An honest question for the BBB crowd. Has any coach basically retired for multiple years and then come back to dominate college football all while not being successful anywhere in the last 13 years?
None that I can think of, but you are not describing Butch. Included in those 13 years Butch still a head coach in the NFL for couple years. Being a HC in the NFL is the top of his chosen profession can hardly be considered "not being successful". Saban got there once and lasted a shorter time than Butch. He then returned to college ranks and was again HC of a major, while not top, D1 school. Again, near the top of chosen profession is not failure. Now, Butch was no able to do at UNC what he had done at THE U, but he still managed to find and develop significant NFL talent -- this time at a basketball school. Not bad, not great by our standards, but not bad.
Then, just a few years ago, he finally enters a time you could call "not being successful". He got fired as part of UNC trying to get out the dirt THEY created long before Butch got there. He has not coached since. Keep in mind he would had loss his severance from UNC had he taken a coaching job. I have no idea if he tried to get any other HC jobs, and neither do you. Let's assume he did. For whatever reason, schools didn't hire him. Certainly that would not have been because they were afraid he could not recruit -- the key to college football. I think i is safe to assume they worried about the ncaa. Then again, maybe Butch could tell, like most of us, that Al was a failure and what he wanted was THE U again. Maybe he waited for that right opportunity, the one place he fits perfectly, the University of Miami. If I was hiring for some other school, heck maybe I would not want Butch. Maybe his recruiting at other places would merely be real good.
But at THE U, his recruiting has ALWAYS been nothing short of the best ever seen. I do not care if Butch has not won one frigging game since he left Miami. I want him, if for no other reason, for the 15 to 20 first round draft picks he will bring and develop over 4 or 5 years. Paul "Butch" Davis is to college recruiting as Paul "Bear" Bryant was to college coaching -- merely the best there has even been. You are frigging A 1 right I want him back.
