North Carolina Football: Butch Davis Fired from North Carolina

Butch Davis is out of a job. 

That's right. You heard it. The man who re-ignited the University of North Carolina with great recruiting class after great recruiting class has been run out of town because UNC was simply fed to the teeth with the bad headlines, in which his team was.

And by headlines, we mean the wrong headlines.

Last year, when we were all talking about Davis' North Carolina team taking over the ACC with a strong team, all hell broke loose.

Three of their big-time stars, Marvin Austin, Greg Little and Robert Quinn were thrown off campus for accepting monies from agents. Fourteen of his players missed at least one game last year. If you want to talk about a team completely gutted by its own actions, then this one is it. 

The University's Chancellor Holden Thorp (what a name!!) said in a statement:

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"To restore confidence in the University of North Carolina and our football program, it's time to make a change," he said.

"What started as a purely athletic issue has begun to chip away at this University's reputation. I have been deliberate in my approach to understanding this situation fully, and I have worked to be fair to everyone involved.

"However, I have lost confidence in our ability to come through this without harming the way people think of this institution. Our academic integrity is paramount and we must work diligently to protect it. The only way to move forward and put this behind us is to make a change."

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According to ESPN, Davis will walk out a rich man. If UNC don't find "cause," according to ESPN News Services, then Butch could pocket a fat $3 million to $4 million, ESPN has said.

What it interesting is who could come in. There's a voice that's been repeated on Twitter, and that's a guy called Mike Leach.

Regardless of you think of his little tête à tête with ESPN and Texas Tech (and let's be honest, no one knows what happened apart from Adam James and Leach himself), Leach is a damned fine recruiter and one of the best offensive coaches in the land.

If you don't ask me, then talk to the Texas team that was on the end of THAT offense in 2008.

Anyway, it all could be pretty exciting.