It became obvious, soon after "hello," that former North Carolina football coach John Bunting still has some hard feelings about his dismissal last October, during his sixth season on the job at his alma mater.

In the course of a pair of long conversations over the last week, it also became obvious that Bunting — who has stayed away from the spotlight and done only a few interviews in the last 10 months — is not going to let those feelings overwhelm his famously jovial demeanor.

"I'm a Tar Heel born and bred, and I will always be a Tar Heel," Bunting said. "But there are some things, that obviously I won't get into, that I still am somewhat unhappy about. But it does no good to dwell on those things, or you'll just wear yourself out.

"Now my wife (Dawn), on the other hand? She might give a different answer than that. (Laughs.) You're probably better served not talking to her about it."

But not Bunting himself?

"I could get into all kinds of things," he said. "But it would take too long. We'd have to spend hours on it, and it still wouldn't be enough to tell that whole story. It's better to move on."

Bunting, speaking from his long-time home in Maine, his native state, laughed often and seemed to enjoy sharing his thoughts on a wide variety of topics. Included were his whereabouts this year, his health, what he misses (and doesn't miss) about his old job, a possible return to coaching, UNC's football schedule, the recent New England Patriots video controversy (he's a former NFL assistant), and the on-going battle of former NFL players (he's one himself) on pension and medical issues.

On his marriage: "Well, me and Dawn, the bride, are still together. (Laughs.) That's probably a miracle, because we've never had so much time together."

On his whereabouts: "It's just terrific. Great day up here in Maine! We wanted to come up and spend the entire summer here. How does 75 degrees and about 40 percent humidity sound as an average temperature every day?"

On his future in North Carolina: "We've done a lot of things (since last October), most of them by plan. We wanted to start building our house, down there on the coast of North Carolina. We'll be coming down there soon. North Carolina is still an important part of our future, absolutely."

On his health: "We wanted to reconstruct both knees, which we have done. I've been off a lot. Fortunately for me, I had a great surgeon. As a matter of fact, he's a former Tar Heel football player, Mike Bolognesi. I've been doing quite a bit of rehab up here (in Maine). It's a long, long process.

"I am probably about 80 percent of what I want to be. I'm in many ways pain-free, from what I had in the past. The arthritis had made me very bow-legged. Now I'm straight, I'm probably about a half-inch taller, and I'm even out playing golf. I rehab twice a week for two hours. I have some back issues that are probably a result of those 13 years on that Philadelphia astroturf (as an NFL player) also.

"All in all, I think in a couple more months I'm going to be really happy I did this. In the meantime, it's been quite a bit of work."

On his old UNC job: "There's a lot of things that I miss about coaching in general. There's a lot of things that I miss about being on that job, specific to North Carolina football. I miss my staff. I miss the people in the (UNC football) building. I miss most of the players. (Laughs.) And I certainly appreciate all the support so many people gave me for such a long time there."

More coming later this week....