Davis to North Carolina

[Alex]

North Carolina Hires Butch Davis (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/ncaa/11/08/davis.unc/index.html)

Excellent hire for North Carolina and now makes Miami's search for a new coach once Coker is dismissed all the more challenging. Though I think the chances of Davis going back to Miami were slim to begin with. This could prove to be the best hiring in college football this year. He's an accomplished college head caoch and has NFL experience. Even better for North Carolina, this hire may save their recruiting class this year. Another hire could've cost them a number of top prospects.

[buckeyefan78]

Wow.

Why in the world would a coach of that caliber want to go to North Carolina? Something is fishy here. I guess it worked for Mack Brown but that was before Boston College, Virginia Tech, and Miami joined the conference (he even had 4 or 5 years without FSU). Plus it took him 3 years just to get the squad "respectable" under those conditions.

UNC is a top 25 program every 5 years. A successful run for Davis would be getting there every 3 to 4 years IMO. That's just so mediocre and probably unattainable with the influx of the new teams. I don't get it.

[doublee]

Uh, likely because rumor has it that Carolina is going to be ponying up roughly $2mil per year plus incentives to have him come coach football.

Honestly the job is not as bad as you are making it out be. It has never been an issue of not being able to recruit quality talent to Chapel Hill it has been an issue of having the right guy in place to coach them over the past few years. They have a pretty good recruiting class lined up for a program that has struggled as much as it has in the past few years.

Even so it does not look as though there is going to be a bevy of great jobs coming open next spring anyway.

[Alex]

I don't think it will get much better than North Carolina this year. Miami is probably the only higher profile job that will open up unless Georgia and/or Alabama panics and fires Richt or Shula. Arizona State is another possibility.

[doublee]

Miami may be a bigger mess than UNC at this point with all that is going on. The program is looking like it may be in line for another purging the rate they are going these days and UNC just needs some direction. I don't know that I would hold ASU in any higher regard than UNC. It is arguably in a better state but it has never really been considered much more than a second tier program in the Pac-10.

I could see 'bama maybe coming open but one would like to think Richt has bought himself a a little time with the success he has had the past few years.

[buckeyefan78]

Uh, likely because rumor has it that Carolina is going to be ponying up roughly $2mil per year plus incentives to have him come coach football.

Honestly the job is not as bad as you are making it out be. It has never been an issue of not being able to recruit quality talent to Chapel Hill it has been an issue of having the right guy in place to coach them over the past few years. They have a pretty good recruiting class lined up for a program that has struggled as much as it has in the past few years.

Even so it does not look as though there is going to be a bevy of great jobs coming open next spring anyway.

Sure...they overpaid for him...but that only proves my point. This is not a good place to coach football. I'm just surprised that he took the deal when he could have coached somewhere good (yes perhaps for less). I understand better jobs might not have appeared this year but that doesn't mean you act desperately and take this crappy position. Honestly, I see this as the death of his career so he better enjoy the dough now.

Here are the facts...

1. UNC is a basketball school. In fact, it is the basketball school. He went from Miami (FL) to the NFL to a b-ball school in a b-ball conference? Doesn't jive.

2. Yes, UNC has produced NFL talent (Peppers, Bly). Well, so does Michigan State. How good of a job do you think that is? Virginia produces a ton of NFL talent too and they've been nothing but softies with one quality win (FSU in 95ish) in the last dozen or so years. Some schools just don't have that quality that screams "killer instinct football." UNC, Virginia, and MSU...there's 3 right there. That's a mindset problem.

3. UNC is not a school that hires from within...most of the time. This is a school where coaches go as upstarts. They are unproven with relatively no ties and never had head coaching experience at another major school. That's the sign of a mediocre program. Let's look at the last 40 years of Tar Hill coaches...

A. Bill Dooley (1967-77): This was his first head coaching position and where did he go after it? Wake and VT. Two other schools with no hope.

B. Dick Crum (1978-87): Crum's only head coaching experience was at Miami of Ohio before he came to Chapel Hill. Actually that's awesome. Oxford is the cradle of coaches...as we all know. The problem is this guy could only muster a 3-year stink...errr...stint at Kent State after he left NC. Obviously his stint in Chapel Hill (though he had a solid record) didn't impress anyone.

C. Mack Brown (1988-97): So in the late 80s NC goes out and gets a coach who was in charge at App. State and Tulane. See, this is the one exception where a coach actually went up after Chapel Hill. But why would Davis need to do this? He's been in the NFL and Miami...remember? Makes no sense. UNC evaluated Brown's talent and brought him as an unknown. Good for them...once in fifty years.

D. Carl Torbush (1998-2000): This guy is now coaching at a D-II school in Tennesse...as an assistant. Great assistant while at the I-A level but again...UNC allows these guys to use their program as a starting point. It was his first head job.

E. John Bunting (2001-06): Sure he led the Rams to the Super Bowl in charge of the D but let us not forget he basically gambled and used NC as a starting point for his head coaching career. Well, he failed. I doubt he ever works again...unless he is the waterboy for Torbush at that D-II school. He did play for UNC and was hired by Dooley so at least he had ties to the program.

See the pattern though? No head coaching experience at the major college level. All outsiders for the most part. And after they leave, they go to hell (except for Brown). Davis doesn't need this.

I'd also point out again that BC, VT, Miami, and FSU are now part of the conference. Wanna guess UNC's record against these schools (who are clearly football-first and will hurt the Tar Hills) since they joined the ACC? 3-17. Wow.

Look, it's not like big schools don't take gambles or do stuff like this either. Earl Bruce was at Iowa State before he came to Ohio State but he had strong ties to Columbus. Cooper had gone to a Rose Bowl before coming to OSU. Tressel was at I-AA Youngstown but he had strong ties to OSU as well. That's Ohio State though...this is North Carolina. They don't have the built-in advantages that the Buckeyes have. Guys like Davis should only be considering Ohio States, Alabamas, Nebraskas, and Tennesses. He basically put his rep on the line here...and for what? Money I guess. Like I said...enjoy it now cuz he's in a new kind of conference that doesn't have the built-in advantages needed to do well. In this era, it just seems odd that a coach with his resume would be willing to go down to the level of NC.

Prediction: First 5 years...

3-9
6-6
8-4
5-7

And doing it while everyone waits for b-ball season. Just don't get it.