Tough Questions: How Did Butch Davis Survive?
UNC chancellor Holden Thorp has thrown his support squarely behind Butch Davis.
(AP Photo)
The latest issue of the ACC Sports Journal had the annual feature called “12 Impolite But Perfectly Valid Questions.”
The title sums things up pretty well. David Glenn and other ACC Sports Journal staffers ask one tough - and probably a bit uncomfortable - but fair question of each ACC school.
We’ll be running some of those questions on ACCSports.com during the next few weeks. Last week we looked at issues at Florida State and Georgia Tech
Today, we ask: how has Butch Davis manged to navigate all the turmoil at UNC?
CHAPEL HILL — The delivery of the NCAA’s notice of allegations to North Carolina last week restarted many conversations about the UNC football program.
Everyone from fans to national pundits talked about the nine alleged violations, debating where the Tar Heels’ infraction stacked up in comparison to those of Southern Cal and Ohio State. And there was much conjecture about what sort of penalties UNC would eventually receive from the NCAA.
The release of the notice of allegations also once again raised questions about the Tar Heels’ coach, Butch Davis.
When Davis arrived in Chapel Hill in 2007, some expected the coach who engineered a powerhouse at Miami to do something similar with the Tar Heels.
Thus far, Carolina still has not broken free of its reputation as a mid-tier ACC program. Davis’ UNC teams are 28-23 overall and 15-17 in league play. He’s 6-6 against in-state Division I opponents and — as any Wolfpack fan will point out gladly — 0-4 against the Tar Heels’ archrival from Raleigh.
Off the field, an NCAA investigation turned up a trusted Davis assistant (John Blake) who had deep, active financial ties to an agent, plus a tutor who was both at the center of an academic fraud scandal and had worked with Davis’ son. Davis repeatedly has said he was unaware of any wrongdoing.
But throughout the ordeal — which still isn’t expected to reach a state of complete closure any time soon — Davis has enjoyed support from several crucial corners of the university community.
Publicly and privately, athletic director Dick Baddour and chancellor Holden Thorp have voiced unequivocal support for Davis. According to multiple UNC sources, Thorp’s support for Davis actually increased as Carolina officials worked their way through the investigative process with the NCAA.
“There’s no information to indicate that he participated in or knew of any wrongdoing,” Thorp told the Raleigh News & Observer in November. “Mr. Baddour and I are not having meetings deciding his future. He’s our football coach.”
As evidenced by the $70 million addition to Kenan Stadium that will open this fall and the announced crowd of more than 15,000 to watch the spring game, Davis’ program also appears to have solid backing from its donors and fans. In a professionally done state-wide poll in November, only 14 percent of those who described themselves as UNC fans said they believed Davis should be fired.
All of these things ultimately raise a valid question, given the mildly promising results and high-profile troubles that have surrounded the Tar Heels on Davis’ watch: Why does his position seem so safe?
The answer likely lies in both school officials’ genuine belief that Davis (whose previous reputation included “cleaning up” the Miami program) was neither a participant in nor willfully ignorant of the recent misconduct at UNC, and the signs of gradual progress the Tar Heels have shown on the field.
Under Davis, the Heels have posted a three-year run of eight or more victories for just the second time since 1983. (Mack Brown did it from 1992-94.) Meanwhile, they have put together a series of well-regarded recruiting classes.
No doubt helping on the recruiting trail is the fact that Davis has a proven track record of producing NFL talent. In the last four years, the Tar Heels have had 18 draft picks, including a staggering nine in 2011. That’s the most prolific period since the Heels had 20, all recruited by Brown, from 1996-99.
Davis also does a masterful job of drawing exposure. From the navy blue alternate uniforms for the school’s first Thursday night home game to the 2010 spring scrimmage that was televised live on ESPN, no one can debate the fact that Davis is adept at creating buzz. And in the 21st century landscape of college football, buzz matters.
But perhaps the most powerful reason to keep Davis is the specter of what could happen should the Tar Heels opt not to.
In the nine years following Brown’s decision to bolt for Texas after back-to-back top-10 finishes nationally, the program slid into mediocrity. Carl Torbush and John Bunting oversaw a period in which the Tar Heels went 43-63 and made just three bowl appearances.
The Heels were not just irrelevant in the ACC. They also struggled to generate much traction on their own, basketball-crazed campus.
While there was the occasional victory against a ranked team (five in 34 tries), this dreary era of UNC football will be remembered for its hefty roll of lowlights. In 1999, a 28-3 home loss to Division I-AA Furman brought about reactions ranging from moderate concern to indifference. In 2003, Duke left Kenan Stadium with a victory for the first time since 1989. In 2007, for the first time since 1952, not one Carolina player was picked in the NFL draft.
Don’t think that those around the program have forgotten this. They understand that one wrong move with regard to the head coaching spot easily can drop the historically middle-of-the-pack Tar Heels right back into a similar quagmire, or even something worse.
While the Davis era has had its share of missteps, there’s no debate that under him the program has a pulse. Compared to some of the flat-lining Carolina has done on the gridiron in its not-too-distant past, even an erratic pulse may be viewed as better than none.
