Tar Heels turn to Davis

Butch Davis had never set foot inside Kenan Stadium before Monday.

But at 3 p.m., the former coach at the University of Miami and the Cleveland Browns, was formally introduced as North Carolina's new football coach.

"Today is the first day I've ever been to this school,"Davis said.

Flanked by Chancellor James Moeser and Director of Athletics Dick Baddour at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center, the man hired to rebuild the Tar Heel football program that went 3-9 this season said UNC is the perfect fit for him.

"I've had the opportunity to evaluate what would be the perfect place to get back into coaching, and I can tell you there's not a finer place than the University of North Carolina," said Davis, who hasn't coached since 2004 when he resigned midseason from the Cleveland Browns after going 24-35 over three-plus years.

"When I got the opportunity to sit down and talk with the people from Carolina, I knew that this was the place that I wanted to be. It had absolutely everything that I felt like was tantamount to building a championship football team."

Even though Davis had never visited the University before, it wasn't a strike against him. Baddour said Davis was UNC's No. 1 target since the coaching search began after John Bunting's firing on Oct. 22.

After an initial meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Oct. 31, Baddour said he knew Davis was the coach for UNC.

"At the end of that first meeting I told Butch that we were willing to commit to him and we wouldn't call anyone else from that point on if he would agree to the same," Baddour said.

There was one more face-to-face meeting in Chicago on Nov. 5 - the day after UNC's 45-26 loss in South Bend, Ind. - and on Nov. 6 Davis agreed in principle to become UNC's 33rd coach.

Even though Davis has no immediate ties to UNC, he has ties to another ACC school - Miami. In 1995, he took over a Hurricanes team that was facing severe restrictions from NCAA violations and went 51-20 during the next five seasons.

Davis has a seven-year deal at UNC with a base salary of $286,000 a year, and the University also will pay him a supplemental income worth $1 million in 2007 to $1.3 million in 2013. He also will get potential bonuses for graduation rates. Davis said the high academic quality of UNC was part of the appeal.

"When you sit in the living rooms with parents of student-athletes and talk about their future, you want to talk about a degree from North Carolina," Davis said.

And right now Davis will need every advantage he can get to help him with recruiting. Even though his hiring was announced Nov. 13, NCAA rules did not allow Davis to contact any recruits until Sunday, already putting him behind.

"That's my No. 1 goal: to get out as quickly and as soon as possible in the next two weeks to see all the kids that are committed to Carolina - to solidify those guys," Davis said.

Davis said another top priority is putting together his staff. He said he will meet with the current UNC staff today to get to know them but would not put a timeline on when it could come together.

But not only does Davis have to get to know the campus, the recruits and the staff, he also has to get to know the team. He said he met with current team members 30 minutes before the press conference and will spend the upcoming weeks getting to know them.

Sophomore linebacker Chase Rice said that the team is excited to have the new coach, and that Davis already has left an impression.

"As soon as he walked in the room everyone got real quiet right away - was excited to hear what he had to say," Rice said. "It was just something about him when he walked in the room. You just knew he was all about business and he wanted to get right to work."

Rice said he can feel a whole new attitude around the football program. It's an attitude Davis shared with his son when trying to figure out what exactly a Tar Heel is.

"There were many definitions of a Tar Heel," Davis said. "We researched and people gave us ideas of exactly what it is. But the simple answer that I told him was a Tar Heel was a winner."

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.