Let me start by saying I do not have a problem with the University of North Carolina firing Butch Davis.

He has been connected to John Blake, a former assistant coach/recruiting coordinator who worked to steer players to late NFL agent Gary Wichard and reported Blake had received more than $31,000 from Wichard, though Blake’s attorneys had previously described the transactions as loans from one friend to another during financial troubles.

He is also connected to tutor Jennifer Wiley, who not only had tutored Davis’ teen son, but gave improper assistance to players on school work — including some after she had graduated and no longer worked for the school.

While noted knucklehead Marvin Austin told on himself and the program on Twitter may have occurred without Davis’ knowledge, I do not buy the notion that Davis had no idea what was going on with the academic and recruiting scandals happening under his watch.

That said, what the hell took so long?  Why did UNC wait until right before training camp to make the announcement?  Why wasn’t this done at the end of – or hell, even BEFORE – last season?

Chancellor Holden Thorp, responsible for canning Davis, has some explaining to do.  If what he said about academic integrity was true, then why wait until now?

Now UNC risks screwing with their recruiting classes for the next few seasons.  More importantly, this will be a huge and unwanted distraction that those players have to deal with.

The Tar Heels will be lucky to win five games this year.  Lack of leadership and distractions will do that to a young college football team.

And this is the epitome of bad leadership.

Categories: college football, sports story