In a press release through N.C. State media relations, Athletics Director Lee Fowler announced that football coach Chuck Amato will not be retained next season.The announcement comes after a 3-9 season, which ended with a seven-game losing streak. In seven seasons, Amato had a combined 49-37 overall record, but had a 25-31 record in ACC play. “This season was a big disappointment but I’m very proud of what I accomplished during my tenure,” Amato said in an official statement. “I believe that my relentless persistence and my passion have brought an enthusiasm, an energy and an emotion that couldn’t be equaled. Those same qualities are just as strong in me today as they were the first day I took this job. I haven’t lost my passion, my will to succeed or my joy.”Amato and the Wolfpack closed the season with losses to in-state rivals North Carolina and East Carolina, ending State’s run of four straight bowl games. “No Wolfpack fan can question the excitement the enthusiasm that Chuck Amato brought to the N.C. State football program when he came here in 2000,” Fowler said in the press release. “His dreams have become our dreams and that has translated itself into our great new facilities, record ticket sales and five bowl appearances in seven years. However, because the results on the field in two of the last three seasons have fallen far below where we feel our program should be at this point, we have decided to take the program in a new direction.”Amato, whose contract doesn’t run out for another three years, and the Pack finished with losing records in 2004 and 2006.”We appreciate everything that Chuck has done for the program and our student-athletes,” Chancellor James L. Oblinger said in the release. “We wish him all the best in the future — he will always be a member of the Wolfpack family.”Fowler said the search for a replacement will begin right away.”Our search will be national in scope and we will begin the process through a search firm very quickly,” Fowler said. “I ask that all Wolfpackers join together in supporting our student-athletes and staying behind our program.”
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