Bunting could be ACC's best

After Saturday's whipping of Duke, North Carolina running back Chad Scott found himself pinned against a brick wall by a crowd of reporters just outside the visitor's locker room.

Fifteen feet away, Ronnie McGill, whose 95-yard, one-touchdown outing was overshadowed by Scott's 144 yard, two-TD performance, fielded questions from a mere three reporters.

McGill was his normally affable self, joking and flashing the kind of smile that easily disarms someone he's meeting for the first time.

Until someone asked about John Bunting's performance.

"He's done real good this year," McGill said, the jovial humor of previous answers whisked away by his serious intent. "He's got a chance to be Coach of the Year because nobody expected us to do that good in the conference, and we just showed everybody and he is a good coach."

Chance to be Coach of the Year? John Bunting? The same John Bunting of http://www.firebunting.com?

Actually, yes.

The Tar Heels entered this season with deflated expectations. Even the most optimistic fans were cautious in predicting more than two wins. And don't think the team didn't know about it.

"Coming into the season, people only had us winning two games - William & Mary and Duke," said receiver Jesse Holley. "Well, we're two out of two in those, and we got four more in there, too."

Those unanticipated four included a win against heralded Miami. And a mighty close call against Virginia Tech could have been a fifth. That might well have put UNC in the top 25 for the first time since 2001.

Run down the list of ACC head coaches. Who else has done better than they were expected to?

Not Larry Coker, Bobby Bowden or Al Groh.

Miami, Florida State and Virginia were all in the preseason top 25 and currently rank below their initial expectations.

Not Tommy Bowden, Chan Gailey, Chuck Amato, Jim Grobe, Ralph Friedgen or Ted Roof.

Clemson was a popular dark horse pick and proved to be good, but not spectacular. Georgia Tech is serviceable. N.C. State, Wake Forest and Maryland are all 4-6. And as for Duke, every conference needs a lovable loser. Well, a loser anyway.

Virginia Tech, however, is sitting atop the ACC and controls its own fate after starting the season unranked. If the Hokies win their two remaining games, they will win the ACC title outright in their first season in the league.

That leaves Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer as the only viable alternate to Bunting.

If the Hokies win out, Beamer's the likely pick. But if there's any kind of entanglement at the top of the conference, John Bunting's name should slice through the underbrush and make its way onto the votes of the ACC's multitude of scribes.

Even if it doesn't, Bunting's efforts have already been recognized by the UNC bigwigs. After the Tar Heels regained the Victory Bell, Director of Athletics Dick Baddour and Chancellor James Moeser announced they will seek approval for a two-year extension of Bunting's contract.

"He deserves it," said quarterback Darian Durant. "Players play and coaches coach. He's always been a good coach; we haven't been executing our game plan and things like that's causing us to lose the past couple years. But I think everything is falling into place."

Six wins and a likely bowl invitation later, it's hard to disagree.

Contact Ben Couch at bcouch@email.unc.edu.