Butch Davis

Paul Hilton "Butch" Davis, Jr. (born November 17, 1951) is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at Florida International University. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, he became an assistant college football coach at Oklahoma State University and the University of Miami before becoming the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He was head coach of the University of Miami's Hurricanes football team from 1995 to 2000 and the NFL's Cleveland Browns from 2001 to 2004. Davis served as the head coach of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Tar Heels football team from 2007 until the summer of 2011, when a series of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) investigations resulted in his dismissal. He was hired by the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an advisor in February 2012.

Davis was born on November 17, 1951 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, to Paul and Pat Davis. He attended high school at Bixby High School in Bixby, Oklahoma where he was an all-state fullback and defensive end for the Spartans football team and graduated in 1970. After graduation, he attended the University of Arkansas and played defensive end for the Razorbacks. Due to a knee injury, Davis was sidelined after his freshman year and became a student assistant for the rest of his college career. After graduation from college, he held assistant coaching positions at several high schools, including Fayetteville High School in 1973, Pawhuska High School from 1974 to 1975, and Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, Oklahoma from 1976 to 1977. He held his first head coaching job at Will Rogers High School in 1978.

In 1979, Butch began a successful 15-year association with Jimmy Johnson, first as a receivers and tight ends coach at Oklahoma State University for the Cowboys, then later as defensive line coach at the University of Miami. During that time, the 1987 Miami Hurricanes football team won the NCAA Division I-A national football championship.

Dallas Cowboys

Davis followed Jimmy Johnson to Dallas, where Davis was promoted to defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys in 1993 after the departure of Dave Wannstedt. As defensive coordinator and coach of the defensive line, he helped Johnson and new owner Jerry Jones win back-to-back Super Bowls with a Dallas Cowboys team that had gone 1–15 in 1989, Johnson's first year as head coach. After Johnson left, Davis continued at Dallas for one more year as assistant coach under Barry Switzer.

University of Miami

Davis was hired as the head football coach at the University of Miami in January 1995. Not long after Davis' arrival, the Hurricanes were found to have committed several violations of NCAA rules during the tenure of his predecessor, Dennis Erickson. As a result, the Hurricanes were barred from postseason play in his first year (despite an 8–3 record) and lost 31 football scholarship spots over several years. Davis earned a 51–20 record during his tenure as head coach. During Davis' final year as head coach, the Hurricanes finished 11–1, their best season since coming up one win short of the 1992 national championship. Despite finishing second in both human polls, a quirk in the Bowl Championship Series formula resulted in the Hurricanes being shut out of that year's national championship game, the 2001 Orange Bowl. The Hurricanes were passed over in favor of the Florida State Seminoles, even though the Seminoles had lost to the Hurricanes that year when a last-second field goal attempt sailed wide right. The Seminoles ultimately lost the Orange Bowl to the Oklahoma Sooners 13-2. The snub ultimately led the BCS to add a "quality win" bonus to its formula, which gave extra credit for beating a top-ten team. The Hurricanes earned recognition from the American Football Coaches Association for outstanding graduation rates in each of his six seasons at Miami.

Numerous professional football players were coached or recruited by Davis in his time at Miami, such as Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Andre Johnson, Clinton Portis, Edgerrin James, Reggie Wayne and Jeremy Shockey.

Cleveland Browns

Davis became head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 2001 and led the team to a 7–9 record in his first year, missing the playoffs by a game. The Browns posted a 9–7 record and got a playoff berth in Davis' second year, getting in after winning two close games in a row against the Baltimore Ravens and the Atlanta Falcons. In 2003, a quarterback controversy erupted between Tim Couch and backup Kelly Holcomb after Holcomb, starting the 2002 playoff game for the injured Couch, threw for 429 yards and three touchdowns. Davis would ultimately give the starting job to Holcomb, though Couch did start a few games. In the 2004 offseason, Davis signed Jeff Garcia and cut Couch. Davis was forced to resign in early December 2004 after a 3–8 start and ended with a 24–35 overall record as coach of the Browns.

University of North Carolina

Davis coming through campus before UNC's game against Florida State in 2009

On November 13, 2006, University of North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour announced that Davis had been hired as the school's new head football coach. On November 27, 2006, Davis officially succeeded John Bunting, who was fired in October 2006 after posting one winning season in the previous six seasons as head coach of the Tar Heels. Davis took over a program that had seen three winning seasons in the past eight years and had won more than six games in a season two other times.

During his first season as head coach, the 2007 Tar Heels finished 4–8, with six of those losses coming by a touchdown or less and two coming against teams ranked in the top 15 at the time. Despite a losing record in 2007, North Carolina fans averaged over 57,000 fans in Kenan Stadium during the season, the highest average attendance since the Mack Brown era. The 2007 matchup against South Carolina saw a crowd of 61,000, the second-largest in school history. During the season, suspicion mounted that Davis would leave UNC after his first year if the head coaching job at his alma mater, Arkansas, opened up. The rumors grew louder when Houston Nutt was forced to resign at Arkansas, but Davis denied he was leaving. On November 21, 2007, Davis agreed to a one-year contract extension, along with a raise of about $291,000 annually. Davis said in a statement that one year at UNC convinced him that this was where he wanted to be, and that he intended to have "a long and successful career in Chapel Hill." Davis originally signed a seven-year deal worth approximately $1.86 million per season, with a base salary of $286,000. Additionally, he received $25,000 a year in expenses and a supplement from the Educational Foundation (Ram's Club) that ranged from $1 million in 2007 to $1.3 million in 2013. Baddour said he could not release all the details of the contract until it was approved by the school's board of trustees, but did say the base salary would rise $29,000, the expenses would go up $5,000, and Davis’ supplemental income would go up $100,000.

The 2008 North Carolina Tar Heels football team were expected to be much improved from the previous year, with most outlets picking them to finish second in the Coastal Division. On October 4, the Heels defeated the then 24th-ranked Connecticut Huskies 38–12 for their first victory over a ranked non-conference opponent in 11 years. As a result, the Tar Heels were ranked 22nd in the weekly Associated Press rankings, their first appearance in a major poll in seven years. The following Saturday, the Tar Heels defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, their first regular-season win as a ranked team in 11 years. A crowd of 60,500, third-largest in school history, watched the Tar Heels play the Fighting Irish. A 16–13 overtime loss at Virginia on October 18 briefly knocked the Heels out of the rankings, but after a 45-24 victory over Boston College on October 25, the team became bowl-eligible for the first time since 2004. The win also resulted in the team being ranked in the Bowl Championship Series rankings for the first time since the BCS began in 1998. A week later, they defeated Georgia Tech to clinch their first winning season since 2001, and only their fourth since Brown left the school after the 1997 season. The Tar Heels lost three of their last four games, including a loss in the Meineke Car Care Bowl to West Virginia.

Davis led the 2009 Tar Heels to another 8–4 regular season record and a second straight bowl appearance, the first time since the 1997–1998 seasons that UNC had made consecutive bowl appearances. A loss to North Carolina State in the final game of the season sent them back to the Meineke Car Care Bowl. UNC faced the Pittsburgh Panthers on December 26, 2009 and lost for the second straight year, giving UNC another 8-5 final record. Additionally, Davis led Carolina football to its 6th consecutive year of graduating more than 75% of its football players. The America Football Coaches Association recognized fewer than 30 public universities for superior graduation rates last year, with UNC the only such institution in the state of North Carolina and the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Academic misconduct

In July 2010, the NCAA began investigating violations involving improper benefits provided by agents to current players at UNC. In September 2010, the NCAA opened a second prong of its investigation, this time involving possible improper tutor involvement with UNC student-athletes. In response to the investigation, local and national sports columnists called for Davis' termination, but some North Carolina fans still supported the coach. A survey of UNC fans reflected strong support for Coach Davis despite the ongoing investigation. Thirteen UNC football players were suspended for the team's season opener in Atlanta against the Louisiana State University Tigers, and the Tar Heels lost the game 30–24. The Tar Heels later lost to ACC rivals Miami, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and NC State, but won their first game since 1981 in Virginia's Scott Stadium and gained their first win ever in FSU's Doak Campbell Stadium. In October 2010, wide receiver Greg Little, defensive tackle Marvin Austin, and defensive end Robert Quinn were ruled permanently ineligible after it was discovered they improperly accepted gifts from sports agents. Five other players were found guilty of accepting improper benefits and/or inappropriate academic assistance. On July 27, 2011, Davis was fired by UNC chancellor Holden Thorp amid an NCAA investigation of academic misconduct and allegations players receiving improper benefits from agents. Thorp said the move was necessary to restore confidence in UNC's integrity. On September 19, 2011, in response to an NCAA notice of allegations, Davis was never mentioned in the NCAA inquiry and had no involvement in the investigation.

North Carolina subsequently vacated all of its wins from the 2008 and 2009 seasons after retroactively declaring Austin, Quinn and Little ineligible. As a result, these are "officially" North Carolina's only winless seasons in the modern era.

In 2013, Davis told CBS Sports' Bruce Feldman that he believed his firing was an "overreaction" by Thorp, in the belief that "if he released me, maybe the investigation of the football program would go in a different direction." Around the same time, Baddour told Feldman that firing Davis "was not my recommendation." Baddour added that Thorp was well aware that he wanted Davis to remain as coach.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

In February 2012, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired Davis as a special assistant to newly hired head coach Greg Schiano. The terms of Davis' settlement with the University of North Carolina prevented him from taking a coaching position, and he was instead hired as an advisor to Schiano, who was the defensive coordinator under Davis at the University of Miami.

Florida International University

On November 14, 2016, Davis confirmed he was leaving his analyst position at ESPN and agreed to a five-year contract to take the head coaching job at Florida International.

Several of Davis' assistant coaches from his head coaching positions have gone on to be NFL and college football head coaches. Three of the coordinators from his time at the University of Miami would go on to be head coaches at either the NCAA or NFL level. Special teams coach Chuck Pagano is head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, Greg Schiano would go on to become the head coach of Rutgers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Larry Coker became the head coach of the University of Miami following Davis' departure and was formerly the head coach at The University of Texas at San Antonio. In addition to Pagano, Schiano, and Coker, former FIU head coach Mario Cristobal served under Davis as a graduate assistant from 1998 to 2000. Another assistant coach under Davis at Miami who would go on to become a head coach is Randy Shannon. Shannon served as the linebackers coach for Davis' first three years at Miami. Former Tulane football coach Curtis Johnson also was an assistant under Davis at UM. Johnson served as the wide receivers coach from 1996 to 2005. Davis' tight ends coach at the University of Miami was Rob Chudzinski, former head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Chudzinski worked in Cleveland when Davis was the head coach there serving as tight ends coach in 2004.

While with the Cleveland Browns and the North Carolina Tar Heels, three of Davis' assistant coaches went on to serve as head coaches in some capacity. Everett Withers replaced him as the head coach at North Carolina for the 2011 season. Withers is currently the head coach at Texas State University. The secondary coach in Cleveland under Davis, Todd Bowles served as the interim head coach of the Miami Dolphins in 2011 and is now the head coach for the New York Jets. Davis' special teams coach in Cleveland in 2004, Taver Johnson, served as the interim head coach of Arkansas for a brief time during the spring following Bobby Petrino's departure and currently is the cornerbacks coach.

Bruce Arians served as offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns under Davis from 2001-2003. After stints as the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts, Arians served as the interim head coach for the Colts and is now head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.

College

* North Carolina self-imposed a penalty of vacating 16 wins in the 2008 and 2009 seasons due to NCAA violations.

NFL