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Davis Trying To Change Tar Heels

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By JOEY JOHNSTON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2007

Barring an unexpected turnaround, the North Carolina Tar Heels will not win the ACC football championship.

For the 27th consecutive season.

'Clearly,' first-year UNC coach Butch Davis said, 'our biggest challenge is to change the culture.'

The Tar Heels (1-2), who visit the No. 23-ranked South Florida Bulls (2-0) in Saturday afternoon's nationally televised non-conference game at Raymond James Stadium, aren't there yet. Not even close, really.

USF is a 13 1/2 -point favorite to defeat the Tar Heels, a brand-name program it pounded 37-20 last season at Chapel Hill, N.C.

That lopsided result? For Davis, the former Miami coach who returned to college football after an up-and-down NFL stint, it's irrelevant.

'We're not going to spend much time talking about the past,' he said. 'We're going to emphasize our vision of the future.'

A future that could involve ACC championship trophies, BCS bowl trips and competing for national titles.

Yes, national titles.

'That's what he said in our first meeting and the players just looked around at each other,' Tar Heels senior defensive end Hilee Taylor said. 'We had never heard that before or been held to such high standards. It's almost like you have no choice but to go to a bowl game - minimum.

'Before, our mind-set was just getting to that bowl game, whatever bowl, and it was great. That's not going to cut it any more. Coach Davis isn't used to that.'

But Davis is very accustomed to reaching lofty goals after starting at the bottom.

He was Jimmy Johnson's defensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 during a 1-15 debut. Now he has two Super Bowl rings.

He became UM's coach in 1995, when the program was slammed by probation. He built the Hurricanes back to respectability and beyond. When Davis abruptly left for the Cleveland Browns following the 2000 season, the star-studded players he recruited promptly went 12-0 to win a national title for Larry Coker.

Davis took the Browns to the AFC playoffs in 2002, his second season, but eventually resigned in frustration midway through 2004 with an overall record of 24-36.

'I totally understand why Coach Davis had success everywhere else in his career,' said Tar Heels senior Joe Dailey, last season's quarterback who has shifted to wide receiver. 'It's like he doesn't even belong at the college level. He's so detailed, with such a professional aura about him. You stay around him long enough, and you definitely believe in the possibilities.'

Pockets Of Success

Ah yes, the possibilities.

UNC football has always been about the possibilities.

'I've jokingly said North Carolina should adopt that old Raiders slogan - Commitment to Excellence - because every program has high expectations,' Davis said. 'It's amazing - baseball, basketball, soccer. They are all extraordinarily competitive on a national level.'

Except for football.

There have been pockets of success - a pair of Sugar Bowls when Charlie 'Choo Choo' Justice wore the powder blue in the 1940s, a Cotton Bowl appearance in 1950, an 11-1 finish under Bill Dooley in 1972, a 21-3 two-season mark under Dick Crum in 1980-81, a pair of 10-victory seasons under Mack Brown, but nothing long-lasting.

'When there is constant change and turmoil, when you're always changing assistants who recruit a certain area, that kills you because it all has to boil down to recruiting success,' Davis said. 'Had Mack Brown who left for Texas after the 1997 season stayed at Carolina when things were rolling good, who knows what might've happened?'

Turn For The Worse

Here's what did happen.

Defensive coordinator Carl Torbush, who coached the bowl game in 1997 after Brown's departure, was elevated to head coach and went 17-18 in three seasons. Torbush was replaced by John Bunting, a Tar Heels alumnus and former NFL linebacker, who went 27-45 before being fired midway through last season.

Now it's Butch Davis, a man who has made a career of building something out of nothing, a guy who hungered for the sideline after a post-NFL stint in broadcasting.

'He's high-energy and he's consistent,' Dailey said. 'We don't want to let him down. We've got to turn this thing around.'

Davis has taken the first steps, implementing an environment of open communication and recruiting like a maniac (already attracting, among others, Marvin Austin, rated as the nation's best defensive lineman).

Eventually, most people feel it will show up on the scoreboard.

'Every time we played North Carolina, they had athletes,' Miami senior guard Derrick Morse said. 'I'm not sure where it broke down. They've still got athletes. Now it looks like they've got their coach.'

Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353 or jjohnston@tampatrib.com.

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