Tudor: Blake resignation raises more questions on UNC probe

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The sudden resignation of North Carolina associate head football coach John Blake on Sunday raised more questions than it resolved about NCAA and school investigations involving the program.

Why, for instance, would the school give Blake $74,500 in severance pay if he simply decided to quit his job?

Such lucrative parting packages are normally reserved for coaches who get fired for not winning enough games.

According to UNC's news release, Blake wasn't dismissed but stepped down in the "best interest" of the program.

Blake's possible role in the probe related to improper player contacts with agents hardly was sorted out, either.

That aspect of the situation actually became more confusing when Raleigh lawyer and former UNC player Wade Smith, who has been assisting the coach, would not answer questions about whether Blake was taking money from agents while working as a college coach.

"That's a complicated question. I should not deal with that ... while the investigations are ongoing," Smith said.

At the highest levels of college football competition, lots of coaches double as independent businessmen.

In that context, it's only natural that Blake and his lawyer or lawyers did their best to arrange the best-possible exit package.

But it was a strange development in a progressively strange story that apparently isn't likely to reach a quick conclusion. It's almost unheard of for a healthy coach to quit only one game into a season, much less one of the most important seasons in the school's history.

The financial bottom line definitely doesn't compute. Blake was pulling in almost a quarter of million dollars annually, plus perks.

So if Blake did something severe enough to lead to his resignation, it's difficult to believe the school owed him a cent.

And while Blake's departure leaves a void on the defensive coaching staff, it also means head coach Butch Davis will have to find a new recruiting director.

Blake was generally considered to be UNC's most productive recruiter.

On another front, among the saddest aspects of this saga is that the many innocent UNC players who are doing everything possible to help the team win are becoming the victims of collateral damage.

The performance those players staged in Saturday's 30-24 loss to LSU was extraordinary. They deserved every cheer directed their way Saturday night in Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

They also deserve more stability in their program.

(Contact Caulton Tudor at caulton.tudor(at)newsobserver.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

columnMust credit The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C.