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Davis deal still in limbo
Dad says son is interested in UNC
The father of Butch Davis said Thursday that his son is interested in the North Carolina football coaching job but could not say if the Tar Heels have offered the position. "I'm sure he is interested," Paul Hilton Davis Sr. said when reached at his home in Arkansas. "I'll be honest with you: I talked with him the day before yesterday, and we didn't even talk about football. It's up to him to make his own decision. He's 54 -- 55 later this month -- and he's been making his own decisions for a long time.
"He's been pretty fortunate, and I think he'll make a good decision this time, too."
Davis Sr. said his son "has not, to my knowledge" been offered the job.
The coach's agent, Marvin Demoff, told The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday that a deal had not been reached and that it would be next week before anything is "really going to happen."
Messages left Thursday for Butch Davis, Demoff and UNC athletics director Dick Baddour were not returned. Steve Kirschner, UNC's associate athletics director for communications, said, "There is no news to report today on the coaching search."
Davis is now an analyst for the NFL Network. Its president, Steve Bornstein, said Thursday he had "no knowledge" of Davis' intentions.
UNC is looking to replace coach John Bunting, who was fired Oct. 22 but will finish the season.
Mike Paulus, a highly rated quarterback recruit from Syracuse, N.Y., said Thursday that an assistant coach at Christian Brothers Academy, Jim Guifre, told him that Davis had accepted the job.
"I found out yesterday, probably about 3 or 4 o'clock,'' Paulus said. "My father called, then my high school coach called me -- he's an assistant coach on our staff -- and he called me and said Butch had called him ... to say he was taking the job. He and Butch Davis are good friends."
Reached Thursday, Guifre did not want to comment. UNC assistants were saying little about the situation after practice Thursday. Frank Cignetti, UNC's offensive coordinator, said he had not told Paulus that Davis would be the next coach.
"I don't know that,'' Cignetti said. "The only thing I know is what we read on the Internet. We're not getting any information from anybody."
UNC recruiting coordinator Dave Brock declined to comment, saying he did not want to discuss a recruit.
Paulus, who committed to the Tar Heels in May, said he likes the prospect of playing for Davis and remains committed to UNC -- although he won't make an official visit to campus until after the season, when a new coach takes over. He plans to attend the Tar Heels' game against N.C. State on an unofficial visit Nov. 18.
Meanwhile, Davis Sr., who coached football, basketball, baseball and track in two Oklahoma towns, said he realized when his son was in high school that Butch probably would coach, too.
"Even then, he was drawing up offensive plays," he said. "And when we watched football together ... he was evaluating coaches and players. I never saw a kid like that in high school."
Butch Davis was named after his dad but was nicknamed "Butch" because his late mother didn't want him to be dubbed "Junior."
The father said he wasn't surprised his son -- who was 51-20 in six seasons as the Miami Hurricanes' coach -- has stayed away from the sidelines since he resigned as the coach of the NFL's Cleveland Browns during the 2004 season.
"At the time he left Cleveland, he had worked, I think, 31 straight years,'' the father said. "I think he was due a vacation."
Asked if he thought his son would rather return to college or the NFL, he said he didn't know for sure.
"He told me sometime back he thought he was ready to go to work, and I think he wants to get the best situation he can get,'' Davis Sr. said. "And perhaps he thinks that's in college."
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