Butch didn't slither anywhere. UM tried to snake him on his contract.
Any man with a functioning ********s would have done the same.
Quit spreading untruths.
Sorry, perhaps there's a dispute in the meaning of slithering. But stop with the revisionist history - great coach or not, he and his agent lied till he walked out the door. And yeah, that took functioning ********s.
ESPN.com: GEN - Davis' lies undo years of hard work at UM
As you'd expect, there isn't one of these arguments that is worth a bucket of warm spit.
Butch Davis said he'd be staying in Miami as recently as Sunday, while in the midst of a visit with a prized recruit. Not 10 days ago, Davis said, "I will have a new contract, and I will be the coach at Miami next year." On Monday, Davis made known his decision to jump to the Cleveland Browns.
Why bother with the qualifiers? Butch Davis lied like a Watergate co-conspirator.
This guy shouldn't be able to turn a corner in a hallway; his nose ought to be getting places 10 minutes ahead of him.
You want qualifiers on Davis? I could give you a fistful. Davis, up until now, has enjoyed a reputation as the man who cleaned up Miami football in the wake of the Dennis Erickson mess. Davis went in there and took his licks, endured the NCAA post-Erickson sanctions and yet returned the Hurricanes to national prominence. He deserves every one of the accolades that have flowed his way over the past couple of years of the turnaround.
Not only that, but the Davis family is going to come out ahead financially on a scale that's dazzling even by fat-money standards. His proposed new contract at Miami -- the one that Davis kept telling university officials was all but done, yet repeatedly failed to finalize -- was to pay him upward of $1.4 million per year. Under the Al Lerner Money Machine program in Cleveland, the coach will more than double that: five years, nearly $15 million.
And all together: So what? At what point does the context outweigh the action? Here is Buck Ortega, quarterback at Miami Gulliver High School and a recruit whom Davis visited on Sunday. Interviewed by the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Ortega quoted Davis as telling him this:
"I took this job to be my last one. I'm going to stay until I retire."
Remember, that's Butch Davis talking to a high school kid the day before he accepted the job with the Cleveland Browns. Is there anything in Davis' previous six years at Miami, no matter how salutary, that can possibly turn that lie into the truth?
Nope, this time
Butch Davis got the Miami program to within barely a week of National Signing Day, then left the Hurricanes for an NFL job that he repeatedly said he had no interest in. He left behind 18 oral commitments from high school players, several of whom now say they're wavering on Miami as their football program of choice. He left behind a couple of top-flight collegians whom he practically talked out of the NFL draft by saying they'd all stick around for next season and bring home a national championship together.
Whatever Davis is, whatever he has been and whatever he may yet become, he has spent a good portion of the year 2001 telling lies. It doesn't need to be qualified. It is what it is.
Well I'll admit you did post half of the story there.
Nice work x.5!
Not to belabor the point, but appreciate a willingness to deal in facts. Here's an SI piece from back in the day that hammers the same theme . . . and it does touch on UM contract issues.
Butch League Butch Davis left Miami scrambling when he betrayed his players and bolted for a big-money deal with the Browns - SI.com
The eldest among them had heard rumors of their
coach's imminent departure for years, but two days before Miami
played Florida in the Sugar Bowl--by which time he had turned
down offers from Alabama and the NFL-expansion Houston
Texans--Davis had brought the team together in a New Orleans
hotel and assured the players that he was staying. "If I leave
now, that makes me a deadbeat dad, because this is my family,"
he told them. "I want to finish my career right here at Miami."
A few days after Miami's 37-20 victory completed an 11-1 season
and cemented a No. 2 national ranking, he told them, "We're
going to work our asses off in the off-season, harder than we've
worked before. This is going to be an incredible season. We're
going to win the national championship."
"People were real mad," said McKinnie. "Especially the
young guys who have three, four years left. He told us he would
be here."
Not only had he restored the Hurricanes to a
place among the elite, salving the wounds resulting from the 1995
probation that cost Miami a crippling 31 scholarships, but he had
also repeatedly denied interest in leaving for the pros, despite
the
widespread assumption by fans and media that the former
Dallas Cowboys assistant lusted after an NFL job. Three days
before the Sugar Bowl, at a time when three NFL teams were
searching for a coach and four more would follow suit, he
responded to a rumor that he was soon to visit with Browns
management by saying, "Don't they have a coach? I'm happy in
South Florida. My family loves it there. I plan to coach at Miami
for a long time."
Davis didn't just issue denials, he sold them.
At a dinner with recruits at the Rusty Pelican on Key Biscayne on
Jan. 20,
Davis thanked McKinnie for returning to play next season
after NFL scouts had told him that he'd be taken high in the
first round of the April draft if he left school early. "Winning
a national championship will be the final piece of the puzzle for
you," Davis told McKinnie.
One week later Davis agreed in principle to a five-year, $15.7
million contract with the Browns, bolting Miami nine days before
recruits could sign letters of intent. Davis got a deal from
Cleveland that Miami could never have matched, but he and his
lawyer, Marvin Demoff, insist that the Browns weren't a serious
consideration until the school failed in late January to finalize
a five-year contract extension that had been in negotiation since
November. (After the 2000 season Davis had three years left on a
seven-year, $5.9 million contract.) "I'm thrilled with the
opportunity I have in Cleveland," Davis says, "but if Miami had
gotten the extension done in November, I'd still be the coach at
Miami."
The returning players will draw strength
from a familiar system,
a comfort that they will need to soothe
their feelings of betrayal. "I've learned a lot from this week,"
Shockey, the tight end, says. "Don't take anything for granted,
trust nobody. Pretty simple."
