UNC Tar Heels Football: Is Support for Head Coach Butch Davis Waning?

Nothing apart from a tutor who also tutored his son has directly touched UNC head football coach Butch Davis so far. Yet, at a university as academically prominent as UNC in Chapel Hill, no coach will escape consideration of dismissal. Especially when there is the lack of institutional control so likely.

It was therefore no surprise when reports emerged from recent meetings among the academic powers that be in the university system that a group of UNC universities, including those in Asheville, Greensboro, and Wilmington, show a substantial lack of support for his prolonged tenure. Usually, this is not a good sign for the future.

As a quick recap of exactly what Butch Davis is facing, conduct of players at UNC came under fire in connection with an investigation regarding relationships with and possible illegal payments by agents. First, a party in South Beach in Miami came under investigation. Then, associate head coach John Blake's relationship with an agent on the West Coast came under review.

Since then, an academic scandal has broken out over athletes on the football team and perhaps those in other sports having papers written for them by one or more tutors supplied to them by the university. And John Blake has resigned.

The depth of the problems and the sensitivity of the issues under both UNC and NCAA rules is quite severe. Athletes could be banned from playing, or expelled by UNC. In addition, football and other players could face the end of their college careers.

In the middle of all this is the quickly rising Tar Heels' football team. There is little question at this point but that the team is severely hurt by these revelations. Fully 13 players were ruled ineligible to play in the game against LSU, including more than half of the starting defense.

More important perhaps than this, UNC's academic reputation is at stake. Nothing makes more noise than academic cheating, which masks the performance of athletes off of the field, the necessary component of remaining eligible to play and even to attend the school in the first place.

The results necessarily raise the question of what to do with a football coach whose program appears to have run afoul of so many rules in so many ways. If most of the students under review are granted reinstatement, this will help. But what hurts is if UNC needs a big scapegoat. If so, then the target is almost certainly Davis.

On Friday, UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp arguably provided some grist for the mill.

Asked whether Davis would definitely remain UNC's football coach, Thorp said:

"Competitive, big-time football is a hazardous undertaking, but the plan right now is for him to be the coach next year. He's done everything we've asked him to do to get to the bottom of this, and we're pleased with him."

Perhaps this was necessary, since the investigation is not complete. Yet, "the plan right now" can easily change to some new plan that does not include Butch Davis. And, if so, the ride to the top is likely over. 

Let's hope it is not, and that nothing turns up to tarnish Davis' reputation any further.