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With Davis in Chapel Hill, Tar Heels Hope His Winning Ways Will Follow
By Al Featherston for theACC.com
A little over a half-century ago, just before the formation of the ACC, North Carolina's basketball program was in the doldrums.
The school's administration decided that the best way to jump-start UNC hoops was to bring in a high-profile coach. The Tar Heels lured St. John's celebrated Frank McGuire to Chapel Hill after the 1952 season and, five years later, McGuire led UNC to a national championship and had put the school on the path to basketball greatness.
In recent years, North Carolina football has been struggling to escape the shadow of the school's high profile basketball team. So why not try the same strategy that proved so successful 55 years ago? Rather than hire a successful head coach from a smaller school or gamble on a promising assistant coach, the Tar Heels elected to hire the biggest name available to energize a program that has so often fallen short of its immense potential.
Enter Butch Davis, a charismatic coach who can share a stage with Roy Williams and not look out of place.
"Butch Davis has won," senior wide receiver Joe Dailey said. "He's won on the high school level, the college level. He's won in the pros. I mean, this guy's a winner. He has a track record of winning football games. How could he not win football games here?"
The 56-year-old Davis largely built his reputation with a six-year stint as head coach of the Miami Hurricanes from 1995-2000. He stepped into that prestigious job in time to inherit NCAA probation and three years of scholarship restrictions.
Davis rebuilt the Miami juggernaut, finishing 11-1 and No. 2 in the national polls in 2000, before he left to become head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Significantly, he left his successor, his former assistant Larry Coker, one of the most talent-laden lineups in college football history. The team Davis left behind won its next 24 games, including the 2001 national championship.
"Butch Davis? Everybody has the utmost respect for that guy," Miami tackle Derrick Morse said during the ACC Football Kickoff. Morse didn't play for Davis, but he has heard about him from former Miami players.
"People from back then said how crazy he is about football and just loves what he does and does everything full tilt," Morse said. "(About) him going to North Carolina? - They've got the athletes and now they've got the coach."
Sophomore Wide Receiver
Hakeem Nicks
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Actually, Davis inherits the ACC's least experienced roster. The Tar Heels return just 10 starters from last year's 3-9 team and that counts Dailey, who was the starting quarterback in a team-high seven games last season, but now plays wide receiver.
Davis is going to have to start rebuilding the UNC lineup almost from scratch, although former coach John Bunting did do him the favor of red-shirting last year's entire freshman class. The former Tar Heel coach also got Davis and his staff off to a good start in recruiting, landing a number of promising prospects before the transition - the most interesting Bunting recruit might be prep All-American quarterback Mike Paulus, whose older brother, Greg Paulus, is the starting point guard for UNC's biggest rival at Duke.
Davis, who was renowned for his recruiting acumen while at Miami, added to Bunting's strong foundation after taking over the job. He beat out a number of national programs for Washington, D.C., defensive lineman Marvin Austin, rated the No. 1 defensive prospect in the country by several services. And on signing day, he convinced prep All-American Greg Little, a wide receiver from Durham, N.C., to sign with the Tar Heels.
Of course, it remains to be seen how long it will take Davis and his veteran staff to turn all that raw young talent into a competitive team. They've got to find a quarterback, a running back or two and a bunch of new offensive linemen. The defense has a number of holes to fill after losing seven starters to graduation.
But the real story in Chapel Hill is not so much what Davis will mean to UNC football today, but what he will mean to the program in the long run. He made that point clear when he sat down to talk to his returning seniors. He talked to them about his success at Miami and showed them his Super Bowl ring - won as an assistant to Jimmy Johnson at Dallas.
"The biggest thing we were surprised about was his mentioning a national championship," defensive end Hilee Taylor said. "We never thought about that."
That's the kind of goal that a coach such as Davis can inspire. And that's why the Tar Heel nation had to endure some tense hours last spring as their new coach underwent chemotherapy to combat cancer.
That won't be a long-term problem, according to the Tar Heel coach.
"I feel great," Davis said at the ACC Football Kickoff. "I've been working with an exercise physiologist who has a Ph.D. He works with cancer patients. He is an awesome guy. He has taken me under his wing. He has been (working with) me either in the mornings or afternoons four or five days a week. We got up to where we were doing three or four miles walking in the heat of the day, exercising, lifting. I feel good."
His new players were impressed by how Davis handled the ordeal.
Senior Defensive End
Hilee Taylor
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"We had a lot of respect for him when he came here," Taylor said. "But we have even more now. He was pushing through hard times. He showed us we can't cry about little things now. Just enjoy life."
North Carolina football is likely to be a lot more enjoyable now with Butch Davis at the helm.
STRENGTHS: Placekicker Connor Barth is one of the ACC's best weapons ... Wide receivers Hakeem Nicks and Brooks Foster combined to catch 77 passes last season for 1,146 yards and six touchdowns.
WEAKNESSES: Inexperience up and down the line ... no proven quarterback.
EARLY BELLWEATHER GAME: North Carolina will travel to East Carolina for just the second time in history on Sept. 8. ECU always seems to play with a chip on its shoulder against the four in-state ACC programs - especially North Carolina.
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