Laugh track cued: B-A-D-dour has another hire to whiff on at UNC

Dick Baddour is doing what he does worst -- hiring a coach -- which means the depressing North Carolina football program ought to be good for a few laughs over the next few months.

Baddour is the UNC athletics director who screwed up the hiring of Roy Williams in 2000, screwed up the firing of Carl Torbush in 1999, then screwed up the hiring of Frank Beamer in 2000. Williams finally made it to Chapel Hill in 2003. Beamer never got there, staying at Virginia Tech while Baddour's Plan B, John Bunting, was concussing UNC football against a wall.

Good man, this John Bunting. Just not a good ACC head coach. (Getty Images)

If it matters, I like John Bunting. You won't find a more cynical SOB than me, but I wholeheartedly believe Bunting didn't break NCAA rules, did value discipline more than wins, and cared about his players' academics. With a 25-43 record at UNC, Bunting isn't a good ACC head coach. But he's a good man.

Dick Baddour? Nice enough guy, but a bad, bad athletics director.

If you're a UNC football fan, be scared. Baddour is looking for coaching greatness, but he wouldn't know greatness if it picked up the phone and called him. And that's a fact.

In December 2000 when Baddour was bumbling through his coach search like a drunk looking for his car keys, lurching from Beamer to Marty Schottenheimer to Bunting, two interested NFL assistant coaches faxed resumes and letters of application to his office. And got nowhere. Those two NFL assistants never heard a word from UNC.

Their names: Marvin Lewis and Herm Edwards.

At the time, Lewis was defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens. Now he coaches the revitalized Cincinnati Bengals. Edwards was an assistant head coach for Tampa Bay, but six weeks after failing to get a sniff from UNC in December 2000, he was hired by the New York Jets. Now he coaches Kansas City. Edwards and Lewis are stars.

Baddour? He's blindfolded, trying to pin the tail on the donkey, and sticking himself in the ass.

There are two more coaches Baddour turned down in 2000. Hell, there are probably 22 more, but these are the only others I know about. And these, on top of Edwards and Lewis, are bad enough.

Their names: Mark Richt and Paul Johnson.

At least Baddour talked to Richt, who was Florida State's offensive coordinator at the time, but Richt exited that interview telling people he had no shot at the UNC job. He was right. Bunting was hired within a few days. Two weeks later Richt got hired at Georgia. In five-plus seasons there, his Bulldogs are 58-16.

In 2000, Paul Johnson was winning his second national championship at Georgia Southern. A North Carolina native, he would've taken the UNC job for pennies on the dollar. His agent let it be known that Baddour had their number. Baddour never called.