Former Browns coach Butch Davis isn’t exactly the most respected guy in NFL circles. But in his current role as head coach at North Carolina, no one can dispute that Davis is producing NFL-quality talent.
As I write in today’s Wall Street Journal, North Carolina has 12 players at the scouting combine, most of any school. If combine invitations are any indication, Davis has done a fine job of recruiting and developing talent since getting the North Carolina job in 2007.
Of course, three of the most talented North Carolina players at this year’s combine were suspended for the entire 2010 season as a result of NCAA violations, and Davis’s North Carolina team had a disappointing 8-5 season in 2010.
But just as he did in his final season as the head coach at Miami, when he sent a loaded crop of talent to the NFL that included four first-round picks in the 2001 draft, Davis is having a major impact in the NFL. Even if he wasn’t a good NFL coach.