As is often the case in life, fatal endings always seem to come from those who refuse to take their medicine. For UNC Athletics Director Dick Baddour, the thought of actually firing Butch Davis must have tasted horribly bitter.
Even with the headline news being handed down that Davis would not be retained by Carolina for the upcoming season, the sporting world seemed to glance and shrug at the situation. As early as 13 months ago, many had assumed that Davis couldn’t possibly keep his job amidst a very public and well-documented scandal.
However, right from the very optimistic beginning, Baddour saw the situation in a drastically different light.
Once John Bunting toiled for six years compiling a 27-45 record, Baddour axed him right during the middle of the 2006 season. The blueprint was for UNC football to find someone very unlike Bunting. Someone who had garnered accolades for steering a successful collegiate program in the past. Someone who could recruit elite talent to a basketball school.
Butch Davis had turned around a wayward Miami Hurricane program back in the mid-90’s. In six seasons, Davis led the ‘Canes to four bowl victories along with a 2000 Big East conference championship. An NFL stint with the Cleveland Browns ended poorly for Davis, but Baddour knew that the man could coach on Saturdays.
The impact on the football program, both negative and positive, over the next four years would not soon be forgotten. Despite only four wins in 2007, average attendance at Keenan stadium shot up to 57,000 fans. In 2008 and 2009, UNC notched eight wins and received back-to-back bowl game invitations for the first time since the Mack Brown era. Expectations were growing and high end talent was beginning to arrive in Chapel Hill.
In July 2010, the pieces to the puzzle started to get taken away. The first rumblings were improper benefits provided by agents, and those later proved to be true. Greg Little, Marvin Austin, and Robert Quinn were ruled permanently ineligible just three months later.
Following an inappropriate academic assistance investigation, it was later discovered that players during Davis’s tenure had accumulated over $13,000 in parking violations. With the embarrassment came a loss of integrity in the eyes of onlookers and media alike. The puzzle was getting knocked off of the table.
And here we stand nine days before the start of camp for the 2011 college football season. As soon as the chaotic Music City Bowl ended in the dying days of 2010, Davis was forced to essentially hide from the media until the conference converged in Pinehurst this past week. How different life would be if Baddour pulled the trigger back in January.
It’s honestly not disturbing to think that this, and other occurrences, could happen under Davis’s watch. His firing is deserved considering how he did in fact make some crucial mistakes.
In the end, Baddour and UNC have to be asking themselves the biggest question of all: Can we keep our integrity and raise our football program to elite status at the same time?
