We are at Def-Con 4.
Phil Fulmer is done at Tennessee which means Butch Davis’ name will be tossed around in the media like beach ball at a pool party. Couple this with last week’s heated response to a reporter linking Davis to contact with Clemson and you can begin taking bets on whether Davis stays or goes. Based on the Butch Davis Watch Alert System I used last season(which I will update at some point and post) we are at BLUE which is “Davis loves UNC but will not issue a straightfoward commitment to his future in Chapel Hill” mode.
I honestly which we could skip this whole exercise but these are the breaks when you are a basketball school with marginal football tradition and a coach elite schools would love to have. Needless to say, the question at this point, as it was last season, becomes one of money which is ultimately what Jimmy Sexton was driving at with his comments a week ago. Sexton’s position is that Davis would be perfectly willing to stay at UNC because the pressure to win is less and the ACC is an easier mark for conference titles. The only caveat? You need to pay him SEC money. Quite a caveat there and very interesting considering Davis is already the 3rd highest paid coach in the ACC(behind Bowden and Beamer) and 20th overall nationally.
Let’s also not forget every time UNC gives a football coach a raise we get indundated with quotes from Bill Friday about what a scourge on the Univerity football is. Not that Friday has any say at this point but there is at least the chance his way of thinking is shared by some at UNC, perhaps even on the Board of Trustees. If they hand Davis $3 million per season Friday’s head might explode or at the very least it will be immensely unpopular in light of the raise last season. In that respect I am not sure UNC can or will go there especially if have to slide Roy’s pay scale right along with the football coach.
There is one way this all goes away right now and that is if the question comes up in his next press conference Davis pointedly and simply states he is committed to stay at UNC while indicating other schools should not look his direction to fill their coaching vacancies. Granted it won’t happen but a blogger can dream right?
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I will go on record now – the only way we lose Butch Davis is to a historically top-5 or top-10 football program.
Let’s be serious here for a minute. In Chapel Hill, Butch has a top-25 team in his second year. He’ll have 15+ starters coming back and potentially a pre-season top-10 ranking. His chances of playing in the BCS are higher here than they are in Knoxville, Auburn, or Clemson.
Yes, Auburn, Tennessee, and Clemson have all won football championships, but they have not done so without people named Bo Jackson, Peyton Manning (yes I know it was the next year), or Danny Ford. Auburn last won an official title in the 1950s, and even BYU, Washington, and Colorado have won a natty since Clemson but I don’t imagine Jimmy Sexton will be beating a path to Provo, Seattle, or Boulder anytime soon (and we know the U Dub job is open!).
People look at the Mack Brown situation as indicative of UNC’s relative place in the football world. But Mack left for one of the top 5 football jobs in America at a time when UNC couldn’t crack the late 90s version of the BCS with an 11-1 team. That is not the situation anymore, and frankly, there are few places where the fan base expectations are more out of whack than Clemson and UT.
If Texas, Oklahoma, Southern Cal, Florida, Ohio State, Penn State, Nebraska, Alabama, or LSU come open, then I worry more about Butch leaving. The rest is a parlor game for Jimmy Sexton and Dickie Baddour to play.
I live in a lovely area of our state. One of the few negatives is that we are in relatively close proximity to Clemson and Knoxville. I see and hear UT and Tiger fans on a daily basis. DailyDoc you are right, these two fan bases are “a piece of work”. Money (and a lot of it) would be the only reason for Butch to leave CH for either of these schools. I hope for the best!
Do you really believe Butch Davis is an elite enough coach to “Coach” an SEC team??
The job at Nebraska came open last year and not even a blogger linked Butch to it (they hired Pelini, the DC at LSU). I don’t think you can consider the ‘Huskers to be an elite job any longer — they’re located in an undesirable part of the country, and it’s been quite a while since their glory days.
In my humble opinion, Coach Davis stays. He committed during the middle of the season after Bunting was fired, full well knowing that there were a bunch of openings coming up at the end of that season. My hope is that money is not that big of an issue at Davis’s stage, that he enjoys living in Chapel Hill and North Carolina, and as has been said, winning titles will be easier here than in the SEC. And I think Roy Williams could be a factor: he appears to be supportive of the various teams in general, and I would guess is viewed by Davis not as a competitor but as a friend.
Not to be old fashioned about it, but does Coach Davis have a contract? What are its terms? If it permits him to leave at will, that’s one thing. If it doesn’t, that’s another.
Giving one’s word still counts for something, and giving it in a legally enforceable instument like a contract counts for a great deal — or it should.
Opportunism can’t be everything. If it is for Coach Davis, then, with all respect to his undoubted coaching abilities, we are better off without him.
Some of this may be our paranoia, some of it is ABC’ers fanning the flames, and some of it is legit. However, I really hope that Butch douses these flames soon and makes it clear that he is staying in Chapel Hill. I agree with rathskellar68 that if Butch (and his agent) use every opportunity to squeeze more $$ out of us, then at some point we’ve got to put our foot down. I don’t blame a guy for advancing his own agenda, but he’s got to show some loyalty too.
I hope Butch realizes that if he can get us competing for the ACC title on a fairly regular basis (not necessarily every year), and beats State and Dook, then he’ll always be welcome with open arms in Chapel Hill. And be paid pretty darn well to boot.
The commentary from our “wanna be rivals” is interesting if not funny.
On one hand you have the “Butch is a great recruiter but a terrible game day coach”.. “Butch couldn’t win a NC at Miami and bombed at Cleveland”
HOWEVER, these same people think Butch is SO GOOD that UT and any other SEC team would be chomping at the bit to get Butch. Which is it??
My feeling is that BD at age 57 has a rare chance to build a legacy at UNC that will be long remembered. Hell, I could see “Butch Davis Field at Kenan Memorial Stadium”.
Rathskellar:
There is a $2 million penalty clause if Butch leaves before the end of the 2010 season – including the bowl game, if any, that season (AKA the Mack Brown rule). The penalty decreases each season thereafter.
Don’t overlook the consideration of family. Butch has a high-school-aged son who is getting a top notch education in Chapel Hill. Don’t know much about his wife or her likes/dislikes (remember the talk about Pitino leaving Lexington because his wife didn’t think they had high-class restaurants). I maintain that Butch stays in Chapel Hill at least until his son enters college. If his son elects to go to UNC, even better.
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