Well, I said I'd be talking about college football soon, but I didn't think it would be the next day. On Wednesday, UNC fired football coach Butch Davis after four seasons. The Tar Heels have been embroiled in an NCAA investigation over recruiting violations for around a year, give or take. Several players sat out last season, some of them significant, and the Heels still went 8-5 and beat Tennessee in the Music City Bowl. UNC destroyed Virginia 44-10 in Scott Stadium. I think UNC was close to getting to where Butch Davis wanted them to be. Last year, they showed glimpses. Who knows what they could have done at full power? The NCAA investigation hampered the Heels' progress though, and Davis obviously was unable to recover fully. And the NCAA investigation still is sitting over Chapel Hill like a dark cloud.
The timing of the firing is very odd, though. If UNC was going to fire Davis, it seems like wise timing would have been several months ago. I'm not sure why the Heels decided to make the move now, with the season only a little over a month away. My friend, Jeremy Lambert (who I think reads this blog :)! ), was the first to actually let me know about the firing, which is funny since I work in the sports section of a newspaper. We are usually the first to know if something breaks, so kudos to Jeremy for letting me know quickly! And he brought up a good point -- perhaps some of the timing has to do with the conclusion of the ACC football media days, which just ended Monday in Pinehurst, N.C. I'm sure Davis was asked a ton of questions, as were players, about the scandal rocking UNC. I would have thought they would have refused to answer those types of questions, but perhaps someone slipped up and gave more information than should have been given. It might not have even been revealing material --like something the NCAA hadn't found out yet -- but maybe someone said something that they weren't allowed to say. And whether Davis said something or a player said something, Davis took the fall for it. Just speculation, you never know. The timing is just really curious to me, so it warrants conversation. Something must've triggered such an abrupt action this close to the season.
In August, I'll talk about each ACC team's prospects for the 2011 season and this move will almost certainly hurt UNC's chances of having a successful year.
The timing of the firing is very odd, though. If UNC was going to fire Davis, it seems like wise timing would have been several months ago. I'm not sure why the Heels decided to make the move now, with the season only a little over a month away. My friend, Jeremy Lambert (who I think reads this blog :)! ), was the first to actually let me know about the firing, which is funny since I work in the sports section of a newspaper. We are usually the first to know if something breaks, so kudos to Jeremy for letting me know quickly! And he brought up a good point -- perhaps some of the timing has to do with the conclusion of the ACC football media days, which just ended Monday in Pinehurst, N.C. I'm sure Davis was asked a ton of questions, as were players, about the scandal rocking UNC. I would have thought they would have refused to answer those types of questions, but perhaps someone slipped up and gave more information than should have been given. It might not have even been revealing material --like something the NCAA hadn't found out yet -- but maybe someone said something that they weren't allowed to say. And whether Davis said something or a player said something, Davis took the fall for it. Just speculation, you never know. The timing is just really curious to me, so it warrants conversation. Something must've triggered such an abrupt action this close to the season.
In August, I'll talk about each ACC team's prospects for the 2011 season and this move will almost certainly hurt UNC's chances of having a successful year.
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