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Butch Davis' North Carolina Years

WhatTheHell

WhatTheHell

"WE CANT DEMAND PERFECTION.”
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I'll preface this by saying I have a few candidates ahead of him at this point, but I see him getting stomped on for his work at North Carolina and I think it's a bit unwarranted.

Butch Davis took over a program that John Bunting had successfully turned into one giant tackling dummy.



The 9 seasons at UNC before Butch:

- Average win total 4.7
- They won 8 or more games only ONE time in 9 seasons
- 10 total draft picks selected in the first 3 rounds of the draft
- Just 3 winning seasons
- Average total defense: 74th


Just 4 seasons under Butch Davis:

- Increases the average win total to 7
- He wins 8 or more games 3 times in 4 years, something their program accomplished only once in nearly a decade before
- 13 total draft picks selected in the first 3 rounds of the draft
- 3 straight winning seasons
- Average total defense: 34th


So in his first season at the dumpster fire, Butch wins just 4 games. He then turns around and rattles off three straight 8 win seasons. Of course, in 2010, Butch had his most talented team at UNC ever. A lot of draft picks would come off that roster and this was primed to be his "over-the-hump" season. As we all know, it was completely derailed by suspensions, many of them being starters and future NFL players. He had 5 players dismissed that season, and several suspended. It plagued his entire season.

This was highlighted by 13 players being held out against their opener against LSU.

Thirteen North Carolina Tar Heels players won't play vs. LSU Tigers in opener



So, Butch Davis takes over a dumpster dwelling program and quickly gets them to back-to-back 8 win seasons as he builds his roster. More success than they've had in the near decade before his arrival. Once he finally finishes BUTCHING the roster and loading it with talent, primed to make a run, the NCAA destroys their hopes in 2010. This is why I can't rag on him the way many are. Perhaps it's just natural pushback against some of the overzealous Butch supporters? I don't know.
 
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so as a dumpster fire of a program, we should look forward to back-to-back 8 win seasons under Butch?


(I kid.)
 
The list should be short....

Offer Tom Herman 3 million per year.

If he rejects, offer Butch Davis 2.5 million per year.

One of them will say yes.
 
Al Foil said:
The list should be short....

Offer Tom Herman 3 million per year.

If he rejects, offer Butch Davis 2.5 million per year.

One of them will say yes.
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I think we could low ball Butch and still get him. We will need a lot of money for assistants with him.
 
If anyone not named Butch brought that same resume to the table, ppl would be dismissing it left and right. Instead since its Butch ppl are making excuses for him. Not say the OP is.

I wouldn't mind Butch being the HC but ppl on here slurping his John and clowning other posters for wanting someone else is ridiculous
 
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Mr. Dynasty1 said:
If anyone not named Butch brought that same resume to the table, ppl would be dismissing it left and right. Instead since its Butch ppl are making excuses for him. Not say the OP is.

I wouldn't mind Butch being the HC but ppl on here slurping his John and clowning other for wanting some else is ridiculous
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Well, I obviously left off his time at Miami and the reason why his resume' is impressive, but I just wanted to focus in on this one part of his career that I think is being excessively torn apart at this point.

It reminds me of Harbaugh at Stanford, Saban at MSU, and Miles at Okie St. Middle of the road programs they had hovering around that 8 win mark for the first few years before they popped or made a vertical move professionally. Butch built up to that 4th season and had his legs cut out from under him.
 
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SBAMACANE said:
UNC would've beat L$U by 10+ pts if not for the suspensions.
Click to expand...
I don't know. The break down of the scoring per quarter tells a different story. Looks like LSU was up 30-10 at the half. Maybe they took their foot off the gas in the second half. How many players were suspended for UNC?

Hopefully it formatted correctly.



LSU (1-0) vs. North Carolina (0-1)
Date: Sep 4,2010 Site: Atlanta, Georgia Stadium: Georgia Dome
Attendance: 68919

Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
LSU................. 7 23 0 0 - 30
North Carolina...... 0 10 0 14 - 24
 
ghost2 said:
so as a dumpster fire of a program, we should look forward to back-to-back 8 win seasons under Butch?


(I kid.)
Click to expand...

Let's not forget the dumpster fire Dennis and Foote dumped on Butch when he was the only coach willing to take the job. Hopefully this time things are a little better, but Al certainly left a slow weak team behind. The next couple years might be painful while Butch gets some Miami level players in here to go with the few that Al might not have ruined.
 
Don't really want to get too deep into this ...

But UNC was pre-season top 20 in 2009. They lost to 3-9 UVA and 5-7 NC State that season, and finished the year un-ranked. Butch also lost to Wannstedt in a bowl game, the only bowl win Wannstedt ever had.

UNC lost to FSU in 2009, and that FSU team finished the regular season 6-6 and un-ranked. That's 3 wins he should have had that season, IMO.

The grief Butch gets for UNC is warranted. He should have finished better than 4-4 in the ACC in year 3 ...

Now, maybe 2010 would have been the year he took them to another level? It's possible ...

But like we'll never know what Butch would have done with the 2001 Miami team, we'll never know what he would have done with the 2010 UNC team at full strength ...
 
NVA CANE said:
SBAMACANE said:
UNC would've beat L$U by 10+ pts if not for the suspensions.
Click to expand...
I don't know. The break down of the scoring per quarter tells a different story. Looks like LSU was up 30-10 at the half. Maybe they took their foot off the gas in the second half. How many players were suspended for UNC?

Hopefully it formatted correctly.



LSU (1-0) vs. North Carolina (0-1)
Date: Sep 4,2010 Site: Atlanta, Georgia Stadium: Georgia Dome
Attendance: 68919

Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
LSU................. 7 23 0 0 - 30
North Carolina...... 0 10 0 14 - 24
Click to expand...

LSU absolutely stopped playing in the 2nd half.

Credit to UNC for playing until the end, but the story of that game would have been, "LSU lost that game", not "UNC won that game", IMO.
 
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SBAMACANE said:
UNC would've beat L$U by 10+ pts if not for the suspensions.
Click to expand...

I dont know about this one..but it would have been **** close. That UNC defense was primed to be the best defense in the country. (Marvin Austin, Robert Quinn, Bruce Carter, Quan Stivadent, they also had a DB that was big time too)

I know Butch shakes his head at what could have been.
 
NVA CANE said:
SBAMACANE said:
UNC would've beat L$U by 10+ pts if not for the suspensions.
Click to expand...
I don't know. The break down of the scoring per quarter tells a different story. Looks like LSU was up 30-10 at the half. Maybe they took their foot off the gas in the second half. How many players were suspended for UNC?

Hopefully it formatted correctly.



LSU (1-0) vs. North Carolina (0-1)
Date: Sep 4,2010 Site: Atlanta, Georgia Stadium: Georgia Dome
Attendance: 68919

Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
LSU................. 7 23 0 0 - 30
North Carolina...... 0 10 0 14 - 24
Click to expand...

Over half their defense, which I believe included Marvin Austin, Robert Quinn, Bruce Carter, and numerous other draft picks. Should be said as well that Butch built a great O-line during his tenure as well. He really had to start from scratch in NC. Here, I think we could have a Florida-like turnaround if he is indeed named head coach.
 
Mr. Dynasty1 said:
If anyone not named Butch brought that same resume to the table, ppl would be dismissing it left and right. Instead since its Butch ppl are making excuses for him. Not say the OP is.

I wouldn't mind Butch being the HC but ppl on here slurping his John and clowning other posters for wanting someone else is ridiculous
Click to expand...

People are saying that Tom Herman should be our coach based off one good season playing in a crappy conference with Houston. So whats the difference? If Herman had not been under Urban Meyer for 3 years people wouldnt even have him on their radar.

Im not dogging Herman, but I dont understand dogging Butch just because people want Herman that bad.
 
Good post. And while the North Carolina years are relevant, what he did at Miami is much more relevant to what he would do at Miami.
 
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