3 of the last 4 make the cut. Butch Davis was the right hire for the time.
Hiring Torbush to replace Mack with no real search was a disaster, one that is still sending waves across the bow of Tar Heel football. NC native, and Moo alum, Jim Donnan had a 10-2 team at Georgia in 1997 and later admitted he was very interested in replacing Mack: 'but it never came together.'
What would have happened if a 10 win SEC coach had come to UNC? Recruiting would have been set for a couple of years at least. Bobby Bowden would have talked even more about UNC as The Sleeping Giant of ACC football that now was ready to wake up and make his job very difficult. But Baddour was happy with Torbush.
Torbush should have been fired in 1999, his 2nd team, after losing to 1AA Furman and finishing with 3 wins. But Baddour liked him and wanted to give him a chance. A 6-5 team in 2000 could not save Torbush from fans who hated the hire from the get-go and were talking about firing Baddour if necessary.
The 2000 job search is most instructive for UNC football fans, because it involves Donnan again. FSU's Mark Richt was probably the hottest OC in the nation, and he clearly was the hottest HC prospect among ACC coordinators. As he knew the ACC inside and out, the UNC job would have been perfect for both parties. We will never be allowed to know officially what happened, but from right then, the word got out that Richt's deep religious faith and his acknowledgment that it would play a role in his being HC got him shelved by Baddour, with the full approval of the administration.
Supposedly a number of guys with NFL time expressed some interest, Pete Carroll among them. But Baddour and Co pressed on to hire alum John Bunting, who spent nearly an entire career in the NFL, with a couple of years as a non-scholarship D3 coach.
Back to Donnan - UGA fired him in 2000 too - after his 4th consecutive bowl win and team ranked on the final Top 20. Why would UGA fire a coach who just delivered 4 consecutive bowl winners that finished ranked? Because UGA boosters recognized that Mark Richt could be a great HC and they did not want a rival to get him.
UNC would not hire Richt, but UGA would fire a coach with 4 consecutive ranked teams to get Richt. And UNC also would not hire that UGA coach.
The stupidity is so bad most editors of novels would say it is too unrealistic for believable fiction.
Bunting should have been fired no later than 2003, his 3rd team, which finished 2-10. Steve Spurrier then was in his 2nd of 2 years with the Redskins, and everybody knew he hated NFL coaching and wanted back in CFB, badly. Spurrier also had let it be known that he thought the UNC job was a good one. Baddour and a group of powerful alums (basketball boosters prominent among them) saved Bunting. In 2005, Spurrier took over SoCar and made that program worth something.
As noted, Butch was the best hire we could have made for the 2007 season. But from the start, Butch was openly opposed by a bunch loyal to Bunting and/or basketball. Art Chansky was among the best known. They would not rest until they did major damage.
And that brings us to the fall of 2011 and the search to replace Interim Withers. By mid-season, 3 names were prominent: Houston HC Kevin Sumlin, Southern Miss HC Larry Fedora, and Auburn OC Gus Malzahn. Reportedly, each of the 3 was very interested.
Malzahn was the first to be cut. I have little doubt that his deep religious faith was the ultimate deciding factor. Malzahn was so ready to be HC that he wanted the Kansas job, replacing Turner Gill, if he could not get the UNC job. Kansas also wanted no part of a Bible reader like Malzahn. So poor Gus took a pay cut to be HC at Arkansas St. Malzahn was Mark Richt Part 2 for UNC. I said then, repeatedly, that Malzahn would be the best HC of that trio. And he is, obviously.
Fedora was not a terrible hire, as were Torbush and Bunting. But he was far from what we needed. if we had hired Malzahn, just as if we had hired Richt, we would be much better off today.
There are major lessons to be learned from that history.
Hiring Torbush to replace Mack with no real search was a disaster, one that is still sending waves across the bow of Tar Heel football. NC native, and Moo alum, Jim Donnan had a 10-2 team at Georgia in 1997 and later admitted he was very interested in replacing Mack: 'but it never came together.'
What would have happened if a 10 win SEC coach had come to UNC? Recruiting would have been set for a couple of years at least. Bobby Bowden would have talked even more about UNC as The Sleeping Giant of ACC football that now was ready to wake up and make his job very difficult. But Baddour was happy with Torbush.
Torbush should have been fired in 1999, his 2nd team, after losing to 1AA Furman and finishing with 3 wins. But Baddour liked him and wanted to give him a chance. A 6-5 team in 2000 could not save Torbush from fans who hated the hire from the get-go and were talking about firing Baddour if necessary.
The 2000 job search is most instructive for UNC football fans, because it involves Donnan again. FSU's Mark Richt was probably the hottest OC in the nation, and he clearly was the hottest HC prospect among ACC coordinators. As he knew the ACC inside and out, the UNC job would have been perfect for both parties. We will never be allowed to know officially what happened, but from right then, the word got out that Richt's deep religious faith and his acknowledgment that it would play a role in his being HC got him shelved by Baddour, with the full approval of the administration.
Supposedly a number of guys with NFL time expressed some interest, Pete Carroll among them. But Baddour and Co pressed on to hire alum John Bunting, who spent nearly an entire career in the NFL, with a couple of years as a non-scholarship D3 coach.
Back to Donnan - UGA fired him in 2000 too - after his 4th consecutive bowl win and team ranked on the final Top 20. Why would UGA fire a coach who just delivered 4 consecutive bowl winners that finished ranked? Because UGA boosters recognized that Mark Richt could be a great HC and they did not want a rival to get him.
UNC would not hire Richt, but UGA would fire a coach with 4 consecutive ranked teams to get Richt. And UNC also would not hire that UGA coach.
The stupidity is so bad most editors of novels would say it is too unrealistic for believable fiction.
Bunting should have been fired no later than 2003, his 3rd team, which finished 2-10. Steve Spurrier then was in his 2nd of 2 years with the Redskins, and everybody knew he hated NFL coaching and wanted back in CFB, badly. Spurrier also had let it be known that he thought the UNC job was a good one. Baddour and a group of powerful alums (basketball boosters prominent among them) saved Bunting. In 2005, Spurrier took over SoCar and made that program worth something.
As noted, Butch was the best hire we could have made for the 2007 season. But from the start, Butch was openly opposed by a bunch loyal to Bunting and/or basketball. Art Chansky was among the best known. They would not rest until they did major damage.
And that brings us to the fall of 2011 and the search to replace Interim Withers. By mid-season, 3 names were prominent: Houston HC Kevin Sumlin, Southern Miss HC Larry Fedora, and Auburn OC Gus Malzahn. Reportedly, each of the 3 was very interested.
Malzahn was the first to be cut. I have little doubt that his deep religious faith was the ultimate deciding factor. Malzahn was so ready to be HC that he wanted the Kansas job, replacing Turner Gill, if he could not get the UNC job. Kansas also wanted no part of a Bible reader like Malzahn. So poor Gus took a pay cut to be HC at Arkansas St. Malzahn was Mark Richt Part 2 for UNC. I said then, repeatedly, that Malzahn would be the best HC of that trio. And he is, obviously.
Fedora was not a terrible hire, as were Torbush and Bunting. But he was far from what we needed. if we had hired Malzahn, just as if we had hired Richt, we would be much better off today.
There are major lessons to be learned from that history.
