- File photo by Jeremy M. Lange
- The Tar Heels take the field in a 2008 game.
The sky is not Carolina blue today.
Yahoo! reported last night that former associate head coach John Blake had far more extensive and recent contacts with agent Gary Wichard than had been previously disclosed, including a series of financial transactions dating back to 2007.
This afternoon, the News & Observer‘s Caulton Tudor just published a call for the dismissal of head coach Butch Davis.
And, this just in from UNC’s sports information office, a statement from UNC athletic director Dick Baddour in which he responds to the Yahoo! story:
We became aware of some of the information through the NCAA investigation when John Blake was interviewed on Aug. 31. But financial transactions in and of themselves don’t establish a violation, and at that time we did not have enough information to dismiss him with cause.
Nevertheless, we weren’t comfortable with what we learned. That, combined with the distraction that Coach Blake was becoming to the football program, led us to the conclusion that it was not in our best interest for him to continue to be part of our program. He offered to resign, and we agreed to terms on Sept. 5.
In other news, UNC, which won its first game of the season on Saturday, beating Rutgers 17-13, will host the ambitious East Carolina Pirates (2-1) this Saturday. Kick-off will be at 3:30 p.m.
Triangle Offense, for one, will be there.
