Dick Baddour and Chancellor Thorp announced this evening that defensive coordinator Everett Withers will take the role of interim head coach for the upcoming season. Withers came to UNC with Butch Davis in 2007 after one season as the University of Minnesota's defensive coordinator. He's been in coaching since 1988, and has spent six seasons with the Tennessee Titans and another three as defensive backs coach under Mack Brown at Texas. He has never held a head coaching position.
I personally was agnostic on the question of who should fill the role of the four candidates being considered, but in retrospect Withers seems like a god choice. The fan base has had their frustrations with John Shoop as offensive coordinator, and Sam Pittman and Ken Browning were probably considered too new to the position and too old to take the role on, respectively. Withers has done great thing with the defense in his four years as defensive coordinator, focusing on the secondary, which was especially strong in 2009 and good last season despite losing a lot of players. He has a ridiculously short amount of time to get up to speed, but expectations are pretty low for this team right now. The schedule starts slow, and he may be able to salvage this season yet.
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