Thursday, October 21, 2010

Overwhelming support for Davis

North Carolina fans are happy with the job Butch Davis is doing as football coach and want him to remain in that job despite the controversy that's been swirling around the program for the last three months.

A scientific telephone survey of North Carolina voters describing themselves as fans of the Tar Heels found that:

-Only 14% of Carolina fans want Davis to be fired with 57% preferring that he continue as the coach and 29% having no opinion. 41% of fans approve of Davis' overall job performance to only 20% who disapprove, numbers any politician would love to have.

-We also asked poll respondents whether they would characterize themselves more as 'hardcore' or 'casual' UNC fans. Davis' support is even higher with the hardcore fans who are most passionate about Carolina than the fan base at large. With that group there's only 9% support for replacing Davis while 68% think he should remain coach. And they also give Davis very solid overall numbers with 59% approving of the job he's doing to only 21% who dissent.

These numbers would seem to suggest that UNC fans don't think the program's current issues are Davis' fault and that they appreciate the strides the team has made on the field since he became coach. And they would suggest that Chancellor Holden Thorp and Athletic Director Dick Baddour's strong continued support of Davis is meeting favor with their 'constituents.'

Full results here

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like only 14% are seeing the facts as they unfold and 50+% are willing to ignore the disgrace that is UNC football at this point.

AG said...

It never, ever fails: fans will always choose probation over irrelevance. I bet if you asked Tennessee fans the same question about Bruce Pearl they'd tell you the same thing.

Heck, you could probably ask Michigan basketball fans about Steve Fisher and they'd tell you the same thing!

Tom Jensen said...

As an Ann Arbor native and someone who had Michigan basketball tickets the entire time growing up I think they would definitely have been better off keeping Steve Fisher but that's just my opinion!

Scott S said...

Gotta love the ABCer comments, lol...

AG said...

As someone who grew up on Michigan basketball, I'd have kept Fisher, or at the very least not replaced him with a guy who was 6 months removed from getting fired by a D2 school like Brian Ellerbe was. I mean, however much he was implicated in the whole Ed Martin business, it wasn't bad enough that San Diego State didn't take a chance on him only a year later.

UTEP hired Tim Floyd before even finding out if the NCAA would ban him from coaching. I'd even bet that some school would be desperate enough to take a chance on Kelvin Sampson once his suspension wears off.

Whoami313 said...

I love how the anonymous person doesn't have the balls to post who they are before they criticize the opinion of a fanbase they most likely don't belong to but care about for whatever reason.

Most of those hardcore fans actually have a semblance of what's going on in this situation. No one except the NCAA and UNC officials know exactly what's going on. The media has some info but a lot of what's out there now is just conjecture, chest puffing, and partially informed opinions.

Opinions are like rectums, everyone has one and they usually stink.

Tom Jensen said...

I'd say Fisher's done much better than Michigan since his departure, and there doesn't seem to be a whiff of trouble with the NCAA for him at SDSU.

Michigan Basketball will rise again...some day...I hope...

Anonymous said...

Sorry, never posted on here before and don't have an account. As for being "anonymous", I guess as Whoami313, we really know who you are?

As for what we do know, the Assistant Head Coach of a program that has a 30 year relationship with said Head Coach was on the take from an agent and referring UNC players an others to that agent. We also know that after UNC terminated a tutor that was "too close to the players" the Head Coach continued to employ that tutor.

The end result of all this mess will be Lack of Institutional Control. Get ready because it's coming and good ole Butch Davis will be back in the NFL soon enough.

Anonymous said...

You guys need to leave the first Anonymous alone. He is still recovering from his trip to Greenville, NC where his group of misfits got slapped by ECU.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Anonymous is hoping for that very thing because as most ABC'ers, they don't want UNC to succeed and are scare to death that they will.

Anonymous said...

…Get that Investigation done and over with stop the procrastination. If the kids are innocent let them play if they were guilty then take the appropriate action! No human being is omniscient, no chancellor of universities, AD, Congressman, Leaders of heads of states, teachers or academics, and football coaches, only police officers, detectives & prosecutors (oh excuse me “they think they are). In every position that I have ever attained in Accounting there is an on going learning curve. Even to this day, I learn new models that I use. I learn new complex “if” formulas
…That said, nothing brings back wonderful feelings about their universities than happy Alumni who look forward to visiting their Football Stadiums, like ours Kenan, on Saturdays. I was a former successful Carolina Athlete at UNC, not football either, Some people think Carolina Basketball is close to the feeling of Mecca &/or impacts the Alumni feelings... I luv Coach Williams and most of us are very very proud of Carolina Basketball... But, people and Alumni love being outside to experience the wonderful feelings of a Beautiful Fall Day, visiting the campus, dining on Franklin Street, seeing old friends, bringing & enjoying their families, rooting for Carolina Blue and participating in the surroundings at Kenan. Carolina Basketball & Carmichael are nice but it will never outweigh the personal experiences & feelings that one attains by visiting the campus on a wonderful Fall Day and enjoying Kenan Stadium at a game!
…Please note, most of us “do not” travel long hours to return to Chapel Hill for the purpose of going to Carmichael. But, we do for a Football Game. Since, Mack Brown went on to greener pastures, Davis is the best thing to has happen to Carolina Football, despite the man lacking the ability of being omniscient.

Anonymous said...

You ABCer's love to stretch your "facts" about the situation at UNC. There is no proof whatsoever that John Blake referred any Carolina player to any agent and surely no proof that Butch Davis knew anything about it. And NO, Coach Davis was not reviewing Blake's phone records and bank statements which is the only way he could have known what he was doing. Apparently neither were the Coach's at Tulsa, Nebraska, or Miss St, who all hired him before he got to UNC. If you hadn't noticed, Blake was fired. Also the tutor in question was employed by UNC at the time she was tutoring Coach Davis' son. BTW, the tutoring program is not even housed in the Athletic Dept and as such none of the coaches nor the AD have any oversight of it. I know you hate UNC, but get your facts straight before you look like an idiot. This case does not even approach lack of institutional control and "good ole" Butch Davis will be winning ACC championships at Carolina for years to come.

Anonymous said...

It is interesting to hear the term "lack of institutional control" thrown around. What exactly have they not controlled. They guys that took money (happened last summer) have been dismissed or served their suspensions, guys that cheated in the class room have been dealt with. Had a problem on multiple fronts, and have confronted them. The only problem I see for the university is Blake. Most of the things I read about his transgressions happened while he was at other schools. We'll see. No one other than the school and the NCAA knows the full story. Everything else is speculation. I'll wait for all the facts to be published before I form an opinion.

 
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