Well THAT Was Fast

In an eerie coincidence, less than 2 weeks after the debut of this blog Carolina announced that they were indeed firing coach Butch Davis.  

The headline at www.tarheelblue.com was a little more understated - Carolina Football Makes Coaching Change - but the bottom line is Carolina fired Butch Davis.  In doing so, Carolina came to it's senses and fired the coach who tarnished the standard set by Dean Smith and heaped more embarrassment on the University than any other coach in the last 50 years.

Chancellor Holden Thorp got it right when he said today "What started as a purely athletic issue has begun to chip away at this University's reputation ... I have lost confidence in our ability to come through this without harming the way people think of this institution. Our academic integrity is paramount and we must work diligently to protect it. The only way to move forward and put this behind us is to make a change."

I've said this before, but will restate that I don't think Butch Davis ever understood what Carolina means.  He did not work for the athletic department, he worked for THE university.  


Finally, his 'clueless defense' may have been the last straw for Thorp and Athletic Director Dick Baddour.  

You could probably get away with that defense if it was one player or one instance.  But there were multiple and repeated problems associated with Davis' football program:

• FOURTEEN players were suspended for academic fraud - or six more players than wins - fraud that was uncovered while the University investigated illegal contacts between players and agents;
• One summer after at least 3 players take an illegal, agent-funded trip to attend a party thrown by an ex-player, the same thing happens again for the second summer in a row;
• In the wake of an academic scandal that resulted in players getting suspended, you follow that up with one of your players getting caught by NC State fans plagiarizing a term paper;
• In the wake of the academic and player-agent scandals, you follow THAT up with players racking up tens of thousands of parking ticket.  On top of that, a tutor is charged with paying some of the parking tickets.
  

You simply can not overlook a list that long.  It was more than cluelessness, it was incompetence.  Davis was in charge and therefore responsible.  Maybe he thought he was back at Miami, or at Ohio State or USC or Auburn or South Carolina or wherever. 

But you can not be that sloppy and irresponsible at Dean Smith's school.  Carolina has higher and better standards than that.  Davis never understood that responsibility, and he was finally fired today.  

The football program was an embarrassment for the last 14 months (but not the players like T.J. Yates who persevered) but today is a great day to be a Tar Heel.  We got it right today.

Swofford calls for reforms in college athletics

Speaking at the ACC football kick off event, former UNC football player and athletic director and current ACC commissioner John Swofford said college athletics was at a 'tipping point,' and said recent scandals have caused an erosion of public trust.

He laid out a few good ideas, such as having scholarships cover all costs - travel, pizza and beer money, etc. - in addition to tuition, room and board. 

Swofford also said he "favors strict, consistent penalties." When asked about the troubles at his alma mater, the former Tar Heels quarterback said "that's not who we are as a league.* When you have those kinds of problems, you don't step back from what your cornerstones are and what you're all about. You try to fix it and move forward."

* Kind of a funny statement when you consider the league includes Free Shoes University, Butch Davis, the 2009 champion Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets that had to forfeit that title and are on probation, etc. etc.

I have one very simple way to fix college sports, an old idea that would fix recruiting and change the mentality of college coaches and athletic directors everywhere.  An idea, by the way, endorsed by none other than Dean Smith - eliminate freshman eligibility.

Making freshmen ineligible would force coaches to take the long view, end the get-rich-quick mentality of big time college recruiting - where many, many abuses occur - and almost more importantly, give college athletes a year to act like normalish college students. 

You could compliment a ban on freshman participation by adopting baseball's draft rules for all sports.  In baseball, high school seniors and college juniors (and seniors) are eligible for the draft.  But once a student-athlete commits to college he or she has to complete three years of school before being eligible to be drafted a second time. 

Fairly simple rules that would change college sports completely.   

But in the meantime, Carolina should fire Butch Davis!

Clueless Defense

Old - from May of this year - but still on-the-money blog post by ESPN's Heather Dinich about Butch Davis' and the reliable 'clueless defense' argument.  It's a nice change of pace since it's about Quentin Coples not McAdoo, etc.

Check it out at http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/42477/butch-davis-in-the-dark-again

Pittman replaces Blake

Carolina announced yesterday that Sam Pittman has replaced John Blake as associate head coach.  Blake resigned last year at the start of the NCAA's investigation of UNC football.

The NCAA determined that Blake was a runner for a well known player agent. Carolina has NOT revealed which agent Pittman is 'working' for, nor can we figure out why Butch Davis is still the head coach in Chapel Hill.

I know Davis is a lock to win eight games every year.  However, the win total pales in comparison to the number of players suspended by the University or the NCAA in the last 14 months.   

Fire Butch Davis!

Davis to release phone records

Presumably as part of the NCAA investigation of the Carolina football program, coach Butch Davis will release phone records for his cell phone to the news media.  The University did the same thing last year for calls from the football team offices when the NCAA first started to investigate Davis' stewardship of the football program. But there apparently were very few calls, so few that reporters questioned if the records were accurate.  So to augment those phone records Davis' CELL phone records will be made available to the press.

I don't think any UNC coach or program - or professor for that matter - has ever had to turn over phone records.  To this alumnus, turning over phone records is another embarrassment for the University. 

The worst may still be on the horizon.  Carolina has to respond to the NCAA investigation - as if it were a tawdry school like USC, Ohio State, Kentucky, etc. - by September, and is to appear before the NCAA infractions committee a month later.

When's the last time that happened?  In the early 60s and Frank Maguire?  But Carolina going before the NCAA infractions committee?  Carolina!?  Thanks Butch. 

Chancellor Thorp - It's time to Fire Butch Davis!

DTH not exactly sugar-coating Davis headlines

I was at the Daily Tar Heel website checking in on the Leslie McDonald story, and of course was struck by the Butch Davis headlines, headlines perfect for the Fire Butch Davis blog.

If you go, you'll see:  

• McAdoo case raises issues of plagiarism and academic standards;
• Paper in McAdoo lawsuit shows evidence of plagiarism;
• NCAA sends UNC football notice of allegations

Of course, the first two items are McAdoo items, but the last story is all about Butch, and talks about the latest NCAA letter sent to Carolina inquiring about the program's academic work.  According to the DTH the letter includes a list of “potential major” violations and "include improper academic assistance from a tutor, impermissible benefits to players and failures of institutional oversight."

 

In addition to including a list of potential violations, the 26-page letter sounds like a list of why Carolina needs to Fire Butch Davis!

 

McAdoo

Yet another example of Coach Butch Davis not understanding what Carolina is all about is the unfolding McAdoo academic embarrassment.  Does Davis understand that he has the same title as Dean Smith - a head coach at the University of North Carolina?  

In case he needs reminding, that title means you have HIGHER standards than the NCAA requires.  And that pertains to the class room and off the field, not just the on the field stuff Butch.

How long are we are Tar Heels going to put up with this guy embarrassing the University?  

It's time to Fire Butch Davis.