Davis, Carolina Blue Appear to Be a Match

General68

Dick Baddour may be quiet on the current Carolina coaching search, but this link has a great round-up of good articles.

ESPN has reported that Butch Davis has been inquiring into potential assistant coaches and ESPN’s Insider Blog had a ‘Top 10’ list from Notre Dame (Link)

(8) North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour looked shocked when I walked into the visiting AD box at halftime on Saturday. I extended a hand and assured him I was with ESPN. And that, well, they’d sent me here to find out who the North Carolina coach is. “It’s John Bunting,” Baddour quipped. A fine sense of humor. He didn’t confirm it will be Butch Davis. But I (sort of) read his mind. He hopes it is.

If you are concerned about Carolina landing the Head Coach that rebuilt Miami into a national power and has held an NFL coaching job, then your primary hope for the Davis/Tarheel match to fall apart currently lies in the developments in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Yesterday Mississippi State defeated the Crimson Tide and provided a major blow to the job security of (already) embattled head coach, Mike Shula.

Shula

Earlier this season it was widely believed (and reported by some media outlets) that of all of the potential football jobs that may be available this season, Butch Davis coveted the job Alabama the most. With Alabama fans already covering their faces with bags, yesterday’s loss to the Bulldogs MAY serve as a catalyst to make some changes in Tuscaloosa.

The problem with this scenario is why Dick Badoour and Carolina deserve major credit for the manner in which they have executed this change – timing! Carolina is out in front on the coaching search by more than a month. Any other school that wants Davis has GOT to make a move RIGHT NOW before giving their coach a chance to finish the season (which is not customary in the world of college football).

In unrelated coaching news, but something that we just cannot ignore is this article from ESPN regarding the excellence of Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe. We expect Michigan State to be very interested in Grobe but wonder if Grobe is willing to roll the dice and wait for Joe Paterno to retire at Penn State. This would be quite a risk as Grobe will probably never be a hotter commodity than he is this year.

Parting shot – Before one of you smart asses decide to embarass yourself by criticizing Davis’ NFL performance, you would be well served to remember that NC State hired Sidney Lowe who also struggled as a head coach with expansion teams in the NBA. Not much difference there except Davis is considered one of the top college coaches in America based on previous experience.

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68 Responses to Davis, Carolina Blue Appear to Be a Match

  1. stejen 11/05/2006 at 11:42 PM #

    I still find it hard to believe that people really think Cowher would leave his position with the Steelers (despite their record the Steelers are still trying to sign him to another contract) and take a cut in pay and job security as well as esteem to coach at NC State. Come on people. The man promised his wife they would retire in Raleigh and that is what he is doing.

  2. newswolf 11/05/2006 at 11:45 PM #

    Is this the same wolfpack4ever who thought everyone was crazy questioning amato and/or trestman the last 2 months?

  3. wolfpacker55 11/06/2006 at 1:04 AM #

    I think everyone on this site has figured out by now that Wolfpack4ever is a full blown idiot.

  4. class of 74 11/06/2006 at 6:15 AM #

    Personally I don’t want Cowher and I know that is heresy to many of you. In fact I don’t want anyone who has not proven themselves on the college football coaching level. I’d take Paul Johnson at Navy right now over what we’ve got. I want a program that wins and plays up to their potential game in and game out. If we do not upgrade soon we will be mired at the botttom of the ACC for many years to come.

  5. Wolfpack4ever 11/06/2006 at 9:06 AM #

    SWEETS Says: “My point is this – before we stick a fork in CTC and run him out of town- we better look long and hard at our options….”

    far different from the first post and right on.

  6. Wolfpack4ever 11/06/2006 at 9:13 AM #

    wolfpacker55 Says: “I think everyone on this site has figured out by now that Wolfpack4ever is a full blown idiot.”

    Worse than that, Wolfpack4ever is a needle-sticking, pain in the ass to so-called experts who like to say idiotic cappola about wolfpack coaches and AD.

  7. redfred2 11/06/2006 at 10:09 AM #

    4ever

    There is a slight difference here. If being an “expert” is the ability to see reality after a reasonable period of time, versus say, having to be beat over the head with it for months on end before acknowledging even one tiny aspect may be hurting our football team, then count me in. redfred is an expert.

    Just one among the over whelming majority of “experts” on this site.

  8. redfred2 11/06/2006 at 11:57 AM #

    ^Sorry about that 4ever, it’s Monday. But, that was beyond rude and crude anyway. My apologies.

  9. packpigskinfan23 11/06/2006 at 12:24 PM #

    ^actully didnt the CC team just win the championships?! men and ladies…

    in fact ladies coach is ACC coach of the year!

    anyways I agree that we as fans have a bad habit of trying to “run off” coaches… but sometimes it NEEDS to be done. you cant “fire” the players. plus its the coaches job to get them ready for a game, and call the plays that should win the game for us.

    SOMETHING needs to happen on the O side of the ball… and I dont think ANYONE can dispute that.

  10. waxhaw 11/06/2006 at 12:37 PM #

    I also get frustrated with some of our fans who want to fire coaches too early (at least in my opinion). However, I don’t think we are any worse than other schools. In fact, we have a history of being very patient with our coaches.

    As your program gets more successful, you will have more bandwagon type fans that come and go with success. Unfortunately, many of these fans are very vocal.

    For the most part our fans have very reasonable expectations for coaches given our history in different sports.

  11. redfred2 11/06/2006 at 12:42 PM #

    “What coach is going to want to come here anyway?”

    I don’t want to run Amato off any more than anybody here.

    But to answer your question, let’s see now, maybe one that can change and develop different strategies and have those strategies work on somewhat consistent basis. That would be a pleasant surprise, for sure.

  12. partialqualifier 11/06/2006 at 12:59 PM #

    Wow!

    Things seem to have taken a turn for the worse up here! To quote from Ronald Reagan….”Commandment number one….thou shall not speak ill of fellow Wolfpackers!” Ok…actually I think he put Republicans in there instead of Wolfpackers, but hopefully you get the point.

    The in-house fighting brings up something interesting. As Lincoln said….”a house divided cannot stand.” Ok…again I am paraphrasing. The important thing is this. When the house divided, Lincoln new it was time for something radical in order to save the Union. In college athletics the rule of thumb usually is that when you see brother turn on brother (fan turn on fan) it is time to make a change. I would rather see Amato stay than go, but I am starting to see that keeping him is too derisive for our fans, our players, our recruits, and our donors…and that is not a good sign for Amato.

    As for Davis & UNC….As I stated when he was first mentioned as a candidate….he doesnt scare me as much as a guy like Rich Rodriguez or Bobby Petrino. I am going mostly on gut here, so I could be way off. But at the end of the day, if this guy is some unbelievable world-class coach why is he sitting in a news room? He wanted to come back last year to coaching and nobody wanted him. If he is Mr. Football and the world’s greatest coach why in the hell would he want to go to UNC? It doesnt make any sense to me. With Miami, Alabama, FSU, Penn State, UCLA, and God knows who else potentially looking for coaches in the next couple of years I dont know why he would choose to come back to UNC. And for those wondering…I would say the same thing about NC State. If you are the super-coach that supposedly Davis is, you should have ur pick of jobs in college. UNC nor NC State would be real high on the list of dream jobs for a Super-coach. Just wanted to see if I was the only one scratching their heads on this one.

  13. redfred2 11/06/2006 at 1:50 PM #

    pq

    I agree pretty much all the way around. And to your last point I don’t believe UNC/NC State have any real drawing power for a major HC right now.

    But there is potential. Who’s out there selling that potential, that’s where all my worry comes into play.

  14. Woof Wolf 11/06/2006 at 1:55 PM #

    We won 3 ACC games in 2004, 3 in 2005, and 2 so far this year. That’s a total of 8 wins in our last 22 conference games. How bad does it have to get before we are allowed to bitch?

    SFN: Awesome points. Don’t hold your breath for an answer. You will never get one when you ask questions like this.

  15. BoKnowsNCS71 11/06/2006 at 2:25 PM #

    Going back to the topic. Does anyone think it is is interesting that Butch Davis has not said yes yet?

    At this point, jobs are opening up at Miami, Alabama, Michigan State, etc. Butch can sit back and watch the salary ticker get higher and higher. There are far more attractive jobs than UNC and more prone to success. I think we may be seeing him pull a Barnes/Calipari and holdout for more dough.

  16. Wolfpack4ever 11/06/2006 at 3:01 PM #

    partialqualifier Says: “Just wanted to see if I was the only one scratching their heads on this one.”

    I was shaking my head at the fear that all recruiting would immediately dry up and all hope for NC State would be down the tubes.

    Re Wolfpackers against wolfpackers: I wish I had turned the other cheek or something rather than responding the way I did.

    pq, You have also expressed it for me about Amato — and I still am open to him succeeding. I don’t think the ridiculous ridicule helps, actually hinders the process of change-making. Big hitters in the WPC are not hot-headed fanatics with their wants and desires being fanned by half-backed generalizations and mean-spririted calls for callous treatment. Most are business men who know the difficulties of succeeding in competitive situations and most are fair-minded. And most wanted Chuck in the first place.

    In contrast to our basketball history we don’t have a history of tradition to stand on in our football program — unless you call that clunker of a football field we played on until Carter was built. Chuck has done more for the next football coach we have than all his predecessors put together. I favor kicking Chuck upstairs to Associate Athletics Director and then bringing in another head coach.

  17. redfred2 11/06/2006 at 3:06 PM #

    Bo

    I’m thinking bama. Someone said he has had his eye on that job for a while.

    Wouldn’t a second coach hiring catastrophe in the triangle be just a little too damn gooooood right about now?!!!!!!!!

  18. BoKnowsNCS71 11/06/2006 at 3:13 PM #

    redfred — lol —

    Maybe at that time we could find a picture of one of our former FB players with the same punch line they had for Phil Ford and us.

  19. Tarheel86 11/06/2006 at 4:06 PM #

    CBS Sportsline reports UNC will offer Davis 2.5-3 million annually. http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/9780573

    Roy makes 1.2.

  20. BoKnowsNCS71 11/06/2006 at 4:32 PM #

    That’s what it says but I don’t see a football coach getting more than Roy. Must be a sizeable pay increase in the works for him.

  21. Wulfpack 11/06/2006 at 4:40 PM #

    I doubt UNC will be able to officially make the hire until the season is officially over. It’s all talk right now, a gentlemens agreement. They may have actually hired him per a verbal agreement. Who knows. Just my take on the situation.

  22. ldr of pk 75 11/06/2006 at 4:56 PM #

    Waxhaw says:
    “I also get frustrated with some of our fans who want to fire coaches too early (at least in my opinion). ”
    There is no thrill in firing anyone anytime, but, your time frame seems to be give them as much time as needed. It would be interesting to look at regimes prior to let’s say the Holtz and Sheridan eras and see how long those guys were here. I’ve been going to games since Riddick stadium, and can tell you it wasn’t 7-10 years. And Holtz and Sheridan came in and took a bunch of underachievers and turned them into Bowl qulifiers the next year. And, let’s not forget that neither of these two guys came from the upper echelons of the business. They had simply proven themselves as they advanced up the ladder. My point being, we don’t necessarily have to find a Cowher to bring this program around. You do need to have an atheletic director and advisors with enough on the ball to recognize this type talent. In headcoaching, Chuck ain’t it, and in AD’s Jed ain’t it either. If we don’t make a change we’ll be back same time same place next year venting the same old story.

  23. Mike 11/06/2006 at 5:21 PM #

    Bunting is gone, they can go ahead and hire who they want now. Davis is nuts to accept now, UNLESS it is in the $2.5-3M range. Even if they do hire him, my opinion (for what is’s worth) is it will be a short hire. Davis has bigger fish to fry, such as Bama, Penn St in a few years, or UCLA, Michigan (yes, Carr is not popular in Mich, good year this year saved him), or who knows what big name program will want him. If Davis takes this, it is simply a step up to something bigger and better for him.

    One thing we all know, coaching is ego. His ego will not allow him to stay in Chapped Hill for more than 2 or 3 years. And if they do hire Davis for $3M, I would love to see what happens to the Bball program. I think Roy is actually man enough to be able to handle the slap (limp wristed of course from Baddour) at paying 2x more than he makes.

  24. Mike 11/06/2006 at 5:30 PM #

    As for our situation, I dont think a big “name” coach will come here either. Not becuase of us, “the lunatic fringe”, but because the big names want to move up. We are a parallel jump at best.

    Cowher is a big name, but as I said in a post a few weeks ago, he was almost run out of Pittsburgh several years ago. Now he has won a SB and he is a hero. Shows how quickly fates can change for coaches. Even if BC came here, what has his strength been in Pittsburgh? A strong running game, very little passing game, mostly DEFENSE. We have heard this story before.

    Bring in someone like Paul Johnson, have him be Co Head Coach specializing in the O side of the ball. He has won passing, he has won running, and he is capable of mkaing adjustments as needed. Keep Chuck and Co Head Coach specialinzing in D and let him do what he does best. Heck, if someone needs to be in charge, bring back Sheridan. I’m tired of all the showboating, macho, trash talking, dancing, strutting crap that we see every week anyway. Couple weeks ago, Blackmon gets tackled on a punt return and immedialtely gets up jawing in the defenders face and had to be separated. Why? The defender made a play, a clean play, a Blackmon was animated in talking smack to the guy. I dont think he said, “nice play, made a great tackle” either. Love having DB’s talent cathcing balls and returning kicks, but the attitude needs to go. This is my complaint wiht the whole team, attitude like that. That starts at the top.

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