The other shoe finally dropped on UNC this week. The firing of Butch Davis on Tuesday, and the resignation of athletic director Dick Baddour on Thursday has left UNC's football program, if not the athletic department, in shambles.
I, with the rest of the rest of sports fans of America, am stunned by the timing. The bad news has seemingly been unending since last summer, starting with an investigation into NFL prospect Marvin Austin's summer vacation, and then moving onto numerous players being declared ineligible, an assistant coach with a checkered past, a running back that switches license plates to avoid parking tickets and a plagarism/honor court scandal that degrades the academic institution of the school. There was easily enough stuff going on between July '10 and December of that year for the university to fire Davis.
What does it mean that the school waited until after the ACC media days and eight days prior to fall practice? Surely the AD and president knew the timing of Davis' firing was beyond horrible. It makes me think that either there's more damaging information out there that has yet to be released, or some of the big-money boosters finally had enough.
Another thing about this situation that makes me scratch my head: the reactions of the incoming freshmen. These are recently-graduated high schoolers who committed on National Signing Day to UNC, despite the program being investigated since the beginning of these students' senior years. One father said that they trusted the coaches when they said the worst of the storm was blowing over. Wait, what? Of course they're going to tell you that! Wake up!
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