The Athletic wrote an outstanding article on Butch Davis and how he has the FIU football program rolling. Here are a few tid bits from the article, plus a link if you're a subscriber to their site.
These practice fields didn’t exist three years ago. When FIU athletic director Pete Garcia reached out to Davis in late 2016 about the FIU head coaching opening, Davis said the program needed practice fields, among many other amenities, if it truly wanted to compete. Previously, the team practiced in the stadium. In March 2016, the school approved a plan to construct the fields on the northern part of the preserve and expand the preserve on the other side to make up for the loss, amid some campus protest. Davis was hired in late 2016, and the fields were completed for his first fall camp in 2017.
“It’s important to have some of that stuff,” Davis says. “You don’t have to have the Taj Mahal, but you need to have good things. Great dorms for the kids to stay in. You need to have good facilities for them. You need to have access to a nutritionist, to a strength and conditioning program, to good food, those kinds of things. Sticks and bricks is part of it, but the people are more important.”
The 67-year-old Davis says this will be his last stop in coaching, with a staff full of people he’s known for years and enough infrastructure in place to compete.
“If Northern Illinois can go to the Orange Bowl, UCF can do it, why not FIU?” Garcia (The AD) says. “We’ve got a talent base down here, a beautiful campus, great weather. The missing ingredient was a great coach like Butch, and he’s put a great staff together. That’s part of the equation. Everything is there. The sky’s the limit. I don’t say it just to say it. Eight wins, nine wins, his best team coming back, the sky’s the limit.”
Those ties have led to an influx in talent. Davis’ first recruiting class in 2017 ranked fifth in C-USA, and the 2018 class ranked first. Over the past three classes, FIU has signed 43 three-star recruits and two four-star junior college defensive linemen. The previous three classes had 13 three-star recruits.
The staff changed the standard of players they target and offer. They want defensive linemen taller than 6 feet 3 and offensive linemen taller than 6-4. They don’t want defensive backs who run a 4.75 40-yard dash. The results have followed.
“In 2017, eight weeks after I took the job, we timed every kid on the program,” Davis says. “The number of kids from 4.7 and below was six. On the whole team. Six. Three weeks ago, we did it and now it was 27. The overall team speed changed this dramatically. We timed 84 kids three or four weeks ago, and of those, 59 of them ran under 5.0 flat. We had 59 that all ran over 5.0 flat two, three years ago. Who we’re going after, the targeting, I think high school coaches are learning that we’re not just taking the average player.”
FIU coaches can’t stop gushing about Morgan’s (the quarterback) intangibles. He runs with the offensive linemen. He’s always one of the last off the practice field. He got a pre-law degree at Bowling Green and was accepted into the law school at FIU, and he is now working on a master of public administration. He arrived at FIU last summer and broke the school single-season records for touchdown passes (26) and pass efficiency, earning C-USA Newcomer of the Year honors. His average of 8.4 yards per attempt ranked No. 15 nationally. Now, he’ll have a full offseason under his belt. NFL scouts are starting to watch him.
“I’ve been doing this for 32 years and been with some really good guys, and he’s one of the best,” Skrosky says. “It’s really important to him. You kick him out of the office because he’s always there. He wants to know every minute detail, almost to the point where it’s a fault. He probably overthinks some things. His competitive nature, his will to win, the effort he puts in, it’s a lot of fun.”
*FIU has only been playing football since 2002, also has 56,000 students.
*FIU had just two winning seasons in its history before Davis arrived.
Here’s the whole article, it’s fantastic: https://theathletic.com/938271/2019/04/23/butch-davis-profile-fiu-panthers-football-development/
These practice fields didn’t exist three years ago. When FIU athletic director Pete Garcia reached out to Davis in late 2016 about the FIU head coaching opening, Davis said the program needed practice fields, among many other amenities, if it truly wanted to compete. Previously, the team practiced in the stadium. In March 2016, the school approved a plan to construct the fields on the northern part of the preserve and expand the preserve on the other side to make up for the loss, amid some campus protest. Davis was hired in late 2016, and the fields were completed for his first fall camp in 2017.
“It’s important to have some of that stuff,” Davis says. “You don’t have to have the Taj Mahal, but you need to have good things. Great dorms for the kids to stay in. You need to have good facilities for them. You need to have access to a nutritionist, to a strength and conditioning program, to good food, those kinds of things. Sticks and bricks is part of it, but the people are more important.”
The 67-year-old Davis says this will be his last stop in coaching, with a staff full of people he’s known for years and enough infrastructure in place to compete.
“If Northern Illinois can go to the Orange Bowl, UCF can do it, why not FIU?” Garcia (The AD) says. “We’ve got a talent base down here, a beautiful campus, great weather. The missing ingredient was a great coach like Butch, and he’s put a great staff together. That’s part of the equation. Everything is there. The sky’s the limit. I don’t say it just to say it. Eight wins, nine wins, his best team coming back, the sky’s the limit.”
Those ties have led to an influx in talent. Davis’ first recruiting class in 2017 ranked fifth in C-USA, and the 2018 class ranked first. Over the past three classes, FIU has signed 43 three-star recruits and two four-star junior college defensive linemen. The previous three classes had 13 three-star recruits.
The staff changed the standard of players they target and offer. They want defensive linemen taller than 6 feet 3 and offensive linemen taller than 6-4. They don’t want defensive backs who run a 4.75 40-yard dash. The results have followed.
“In 2017, eight weeks after I took the job, we timed every kid on the program,” Davis says. “The number of kids from 4.7 and below was six. On the whole team. Six. Three weeks ago, we did it and now it was 27. The overall team speed changed this dramatically. We timed 84 kids three or four weeks ago, and of those, 59 of them ran under 5.0 flat. We had 59 that all ran over 5.0 flat two, three years ago. Who we’re going after, the targeting, I think high school coaches are learning that we’re not just taking the average player.”
FIU coaches can’t stop gushing about Morgan’s (the quarterback) intangibles. He runs with the offensive linemen. He’s always one of the last off the practice field. He got a pre-law degree at Bowling Green and was accepted into the law school at FIU, and he is now working on a master of public administration. He arrived at FIU last summer and broke the school single-season records for touchdown passes (26) and pass efficiency, earning C-USA Newcomer of the Year honors. His average of 8.4 yards per attempt ranked No. 15 nationally. Now, he’ll have a full offseason under his belt. NFL scouts are starting to watch him.
“I’ve been doing this for 32 years and been with some really good guys, and he’s one of the best,” Skrosky says. “It’s really important to him. You kick him out of the office because he’s always there. He wants to know every minute detail, almost to the point where it’s a fault. He probably overthinks some things. His competitive nature, his will to win, the effort he puts in, it’s a lot of fun.”
*FIU has only been playing football since 2002, also has 56,000 students.
*FIU had just two winning seasons in its history before Davis arrived.
Here’s the whole article, it’s fantastic: https://theathletic.com/938271/2019/04/23/butch-davis-profile-fiu-panthers-football-development/
