At this point it's hard to imagine Butch Davis remaining as North Carolina's football coach much longer.
As if things weren't already bad enough for Davis, now we learn the "runner" for an agent wasn't lurking in the parking lots after practice or outside a classroom in hopes of gaining some influence with Marvin Austin (and others, presumably).
That seedy, shady influence was on Davis' staff as a full-time assistant coach in charge of recruiting. Right there in his own meeting room.
It's inexcusable enough for Davis to have even hired John Blake in the first place. His dirty reputation was well-known, so surely Davis -- someone who was supposed to build programs the right way -- should've thought twice before bringing Blake aboard in Chapel Hill.
But let's just say Davis is given the benefit of the doubt on his hiring of Blake. That benefit should be blown away with all the hot air Davis spewed yesterday in response to the Yahoo.com report that found not only that Austin's cross-country trips were being bankrolled by an agent, but that this agent was also regularly funneling cash to Blake.
Davis' refusal to accept any blame in his hiring of Blake, and his complete ignorance of what Blake was doing behind the scenes, should be the last straw for North Carolina's brass.
This wasn't some graduate assistant or trainer or equipment guy who was lulled into a relationship with an agent. This was Davis' head assistant, as close to a right-hand man as you can get.
This explanation from Davis, combined with the tutor/nanny debacle and all the other stuff, should result in Davis' termination:
“There are some things it’s impossible to know. The private lives of people, you know, what people do ... It’s still America; people still have private lives.”
Two of the Tarheel State's prominent newspaper voices have seen enough.
Caulton Tudor penned this column.
But how long can the administration stand by and watch one damaging revelation after another?
And can anyone possibly think the school now is going to escape all of this trouble without incurring a heavy NCAA probation?
For the past 10 weeks, there has been a pattern of mismanagement that flows at least into Davis' office.
What's going to erupt next? That's the question that Carolina fans have been asking since the middle of July.
There's an argument to be made that Davis is a good man and a good coach who made at least one really bad hire.
But none of that changes the fact that too many missteps have been made for Davis to remain in charge of the program.
Ed Hardin wrote this.
Davis should’ve resigned Thursday. Instead, he defiantly stood his ground claiming no knowledge of anything early in the day, then saying there was nothing new in the allegations.
“I expect to be the football coach here currently and certainly in the future,” he said.
If Davis is the football coach after today, there should be another investigation in Chapel Hill.
In view of Davis' apparently inevitable firing/departure, what to make of his North Carolina tenure as a whole? It'll forever be tarnished by this fiasco, of course, but what about an assessment of what he did as a coach?
Back in 2007, his hiring was viewed as a slam-dunk. He went 4-8 his first year before posting back-to-back 8-5 records the past two seasons.
This was going to be the year the Tar Heels broke through to establish ACC supremacy, and possibly national contention, and he certainly had the talent to do it.
Remove this debacle and the fallout from it, and we can't say for sure he'd have achieved that glory this year. Maybe so. Maybe not.
Davis' ACC record was 11-14. He had some big wins, most notably last year's huge upset of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. He beat his old Miami Hurricanes three times.
But then there's his combined record against N.C. State and Virginia: 0-6.
No, not pretty.
There were reasons to think he had the Tar Heels poised to rise to an elite level. But also reasons to think the Tar Heels were still stuck in the muck of mediocrity.
Just goes to show there are very few sure things when you're looking for a head coach.
Looks like Austin's agent is facing a suspension by the NFLPA.
Blake's attorneys say the money he received from the agents was merely loans.
Well that makes you feel a lot better, doesn't it?
And Dan Wetzel of Yahoo nails it with this column.
For an agent, a $78 million player contract (like the one given to 2010 top pick Sam Bradford) is worth, at the industry standard three percent, $2.34 million. And that’s before getting into more lucrative marketing and advertising deals (where agent fees can top 10 percent).
With that kind of money on the line, agents have found better routes to players than the so-called “street agent.” And players have mostly wised up and realized some guy doling out cash probably isn’t going to offer the best advice on agents. They may take the money, but inevitably sign elsewhere.
As such, anyone who has access to, and the trust of, a top prospect can now be recruited to become what amounts to a “runner.” Players are most likely to listen to a figure they’ve known and respected. They naively assume there’s no agenda.
So anyone can be enlisted: friends, parents, girlfriends, teachers, ministers, teammates and teammate’s parents. Different agents may be working different people who surround the same prospect. It’s a free-for-all.
In the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Randy Shannon wants to get his running game juiced up.
We got to make sure we have a minimum of 100 rushing yards per game," said Shannon, whose offense is averaging 125 yards. "They have to keep focus. They're a group that is young but old. Everybody is at new positions."
Shannon said the coaching staff has special packages for highly-touted freshman right tackle Seantrel Henderson against Clemson.
Shannon compared Henderson's adjustment with the team like jumping from middle school to high school.
"He is learning, getting better," Shannon said. "He made some plays last week."
In the Miami Herald, a story on Kyle Parker.
And back to the Sun-Sentinel: A Q&A with some airhead Clemson hack.
In Atlanta, Mark Bradley of the AJC has a good synopsis for why Georgia Tech is worse off than expected.
1. Apparently B-backs aren’t interchangeable. Jonathan Dwyer rushed for 1,395 yards in both 2008 and 2009. Over the winter Paul Johnson said he’d be willing to bet his new B-back would gain 1,000 yards. Anthony Allen has rushed for 267 yards in four games, which would translate to 801 over a full regular season.
2. Apparently Bay-Bay was indispensable. Joshua Nesbitt passed for 1,701 yards last season, most of them to Demaryius Thomas. Nesbitt has thrown for 316 yards over four games, which projects to 948 over a full regular season. His completion percentage, which was 46.3 a year ago, is 32.6 now.
3. Apparently it wasn’t all about the defensive coordinator. Dave Wommack’s defense ranked 54th nationally last season, yielding an average of 360 yards per game. Al Groh’s defense ranks 71st, yielding 367 yards. In pass defense Tech was 45th last season; it’s 69th now.
4. Apparently “depth” isn’t synonymous with “talent.” Before the season, Johnson called this his deepest Tech team. After losing to N.C. State, Groh lamented that his defense had made but three significant plays in 81 snaps and that there was no “supermarket” where the Jackets could go buy better players.
5. Even with the ACC in retreat, four difficult games remain. Tech must play at Clemson, at Virginia Tech and at Georgia, and it will face Miami at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Given that the Jackets have already lost twice when favored and that their only victory of consequence came against depleted North Carolina, this team could wind up 7-5 — or worse.
You can't help but think the Johnson-Groh marriage is not a fun one right now.
LW
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