RALEIGH – Time to time, it's good to be reminded that they're people. Coaches and players have a blood-flow system just like anybody – it just runs a little faster on game day.

In the case of N.C. State football coach Chuck Amato, it takes a longer look these days to see anything but a blanket of Carolina blues after the Wolfpack lost to in-state rival UNC 31-24 Saturday.

Two straight years, N.C. State has fallen to the Tar Heels despite at least a slight edge in talent. So the time seems right to pounce on Amato. And many have.

His job could be in jeopardy, according to plenty of folks around the state. And if not, it should be, they say. Some with pens and paper would hardly be saddened if he left. Blessed – or cursed, depending on your perspective – with a rigid eastern Pennsylvanian personality, Amato hasn't always meshed with the Southern media.

To some, Amato's departure would be nothing more than end of an unsuccessful Italian regime, one that included plenty of pomp, but little circumstance.

It's easy to call for a firing. But that's where the reminders come into play.

I'm reminded of a former N.C. State player who last month wrote to me after I ran a previous column suggesting Amato's days could be numbered. Coming to the defense of Amato, the former player wrote, "I do not think you know Chuck Amato."

He was correct. I only know the big-chested coach who turns on his whoop-tail mode every time he sits behind a microphone.

So I found the N.C. State media guide. I turned to Amato's biography. There's not much in the way of personality explanation in the bio – nothing near the deep look into John Bunting that's printed in the UNC media guide. But there is a photo of Amato with his wife, two daughters, son-in-law, and grandson all standing in front of a Christmas tree.

Somewhere, I've realized, behind the façade of muscles, Italian nose and flashy red shoes, Amato is a family man. At least the man smiles at Christmas.

And he's liked. Very much. By many. Just look at the money pouring into the football coffers at State. Before moving back to North Carolina this year, the last time I had covered an N.C. State game was in 2000. I was only gone a little more than four years, but Carter-Finley Stadium was virtually unrecognizable to me last spring.

Between the Murphy Center and the Vaughn Towers, alumni clearly have been in giving mode with Amato around.

So now, when the time seems right to say "fire away," I try to remember these things. Amato is a person, I tell myself. And a good person in the eyes of some.

I've remembered. I've considered. I've thought.

And still, it seems clear.

Something is wrong with N.C. State's football team.

And since Amato said he wanted to take the blame Saturday, he should be given it.

With due respect to UNC, which played an inspired game, rallying from a 24-14 deficit in the second half and proving it has the ability to be a decent football team this year, the 95th installment of the rivalry game was more about what the Wolfpack did to lose than what the Heels did to win.

State entered the game with a swagger befitting of an Amato-coached team. Players pushed and shoved, later defending their part in a pre-game altercation by saying a group of Tar Heels was on the N.C. State side of the field. The UNC players say they were simply praying.

Ridiculous. Childish. Absurd.

But while the Wolfpack planned to dominate, to really give it to the Heels, to intimidate and destroy them after a disheartening loss in Chapel Hill last year, to shed that second-class, lower-rate citizen label, UNC planned a pretty good football game.

Under the direction of the softer-spoken Bunting, the Tar Heels outclassed and outcoached State. On the verge of being dismantled in the third quarter, they rallied against the big-bad Wolfpack. On a third-and-7, they rolled up 11. And then they were off.

Matt Baker was the captain of UNC's surge, completing 12 of his last 13 passes after starting 1-for-10.

The Tar Heels ran the ball, something they hadn't been able to do in their first two games.

For all the talk, for all the hype about the talent, the Wolfpack didn't seem ready.

Defensive ends were put in at offense – another apparent humiliation tactic gone awry – defensive backs still were committing late hits and punt returners were still making bone-head decisions.

Hoping for an authoritative win, the Wolfpack were slapped with a shameful loss.

But want to know why we can talk this way, why it's OK to blast State, why it feels like the Wolfpack is a grossly underachieving 1-2 team?

Because of Amato. He's made us believe the Pack is a step better than UNC in talent.

So why, after Amato is now 3-3 against the Heels in his tenure, can't we now see that the programs really are on equal footing? Why can't we say UNC beat State instead of UNC upset State?

Because of Amato.

The man, for some reason, is fascinating. He recruits talent like none other, snatching up the lion's share of North Carolina's stud prep players, and even making his own place at dinner tables in Florida.

The man, for some reason, is a middle-of-the-pack coach. Though he's 40-25 overall, he's just 20-22 against the ACC. For every big win over teams like Florida State, there's a bad loss to teams like Wake Forest.

Maybe it's the shoes. Maybe it's the attitude. Maybe it's the swagger, the nose, the background, the accent, the raspy voice or the chest.

We'll keep watching Amato.

Maybe someday we'll have him figured out. If he's around long enough.

Michael N. Graff can be reached at 407-9952 or mgraff@coxnc.com