At roughly 3:30pm this past Saturday, the John Bunting era ended at North Carolina and the Butch Davis era began.

**Before I discuss Davis, I have to mention the UNC-Duke game. I feel sorry for Ted Roof.

By all accounts, Roof is a good guy and pretty solid football coach. It is rare that a team scores 44 points in a football game and loses (rare even for Duke). Given all the storylines leading up to the game (Duke’s continuation of the longest current losing streak in college football, Bunting’s last game, Roof’s contract extension a day earlier), coupled with the way the game unfolded, this had to be one of the most amazing games in the rivalry’s long history.

I’m not a big fan of the Butch Davis hire, I’ll say that up front. He seems like a fine person, and has amassed a solid resume over his 30+ years in coaching. Does Davis want to be at UNC long-term? Is he interested in the NFL? Can he recruit outside of Florida? These are all questions that cannot be answered quickly. And, maybe this is the price you pay in today’s college athletics landscape. Get a quality coach and risk losing him if he is able to generate big-time success. Davis could fall in love with Chapel Hill, he could turn UNC in to a major college football power, and he could create a culture of football in the middle of hoops-crazed fans.

I hope he does. Really, I do. I have been at Kenan Stadium in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s when football was very, very important. I remember Amos Lawrence, Kelvin Bryant, Ethan Horton, Leon Johnson, William Fuller, Lawrence Taylor, and on and on and on. Carolina was a sometimes-top-ten team and a always-ranked team. All of this culminated in 1997 with the Heels being ranked in the Top 5 and hosting Florida St. A win would have assured a BCS bowl berth, and may have allowed Carolina to enter the national championship discussion. Since the kickoff of that game, however, Tar Heel football has taken a complete nose-dive.

Enter Buch Davis. His press conference is at 3pm today. His first priorities will be finding assistant coaches and retaining the current crop of recruits. Ultimately, though, Davis will be judged on the past. Not his past, but UNC’s past. Davis needs to capture the excitement and success the Heels enjoyed right before the kickoff of the UNC-FSU game on Halloween night 1997. Otherwise, it will be a short stay for Davis. His hiring means that Carolina is tired of 3, 4, and 5 win seasons. Indeed, bringing in Davis means the Tar Heels aren’t going to settle for 7-8 win seasons either.

I think Davis may be able to turn back the clock a decade. My fear is that once he does, he’ll be gone. Tar Heel fans should hope that Davis is successful in going back in time. And if he is, UNC fans should hope that Davis is unsuccessful in figuring out how to move that time clock forward again.