Nebraska fired their Athletic Director Steve Pederson today which officially kicks off the late season sacrifice of coaches and other officials on the altar of winning college football. And as much as I would love to proceed through the rest of the season not worrying about whether or not Butch Davis might be leaving based on various message board rumors I have read that luxury is not one UNC fans will have. The one school to watch will be Arkansas who will most certainly show Houston Nutt the door, possibly prior to the end of the season. Butch Davis graduated from Arkansas, has family there and has a good friend who is a key Razorback booster.
The real question is whether Davis would walk out the door after only one year? I am leaning fairly strongly toward "no" on that. I am less worried about this than I would be if Arkansas was looking for a coach 3-4 years from now. I also think Arkansas is the only school UNC fans really need to be overly concerned about given Davis' connections there. Looking back at the glut of schools who went looking for coaches last season, Davis could have waited and taken his old job at Miami again or even the Alabama position. The fact he took the UNC job makes me think he was truly interested in doing the things he has said he wants to do. That being said if Arkansas comes offering Davis, Nick Saban type money to return home would he say "no" and can we really expect him to under those circumstances?
We will see. The question will come up as soon as Nutt is fired which could be a matter of days or weeks.