Stuff happens so quickly these days that, by now, I'm probably not going to present an opinion on the Butch Davis mess that you haven't already seen over and over since late yesterday afternoon when the news broke.
The craziest thing about all this -- at UNC, Ohio State, and just about everywhere that high-profile transgressions have occurred -- is how long it takes administrators to figure out what everyone on the outside sees right away. The presidents and AD's at these places should also be without jobs as a result, and that's my quick (and unoriginal) take.
Here's something interesting that dawned on me this morning. And be advised that the following consists almost solely of speculation:
What if North Carolina would've fired John Bunting when it should've?
Let's see: Bunting, who replaced Carl Torbush, got off to a good start in 2001 with a talented team that won eight games and the Peach Bowl. The Tar Heels fell flat on their faces in 2002 and 2003, finishing with two- and three-win seasons and claiming a total of two ACC victories over that stretch.
In the wake of that, there were strong doubts about Bunting's ability to get it done. And then came the fateful 2004 season. Bunting was in real trouble after a 2-3 start, the losses coming in embarrassing fashion against Virginia (56-24), Louisville (34-0) and Florida State (38-16).
Bunting managed to hold things together enough for the Tar Heels to secure bowl eligibility. They finished the regular season 6-5 and lost by 13 to Boston College in the Continental Tire Bowl.
Looking back -- and here we go with the speculation -- a three-point win over Top 5 Miami in late October might've saved Bunting's job. Without that big win, the Tar Heels aren't in a bowl and it's three straight losing seasons.
Bunting ended up remaining for two more losing seasons and was canned in 2006. But looking back to the fall of 2004, there was a famous coach who was getting the itch to return to the college game after a failed stint in the NFL.
Guy by the name of Steve Spurrier.
You have to credit former Gamecocks AD Mike McGee for thinking big. Some of his previous targets in coaching searches bordered on ridiculous -- Jim Calhoun leave UConn to coach South Carolina's basketball program? -- but he bagged Lou Holtz, and then he made a move on Spurrier late in 2004 when Holtz indicated he was ready to hang it up.
The tantalizing question: What if North Carolina, in the fall of 2004, decided to pull the plug on Bunting and enter the Spurrier Sweepstakes?
I'm not going to sit here and say he'd have chosen North Carolina over South Carolina. I have no clue. But it's reasonable to assume that Spurrier wanted to get back into the college as soon as possible and was awaiting the first attractive opportunity to present itself. It's also reasonable to assume that he'd have considered North Carolina, with all its money and all its resources, an attractive opportunity.
Spurrier is an SEC guy, and surely when he took the Gamecocks job he liked the thought of being able to stick it to rivals Georgia and Tennessee once again. But what if he had the choice between the two jobs? Would he have looked at the North Carolina job as the easier route to prominence and national contention? What if North Carolina merely had been the first school to approach him?
Who the heck knows. But it's fascinating to wonder what might've unfolded had Spurrier ended up in Chapel Hill instead of Columbia.
What would the ACC look like?
What would South Carolina look like?
What would the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry look like?
This much seems certain: North Carolina would look a lot better than it looks right now.
LW
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