June 27, 2011 The fact that University of North Carolina head coach Butch Davis was fired was not surprising. After all, starting about one year ago, the NCAA began investigating the football program and had numerous findings, all which could have resulted in Butch Davis’ termination.
There were 16 players who were suspended for all or part of 2010 as a result
North Carolina Update: Head Coach Butch Davis Fired (NBC17.com)
of a two-pronged NCAA investigation into athletes receiving improper benefits from agents or others, and academic misconduct. The investigations ended three players’ college football careers (Marvin Austin, Robert Quinn and Greg Little) and one football coach’s career at North Carolina (Defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator John Blake). And finally, in June of this year, UNC received Notice of Allegations from the NCAA on which detailed nine major violations, including a failure to adequately monitor the program.
And yet, even though they’ve had an entire year to act on the situation and even recently sent Davis to the ACC media day, UNC waited until just eight days before training camp begins to fire Butch Davis. The timing is clearly questionable and although I didn’t think I would ever say this, I agree with ESPN’s Pat Forde in his assessment.
The timing leaves UNC’s football program unnecessarily unsettled and unprepared heading into camp. Last year, they couldn’t have avoided the problem. But this year they knew what was going on and chose to wait…but wait for what?
The North Carolina 2011 Preview has been updated accordingly and there will be follow-up as we learn more about the situation.
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