Canes and AD Blake James parted ways with class — which Butch Davis didn’t get from FIU | Opinion
It was a stunning day for college sports in Miami. Not entirely shocking, but stunning nonetheless for the one-two punch.
Miami Hurricanes director of athletics Blake James and the university “mutually agreed to part ways,” said the announcement early Monday evening. That was just hours after the news broke across town that FIU football coach Butch Davis also was out.
James was shown the door with velvet gloves, the press release from the school noting his “class and integrity” and listing the various accomplishments of its head of athletics since 2013.
Davis’ departure is closer to a blindside punch to the face, and he deserved so much better.
One parting was amicable (at least publicly) and the other ugly, but both have in common the big business side of college sports that can be brutal, the reality that ADs and head football coaches almost always face a firing line or an encouraged resignation eventually.
(Throw in the recent sudden resignation of Florida Panthers coach Joel Quenneville over his role in a 2010 Chicago Blackhawks scandal and it has been quite the bloody fall-into-winter down here).
James’ departure and the timing of it is intriguing for what it portends for UM football coach Manny Diaz, whose Canes are 5-5 near the end of a disappointing third season, after Saturday’s loss at rival Florida State.
A national search for James’ successor is under way. Incoming ADs typically command power over major decisions like coach hirings, and there is no question Diaz is embattled — although two more wins and then a bowl win might alter perceptions.
Will the new AD be a hired gun brought in with firing Diaz a first order of business? Or does UM believe the AD change will mollify angry Hurricanes fans enough that firing Diaz will be off the table for now? The school could always hire its new AD with the understanding Diaz gets at least one more year.
We shall see. And soon.
A disappointing football season is not all that had raised the heat under James.
The next-biggest sports on campus — men’s and women’s basketball and baseball — all have seen a downturn in success in recent years. The NCAA Tournament and College World Series bids have become uncommon.
But football drives everything, and likely drove James out. His bottom-line main job was to restore UM to the elite power that won five national championships between 1983-2001, and he could not. Canes football was 68-44 with him as AD. Good, not great. Good, not good enough.
Over at FIU, partings ways with Davis was also no great surprise. The panthers’; coach since 2017, Davis had much success early. His first three seasons ended in three consecutive bowl appearances. The 2019 season included a watershed triumph over the Hurricanes, whom Davis once coached — a first for FIU.
Since that win, though: Davis and FIU have been 1-16, including 1-9 this season. Coaches don’t often survive such a stretch, especially at second-tier schools overshadowed and starving for relevance.
FIU athletic director Pete Garcia stepped down just last week after 15 years at that post. It signaled the end seemed near for Davis.
But the way FIU handled moving on from Davis has been an embarrassment. It was enough to get Garcia fired if he hadn’t quit.
Davis said the FIU administration “sabotaged the program” in an interview with The Action Network, by not allowing coaches to recruit on the road the past two years. He also said budget cuts forced the use of old, borrowed equipment including shoulder pads previously used at Mississippi State.
Far worse, FIU last month posted a football head-coach opening online with the American Football Coaches Association — never telling Davis he would be replaced as his five-year contract expired next month.
“This year has been a nightmare,” Davis said. “Their decision to post the job has resulted in a major negative impact on the football program.”
One wonders how FIU will find a quality coach willing to work at a school that blatantly betrayed its sitting coach and is less than committed to winning in football.
Across town, the problem is never finding coaches who might see the Miami Hurricanes as a dream job. The problem is the university ponying up enough millions to be in the running for elite coaches.
That will be the problem for UM’s next director of athletics as as Manny Daz waits to learn his fate.
All that is certain today is that if Diaz is let go, Miami will handle it with more grace than FIU has with its unimaginably classless treatment of Davis.
