Butch Davis: Miami’s Master Recruiter

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Perhaps no other University of Miami head coach has accomplished more without capturing college football’s ultimate prize. Although he never won a national championship at the University of Miami, no head coach in Hurricane football history was a better recruiter. When Davis was hired in 1995 to replace Dennis Erickson who had left to coach the Seattle Seahawks, he inherited a mess. The Canes had lost 41 scholarships due to NCAA sanctions following a Pell Grant scandal and recruiting violations. Sports Illustrated had devoted a cover story on how the University of Miami should drop its football program.

Despite the horrible publicity and huge handicaps, Davis managed to assemble a juggernaut. But it didn’t happen overnight. During his first 5 seasons from 1995 to 1999, the Canes had some terrible struggles. They were 0-10 against FSU and Virginia Tech. There were head scratching defeats to East Carolina in 1996 and 1999. Miami suffered blowout losses to FSU (47-0) in 1997 and 66-13 to Syracuse in 1998. During a game against West Virginia in 1997, a disgruntled Miami fan flew a banner over the Orange Bowl that read “From National Champs to National Chumps–Thanks Butch”. But there were small hints the program was turning around. Following the loss to Syracuse in 1998, Miami upset #3 UCLA 49-45 . The Canes opened 1999 with a victory over Ohio State in the Kickoff Classic. Suddenly the young recruits who took their lumps against FSU and Virginia Tech in 1997 and 1998 were growing up. By 2000, the Canes racked up an 11-1 record, including wins over the Noles and Hokies, finishing #2 in the nation behind Oklahoma.

Following the 2000 season, Davis accepted the head coaching position with the Cleveland Browns. The Canes would win the national championship under his successor and former offensive coordinator Larry Coker. But the results of Davis’s recruiting efforts were undeniable. From 2001 to 2004, the Canes produced a remarkable 22 NFL 1st round draft picks–all of them recruited during the Davis regime. Names like Ed Reed, Reggie Wayne, Santana Moss, Dan Morgan and others became Cane legends and NFL stars. Miami went to 4 consecutive BCS Bowl games and played for the national title twice–mostly due to those recruits.

Since the departure of Davis, Miami’s recruiting has not been the same. The Canes haven’t been in the national championship picture for almost 20 years. Davis had some mild success. He took the Browns to the playoffs in his second season in 2002.But ultimately, the Browns could not build on that success and continued to flounder. He coached at North Carolina from 2007 to 2010 and steadily improved the program’s record until an academic scandal led to his departure. He worked as a college football TV analyst for ESPN. Davis has spent the last 5 years coaching at Florida International University, where he led the Panthers to 3 bowl games and their best season ever–a 9-4 record in 2018. His most memorable victory came against the University of Miami at Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in 2019. However since beating UM, FIU has won only 1 of its last 18 games. The university recently announced Davis will not be back as head coach next year.  To read more articles about Orange Bowl history, visit us at https://www.facebook.com/ghostsoftheorangebowl


Connect To Your Customers & Grow Your Business

Click Here