Tar Heels Catch Butch Davis As New Coach

WRALSportsFan

Tar Heels Catch Butch Davis As New Coach

Nov 18, 2006

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After weeks of "Will he or won't he?" the Tar Heels now have their man.

UNC athletic officials announced Monday afternoon that former Cleveland Browns and University of Miami football coach Butch Davis will replace UNC's John Bunting as head coach of the Tar Heels.

Many observers previously indicated Davis, who emerged as the top candidate to replace Bunting shortly after his ouster, was coming to UNC. Roger Brown, a columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, said: "Butch Davis will soon officially become head coach."

ACC expert David Glenn agreed. On his WRAL.com blog, David Glenn's ACC Journal, he's asked the question: "Is there any doubt in your mind that Butch Davis will be UNC's next football coach?" His answer: "No."

Both UNC and Davis' agent, Marvin Demoff, had previously told WRAL there was no deal. Tar Heel players told a different story, however.

"We can't stop Butch Davis -- we can't stop him from coming. He's already coming, no matter what. And we still just have to play football," UNC senior safety Kareen Taylor told reporters Saturday after UNC's 7-0 loss to Georgia Tech. "We're not going to quit just because a new coach is coming in. We're still playing. The young guys, you know, they're playing hard, because they'll be around when Butch is in. And the older guys just want to keep everything upbeat and keep playing."

Davis resigned as the Browns' coach midway through the 2004 season after four years in Cleveland. He has been out of coaching the past two years while working as a broadcaster.

Previous coaching searches at North Carolina have fallen apart at the last minute.

Six years ago, Frank Beamer visited the campus before announcing the next day that he would remain at Virginia Tech, leading the school to hire Bunting. Basketball coach Roy Williams turned down the North Carolina job to remain at Kansas in 2000. Three years later, he decided to leave the Jayhawks when offered the job a second time.

Davis, who turns 55 on Nov. 17, inherited a struggling Miami team in 1995 and rebuilt the Hurricanes into national title contenders. He went 11-1 during his final season at Miami in 2000. A year later, the team he built beat Nebraska under coach Larry Coker in the Rose Bowl to win the national championship.

By then, Davis was with the Browns. After four years, he resigned with a 24-35 record. His best Cleveland team probably was his second, which went 9-7 and reached the playoffs in 2002.

The University of North Carolina Board of Trustees would ultimately have to sign off on a new coach and approve the contract. The board meets on Wednesday.