The Tarheels

precisely

 

I hope Davis stays at UNC but Brown's already told Davis no matter how good the football team becomes it'll still be second fiddle to basketball. It's just a matter of if Davis cares about that or not.

 

There are several reasons that UNC can't be an elite college football program, with the main being the lack of a strong recruiting base. North Carolina has the highest concentration of universities (colleges per person) in the country, so while Butch can pull in a couple of guys like Marvin Austin, he's not going to get top 10 classes year in and year out the way that a Texas or Ohio State will. But they can be a good program like they were under Mack.

 

Was it Dook Power ? No I guess not

 

sucks about the tailgating.

 

I would assume he knew that even before he took the job - success or not. He got a pay raise going 4-8, he's getting millions of dollars for upgrades and it's pretty much what Butch wants, Butch gets. His family loves Chapel Hill, he's been embraced by Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Hatchel and the rest of the Carolina family all while making millions of dollars and being treated like a football God. Butch knows basketball first now and as soon as he heard he was a candidate for the job, but who cares? He can coach the next 7-10 years with very little stress, be successful at all different football levels in different positions and retire a millionaire and live the rest of his life in Chapel Hill a millionaire. Sounds like a good plan to me, I just don't see Butch Davis wanting to build another program and entering into a higher stress environment when he's got a nice little niche developed right now and for as long as he wants it.

 

Didn't Brown get basically everything he wanted also? I know they did the big Keenan expansion and I'm sure he was paid rather well. Sometimes it comes down to competitiveness and the desire to win a championship and be "THE MAN". That's what took Brown to Texas. Maybe he could of won tons of games with UNC but he won his championship with Texas. He knew it would be easier to do at Texas with recruiting/tradition, etc. and he didn't have to worry about being second to basketball or any other sport.

 

Mack Brown was a young guy with his career on the way up and felt he had something to prove. Davis is much older, he's already been part of championship winners, built a powerhouse, and made it to the NFL playoffs. Especially after the cancer scare, I just don't think he's interested in climbing the coaching ladder again. I expect that he'll be in Chapel Hill until he's ready to retire.

 

Mack Brown wasn't paid on the same level as Butch Davis is. Carolina has embraced football with more affinity now than in the mid 90's. It has always been basketball then everything else. I have seen Coach Williams and Fox at the football games; Coach Williams and Coach Davis at baseball games; Coach Fox and Coach Davis at basketball games.

Carolina fund raising is at a all time high. Money is not going to be an issue with keeping Davis and I think the second fiddle mentality with football has somewhat diminished, although it will always be there.

The "second fiddle" is what ultimately drove Mack Brown away. Upon receiving an offer from Texas in 1997, Brown met with athletics director Dick Baddour and Chancellor Michael Hooker. Hooker told Baddour to offer Brown a 10 year deal matching the salary of Men's Basketball Coach Bill Guthridge. Baddour didn't want to do this, but Hooker was insistent. The offer was made, but a smug Baddour told Brown that he could match the salary, but if he wanted football to be on the same level or bigger than basketball, he better go to Texas. So Mack packed the U-haul and left. It took UNC 10 years to recover from this.

Davis new what he was getting into. His name is constantly going to be mentioned for every coaching vacancy, especially by ABC'ers that hope he leaves. Mack Brown always said that the most important thing at UNC is to win the in state recruiting wars and actually get these players on the field. Davis is starting to make a dent in this, while bringing in the occasional 5 start out of staters and a handful of 4 stars.

UNC defense is vastly improved over the past few years. They have depth, speed, and youth. The RB from UCONN (nation's leading rusher at the time) had 160 yards, but 93 were in the 4th quarter when the game was decided and UNC started mixing in the reserves. He only had 61 at half and UCONN dominated the time of possesion due to the turnovers.

I'm not completely sold on them being the best team in the ACC, but they are definately not the worst. They may run the table the rest of the way, but I think 2-3 losses is more likely.

 

I saw Coach Williams at a Kansas bball game.