Bunting, A Man of Principle but Not Enough Wins.

Last week I wrote about how…not good, the North Carolina/Virginia game would be on ESPN’s nationally televised Thursday night football game. And well, I was way freakin’ right. Not that it was a big feat to see that one coming. The ESPN gang had to contain themselves a couple times to keep from laughing out loud. And sometimes they didn’t even bother trying.

There’s no reason to revisit the play on the field, it was bad enough the first time. But I think it deserves to be said that North Carolina coach John Bunting made more of a statement after starting linebacker Garrett White made a pre-game gesture than all the talk and political positioning out of Miami last week put together.

A young player made a mistake in making an inappropriate gesture to, I’m guessing here, a group of UVA undergrads in the stands. Now yes, it was wrong. And no matter how bad many other people would like to gesture inappropriately to UVA undergrads, players on the field shouldn’t get caught up and react that way.

But White never hit anyone, never swung his helmet at anyone, never stomped on anyone’s face. Guess what else he didn’t do, play in the game. On the spot, Bunting pulled him out of the lineup. Now that is zero tolerance.

I don’t want to compare the two incidents or the punishments for them. But on the day Bunting has been told he won’t return as head coach, he deserves credit for having the guts to be one of the most stand-up, take charge, and courageous men in college football.

He is what college football is all about. He came back to his alma mater, not a football school, and tried to “change the culture.” At times he did. He orchestrated some of the biggest and most exciting wins in the history of the program, but in the end it was headed down too fast to recover the season or his job. It is after all about winning.

Bunting may be the first coach to be fired this season, but he definitely won’t be the last. He will coach the remainder of year and continue to lead his players in the same fashion he has for six years. And at least for now, that will be enough.