PINEHURST, N.C. � Speaking Monday at the Atlantic Coast Conference's annual media summit, North Carolina football coach Butch Davis said the negative publicity generated by NCAA allegations of improper conduct by the Tar Heels program was his responsibility but he has never considered stepping down as head coach.
By Gerry Broome, AP
North Carolina football coach Butch Davis said he never considered stepping down despite the negative publicity surrounding the program after allegations of NCAA violations.
By Gerry Broome, AP
North Carolina football coach Butch Davis said he never considered stepping down despite the negative publicity surrounding the program after allegations of NCAA violations.
"Fully and completely," Davis said of the degree of responsibility and accountability he accepts for the nine charges that will be addressed Oct. 28 before the NCAA infractions committee. "I'm the head football coach. Anything that I can do to ensure that these things don't occur again, whether it's from education to the players, whether it's rules and regulations and policies, anything that we can do to make sure that that doesn't happen again, that's part of my responsibility."
The NCAA began investigating charges of academic misconduct and players receiving improper benefits in June 2010. Fourteen players were held out of at least one game last year because of the investigation and seven missed the entire season.
The NCAA delivered notice of nine allegations June 21 of this year, charges that ranged from improper academic help and financial assistance by a tutor to seven players receiving more than $27,000 in impermissible benefits to former assistant coach John Blake steering Tar Heels players toward an agent and then lying about it to the NCAA.
The only time Davis is mentioned in the NCAA allegations is to request his presence at the October hearing. Davis attended a similar session in 1995 when he was coach at Miami (Fla.).
"I regret greatly that these things have happened. I don't take them lightly," Davis said. "This is the most important issue that has faced the University of North Carolina in many decades. It's caused a tremendous amount of embarrassment and a tremendous amount of hard times for Carolina alums and fans.
"But we're going to get through this and because of it we're going to come out of this and be better than before."
ACC Commissioner John Swofford, who was athletics director at North Carolina for 17 years, said the league by policy does not comment on ongoing investigations.
"North Carolina is a program that generally has been free of NCAA sanctions but any time we have a program that is dealing with major infractions it flies in the face of what we believe we're all about and that we've shown we're about," he said. "We haven't been free of (sanctions), but we've had less than any other conference.
"We want to keep it that way. So around our table, we will absolutely ratchet up the discussion about the commitment to comply."
Also at issue for Davis on Monday was the request to see his cellphone records by a North Carolina news media coalition. He said he plans to release a redacted version soon.
"I think you will find out that this is a personal cellphone that I have had for 10 years and the
lion's share of these calls are personal," Davis said. "But everything that has anything to do with UNC or business-related, these are going to be fully released.
"We want the truth out there. The university has looked at these records completely unredacted back in the fall and ? they did not find anything at that time that was inappropriate."
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