It amazes me how some fans can still sit here and trash Butch's coaching abilities and what he's accomplished in his career. F the "Butch Goggles", I'm speaking as a college football fan, a college football fan who happens to be in love w/ the Miami Hurricanes. When Butch was here, I hated him; thought he was a joke. I thought he was nothing more than Jimmy Johnson's lap dog. I thought he couldn't cut it here. You know why? I had my orange and green shades on. I've followed the Canes since 87, so I was used to see us either in the National Championship game or contending for the National Championship game EVERY year. We were a machine...truth be told, should've had a title in 86, and 94...that would've been 6 titles before Butch took over....
Then Butch takes over and wow...we didn't look anything like the Canes I came to know and love. I hated him for it. I thought he was the demise of the program. Even though I was young, I clearly understood the game of football (so I thought) and by Cane's standards he underachieved.
Then you grow up, and you reflect. You know why the Canes didn't look the same under Butch? B/c they weren't the same. Erickson ran animal house and some folks in the admin dept was aiding that. Butch was called in to not only clean up the program, but maintain our mantra as the Broadstreet Bullies. How?
He took over a program that was called to be terminated by popular media outlets. He took over a program that had no leadership at the top. He took over a program that was this close to being folded. He had some talent on his early teams, but they weren't of the same caliber of the late 80's, early 90's squads. He had to kick off certain players, players who could've contributed right away. A lot went wrong for him...but guess what? A lot was wrong for those teams.
He led us through murky waters, assembling NFL talent, although limited, up and down the roster using creativity. He built us back up to the National Brand everyone was accustomed to...and when he finally got "his" team, he went 11-1 and got snubbed out of a ring. He built what many consider the greatest collection of NFL talent to ever play on one team, players that are still in the NFL today and playing at a high level.
Him at UNC....tough sledding....but he also inherrited a team that had a losing culture. 1 winning season in 6 years and that 1 winning season were hold overs from Mack Brown's regime. Butch took over a different type of sanctioned team....losers mentality. 4-8 first season...awful. Then he began building them up...becoming more competitive, getting them to 8 wins in year two. Duplicated that in year 3....year 4 was supposed to be the turning point and then....UNC was caught cheating. 13 players 60% of them Starters, 3 impact players, gone...yet he pulled out another 8 wins and a bowl victory.
His tenure at UNC wasn't perfect...but neither was that situation. He builds things out of nothing...he's methodical like that. Maybe he's a bit old school...but to think that he's going to have the same struggles by inheriting a talented team w/ no sanctions is asinine. Stop looking at numbers and start peering into what he had to endure, what he accomplished under the circumstances afforded him.
Shame on ANY Cane's fan who are trying to discredit him. You don't have to like him, but grow the F up and realize what he did for both us and UNC was pretty dog on exceptional considering what both programs had to offer after sanctions and a losing mentality.
Would I like Butch to come back? Absolutely...but I'm also a realist...there's a real possijbility that magic may not happen twice...but then again, magic might not happen w/ an up and coming AAC coach (see Strong at Texas) or it may not happen w/ an up and coming MAC coach (see Golden here at Miami)...but one thing is for sure, Butch will bring back credibility, stability, and a no-nonsense approach. He may not win a Chip here, but he sure will lay the foundation for the next coach to do so (see Larry Coker 2001-2002 team).