The first time I ever heard the expression “you can’t see the forest through the trees”, I thought it was the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard (right up there with “I could care less” which by definition means that you care to some degree).  UNC, however, has shown me the light.  What frustrates NC State fans, and probably some Duke fans as well, is the ability of UNC and the media to completely miss the gigantic pile of shit that is the UNC football program.

The basketball program is just as bad, but we’ll save that for another day.

In a recent AP article published in the Contra Costa Times, the writer goes to great lengths to explain the circumstances around Butch Davis’ son’s status as a walk-on quarterback for UNC.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the former coach said he and his wife, Tammy, supported their son’s decision despite the turmoil and hurt that followed his abrupt firing just before training camp last summer.

“I think he was concerned about how we’d feel,” Tammy Davis said. “But we just kept reiterating that it was his decision.”

“He wanted us all to be OK with it,” Butch Davis added.

Oh, Butch, you poor thing.  How did they ever let a innocent little flower like yourself get hit by the bus?  But wait! There’s more…

Butch Davis, who wasn’t cited for an NCAA violation in the probe, is currently a consultant to head coach Greg Schiano with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He said he met Fedora in the spring and also reached out to offensive coordinator Blake Anderson about the possibility of Drew joining Fedora’s program.

So, the same man who offered his son a scholarship that both the Chancellor and athletic director denied knowledge of is still hanging around the football program, lobbying for his son to get a position on the team.

Let’s rewind to August 2011…

“Drew is a good kid and I feel bad for him in all this,” Thorp said, “and for all I know, we would love to have him on the football team. But with everything going on, it would be good for the athletic director and the coach to talk about that and probably for all three of us to talk.”

Clearly, it would have been good for Davis, Thorp and Baddour to talk about a lot of things, but I’m going to chalk this one up to Davis hoping Thorp would take it easy on his son (SB Nation)

So between now and a year ago when such an offer was unacceptable, Davis’ son has found a slot on the team through the lobbying of his father who should be, by all common-sense standards, kept out of a 100 mile radius of that campus.

Getting back to the AP article, did you notice how they went out of their way to mention that Butch Davis didn’t have any NCAA violations attributed to him?  Well later in the same article…

The plan for Drew to play for his father at UNC even led to a secondary NCAA rule violation by chancellor Holden Thorp, who said a week after the firing that he was disappointed Butch Davis offered his son a scholarship without consulting Thorp or then-athletic director Dick Baddour. NCAA rules prohibit discussing recruits who haven’t signed a letter of intent.

 So… Butch Davis isn’t the problem.  He was fired despite not having caused any NCAA violations, but we’re going to blame Thorp for his secondary violations.

Go it.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is not seeing the forest through all the trees.  The forest is that the entire program is twisted and has been for some time.  Butch Davis ran a dirty program and the entire university is dirty for not pointing out the obvious when it was happening right under their nose.  Furthermore, now that events have come and gone and it would be easy to just admit that maybe some feeling of blind loyalty got the best of you, there are still members of the media and UNC fan base clinging onto this misguided concept that they somehow didn’t do anything wrong.

It’s all Chancellor Thorp’s fault for talking about a recruit… not Butch Davis’ fault for running a shitty program or trying to give his son a scholarship.

Unfortunately, UNC and their fan base will continue to live in their sick, twisted version of reality.  As proof, I give you this from Keeping It Heel…

I stand here now and tell you this with every ounce of my convictions: Drew Davis should be treated like every other walk-on. He should be yelled at. He should be challenged. He should be pushed to the edge.  Drew Davis may one day dress. Drew Davis may one day hit the field. Drew Davis may one day start.

[...]

If that ever happens, Drew Davis, should have to earn it; he shouldn’t be helped or hindered because of who he is, nothing more, nothing less.

Huh……. I wonder how many of the other walk-ons had their father, former coach and “victim” of the big-bad chancellor, having personal conversations with the existing coaching staff to lobby for their son’s position on the team.

Unbelievable.