The hire heard across the corridor

On Monday, November 13^th, the University of North Carolina made it official. Butch Davis will be the next head coach of their football program. Davis comes with all sorts of accolades, from restoring Miami’s glory after the Dennis Erickson fiasco, to being a head coach in the NFL. Davis

is a proven winner, who will undoubtedly give the Tar Heel program a huge lift.

Over the past few weeks, all signs have been pointing to Butch Davis. There were some reports, early on, that some of the high ups were not impressed with some of Davis’ past moves. What exactly they were pointing to, I’m not sure. Whatever it was, it seems to have been worked out, as there appear to be zero road bumps ahead in getting BD approved as head coach. UNC is making a very smart hire.

I have always thought of Butch Davis as an excellent football coach. The one stigma that I do put on him is that he seems to be one of the guys who is always looking for the next big thing. That big thing being a more prominent, and financially rewarding head coaching position. I don’t fault the guy for this. We should all have one eye open looking for the next advancement in our professional lives, as that usually means a step up in our private ones. If the guy ultimately wants to win a National Championship or a Super Bowl, I can’t say one bad word about it.

Speaking of National Championships, who is to say that Butch Davis can not take the reigns at UNC and lead them down that path? With a great foundation already laid on the recruiting trails, and a much heralded QB coming in next year (Greg Paulus’ little bro) the sky could very well be the limit for BD at UNC. I’m not saying that UNC is on the verge of winning a National Championship, I am merely stating that I don’t see why BD can’t make it happen. He will have good to quite good players already, and he has a chance to put together an excellent coaching staff.

So, what does this mean for the rest of the conference? I think it’s great news overall. The strength of the conference just got a huge shot in the arm, which it sorely needs right now. Don’t even start with the 6 teams in the top 25 crap either. I love Wake as much, if not more than the next guy, but if Wake gets matched up again any of the top 10 teams it would be a “thumpin”, as good old W would say.

The more direct implications will be at NC State. For a program that is already having extreme issues in recruiting, especially in it’s own state, this is a devastating blow. I’m not going to say that State needs to counter by firing Amato and bringing in Norm Chow or *gasp* Bill Cowher, but something is going to have to be done right away to get attention off of UNC and back onto State. Finishing out the season with two wins against instate rivals would be a step in the right direction, but at this point I would not be shocked to see two Ls come out of those games.

So the State watch is officially beginning. In a dream world we would see Amato take a step back and resign as head coach. Bill Cowher could then come in and take over the head coaching position and re-hire Amato as defensive coordinator. Norm Chow would then make a highly publicized return as the OC.

In the real world, however, Amato will be the coach in 2007 no matter what happens in these last two games. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, either. I like Amato, to a degree, and I do really think that he has State in position to be good. I just don’t know if he has the management skills to take the next step. It is extremely disheartening to see the regression that has occurred, I should add. It boggles me that the season has been the disaster that it has. It was expected that State would be bad, but after beating BC and FSU expectations took a step up. Those wins may turn out to be what undoes Amato in the end.