Twists, turns and mediocrity: UNC football after Butch Davis
Starting last Wednesday, there were rumblings around the University of North Carolina football program that something was going to happen. Given the last year of scandal surrounding the program, there was a feeling that news probably wasn’t good. However, few predicted what it was going to be: the firing of head coach Butch Davis.
Davis’ firing came at a curious time, as he spoke to the media just two days prior at the ACC Media Day and appeared to have great support from the university through the turmoil. Moreover, it was so close to the start of fall practices. After UNC largely threw away last season thanks to scandal-related issues, few figured they’d risk wasting a second season due to turmoil.
However, two things were happening that might have pushed Davis to the unemployment line. The first was that the leadership of the university’s board of trustees had changed. The second was the lawsuit from defensive end Michael McAdoo, who was ruled academically ineligible and released from the program. He wanted his eligibility back after it was found he had plagiarized. He said he had his work vetted by the university, which was found to be the case.
A Sports by Brooks post Friday said that then-athletic director Dick Baddour and McAdoo’s tutor that had connections to Davis and his family looked over the paper and gave it the OK.
“In other words, McAdoo, tutor Wiley (and apparently Baddour? and the UNC honour court) thought it was okay to plagiarize long passages from other academic works so long as they footnoted the source!” the post said.
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Those revelations, according to Will Brinson of CBS‘ Eye On Football, might have been enough to push Davis and Baddour off the plank.
“The McAdoo lawsuit, in my opinion, played a huge role,” Brinson said. “Suddenly it wasn’t about ‘players cutting corners’ so much as ‘institutional academic integrity,’ and that’s a much bigger problem. I’d still like to see the other players’ papers that the university refuses to release.”
There is one other factor that Brinson believes may be linked to the firing of Davis.
“There are some rumblings that there’s more dirt coming out,” he said. “We shall see. What I do know is that suddenly UNC has clammed up about Davis’ 216 (Cleveland area code) phone records when they decided to pay him $2.7 million severance over the next couple of years as they ‘can’t’ fire him for cause.”
From here, UNC goes on without Davis. While bringing a lot of talent to UNC, his teams could never get over the hump. He was never over .500 in ACC play, and was 1-2 in mid-level bowl games. Still, it doesn’t look like things are going to turn around any time soon thanks to the ongoing turmoil.
Taking Davis’s place is former defensive coordinator Everett Withers, who’s been named as interim head coach. He is most known for his defense’s performance last season, where his attrition-wracked defense (thanks to suspensions of many top veterans) still finished amongst the top NCAA defenses. Withers is a darkhorse to take over the full-time position, but, in the words of Brinson, “they have to get someone so squeaky clean it hurts”.
Withers’ link to the past may be enough to discourage him as a permanent head coach. There’s also the fact that he is not a known name and to continue the momentum that Davis had, UNC and its new athletic director may be looking for a bigger name – but a clean one.
There’s also the fact that penalties are still coming from the NCAA for the last year’s investigation. By firing Davis, UNC hopes that they will distance themselves from all the problems of the past and get a lesser penalty. This, obviously, is similar to Ohio State’s handling of Jim Tressel. However, the NCAA will probably not look favorably on the fact that Davis was defended so fervently for the previous year. UNC is still likely looking at a harsh scholarship ban and perhaps a postseason ban and the always-dangerous threat of vacated victories.
Brinson suggests fans of UNC’s many rivals, are hoping this could be the time where UNC football falls off to the point they would be a one-sport school, similar to Duke, Kansas or Kentucky.
“From the standpoint of being a fan of, say, NC State or Duke or another rival, there’s almost no better way it could have gone down,” he said.
At the moment, fans of North Carolina might be better off waiting for basketball season to start. After years of wanting a big name at the head of the football program, they got it. The highs of the Butch Davis era were not as high as they would have liked, though and the edge of the cliff may be approaching.
“It appeared as if UNC was going to skate and rally under Butch to win an ACC Championship this year. And then – poof – it all disappeared,” Brinson said.
“UNC fans are absolutely reeling right now.”
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