dangerous non-BCS school in the farmlands of California who’s offense often resembled a thresher moving through hay. Except the hay were name BCS teams. Think he might want to stay i the Triangle? There’s a job he should be offered before Carolina has a chance to hire a new head coach. Hiring Cignetti would improve the brain trust in the Murphy Center, and it would be torpedo in the Carolina program. In fact, Cignetti coming here might doom the next Carolina coach for four or five years, before he ever sets foot in Chapel Hill.

You’d Get Frank….AND Mike.

The highly touted and physically gifted Mike Paulus wants to play for Cignetti and be near his brother, Duke’s point guard Greg Paulus. Cignetti’s brother Curt is already on the Wolfpack staff. On so many levels, this would be a great change: first, it improves the offensive leadership. Second, it hurts UNC, because young Paulus says that he wants to play for Cignetti. With him in Raleigh, he’s still near his brother. State might find itself getting one of the nation’s top recruits – and take him away from their arch-rival to boot. Could it get much better than that?

Yes. In short, Hell yes!

Paulus has recruited heavily amongst his bretheren prep players, and has done a whale of a job recruiting for UNC…before he ever got there. He’s said recently that he’s looked at as “the ringleader” of UNC’s highly touted incoming class, and if Paulus comes to Raleigh, it might follow that some of the crème of UNC’s incoming crop might wear red and white. Think of the possibility of AJ Davis ten times over. It could happen. If Amato were to replace Trestman with Frank Cignetti before Carolina even finished hiring their new coach.

Do The Right Thing, Chuck.

Amato really needs to think about that, and perhaps unite the two Cignetti brothers on the Wolfpack sideline for the 2007. And redshirt Mike Paulus in 2007.

As for 2006, the good ship Wolfpack has been sunk by friendly fire.

This got me interested so I’ve done some digging about Frank Cignetti and here is what I’ve found out:

Frank Cignetti Bio and Facts

• He went to Penn (Ivy League) so he has to be smart.
• Fresno was 3-1 in bowl games with Cignetti.
• In 2004, Fresno averaged 52.8 points over the last six games and became just the sixth team in NCAA history to score 50 or more points in four consecutive contests
• The Bulldogs scored 42 points against No. 1 Southern California in a 50-42 loss.
• Cignetti has been a part of successful programs at all levels. In the NFL, he won a division championship and a playoff game with the New Orleans Saints in 2000.
• He coached Aaron Brooks to the pro bowl. (Thats damn near a miracle)
• His dad coached for 24 years and worked under Bowden at Wva.
• His offensive scheme features two running backs (we have those); zone blocking, a tactic perfected by Gibbs and the Denver Broncos; play-action passes; and more downfield “home run” type passes (we have the Tall and Fast WRs too). “I don’t want to dink and dunk,” Cignetti said. “There are situations for that, but we want to be an aggressive offense. We want to get the ball vertically down the field.”
• At Fresno State, Cignetti had four different 1,000-yard rushers in four seasons.
• Fresno State fan quote about Frank Cignetti (After a Loss to Col. State this year) : “Frank Cignetti was the reason we ave been so good. And now were struggling.”

Sounds pretty good to me. If we have to keep Amato, I hope he can man up and make the call to Frank and kick Trestman’s sorry ass out the door.

*I give Cignetti a pass on this years shitass carolina team, they have no talent and no QB to run his scheme.