CHAPEL HILL--It's a strange business this college football. Two coaches on the brink -- North Carolina's John Bunting and Duke interim Ted Roof -- met Saturday in Kenan Stadium.

One -- Roof -- gave his school every reason to stick with him. The underdog Blue Devils won, 30-22, giving Roof a 2-3 record in his five-game stint. One of the losses was by a nose against N.C. State.

The other coach -- Bunting --did everything to get himself fired. His third season ended 2-10 with only one ACC win. It came after his '02 team went 3-9 and the same 1-7 in the conference.

The Carolina program that went 6-5 in 2000 under Carl Torbush and 8-5 in '01 under Bunting is now officially the worst in the conference.

The only opponent that failed to get at least 30 points against the Tar Heels this year was East Carolina. The Tar Heels' leading rusher Saturday was punter David Wooldridge, who ran for 24 yards on a fake. The Carolina offensive unit got all of one first down in the first half.

When asked if the team still has confidence in Bunting and his staff, junior running back Jacque Lewis and senior offensive guard Jeb Terry declined comment.

And yet, all apparent signs point to Bunting's return.

After the game, Carolina athletics director Dick Baddour enthusiastically gave his coach another vote of support, going so far as to say the rank-and-file fans are solidly behind Bunting. Maybe so, but there was a lot of booing in the house Saturday.

"I hear tremendous support for John Bunting," Baddour said. "We're disappointed in the season. We're disappointed today. But they know what he's about and they know he's going to lead this program. They turned out today [48,000] and gave this team a lot of support -- gave John Bunting a lot of support. ... John's running this program.

"I look for us to work hard in the offseason. I look for us to get better and I'm confident that we will. And I'm confident of his leadership and coaching ability. North Carolina football is going to get back and it's going to get back in the right way. It's going to get back under John's leadership and I'm excited about that."

But Baddour, like Bunting, is getting booed in some corners of the decaying Carolina football empire. Baddour's decision to hire Torbush in 1998 didn't work. Bunting's record is now 13-24. Baddour fired Torbush, who went 6-5 in his last season and was 17-18 overall. Bunting's only good season thus far has been with the players Torbush immediately left behind.

With his current contract expiring in June and no extension offered thus far, Baddour could be giving his critics powerful ammunition by sticking with Bunting.

And make no mistake, keeping the coach is a gamble for Baddour and for the school. Here's just one reason why: Suppose the Tar Heels improve enough next season to win five or six games. Then what? Does Carolina change coaches then, or stick with a guy who has more than doubled his victory total from the season before?

Baddour kept Torbush after a 3-8 record in '99 and then fired him after going 6-5 -- and winning his final three games -- in 2000. It was reverse logic of the first degree.

That move also set the stage for a second straight hiring gamble. Torbush had no real experience at being a head coach at the ACC level. Neither did Bunting, who spent the majority of his career as an NFL aide. In both cases, the Carolina head coach was learning the job by the seat of his pants. Carolina and Baddour don't have to take those risks. The head football coaching job at UNC shouldn't have to be turned into an internship. Hire a coach who knows the ins and outs of the business before he arrives.

That everyone admires Bunting and his convictions isn't the point. He's a terrific person, but he is failing as a head coach at Carolina, and Division I-A coaches who flop miserably in their third season rarely do an about-face.

Bunting said Saturday that he could see progress from a year ago even though the '02 team won three games with star quarterback Darian Durant out for four games with an injury.

"We're not that far away," Bunting said. "We've played very competitively this year. We've been a lot closer to winning. I'm greatly encouraged."

The final scene Saturday said a lot. Bunting and Baddour poetically stood side-by-side in front of the UNC student body as a lingering few souls saluted the team by singing the alma mater.

The coach and the AD have a strong bond. But someone once said that winners write history and losers write poetry. Duke wrote the history Saturday.

Its coach, Roof, spent his post-game ringing the Victory Bell. His odds of holding the same job come '04 are about 50-50. Strange, huh? But true.

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