Man, my first NFL post and it's about Cleveland instead of my beloved Dolphins. What are the odds?
Actually, it's more of a post about Butch Davis, Cleveland's head coach and a former University of Miami guy (there's why I'm writing about it). Don Banks at SI.com had an article on Tuesday in which he nominated Butch for the best personnel call of the preseason with his decision to go with Kelly Holcomb over first rounder Tim Couch.
Banks claims that the move was about more than just Holcomb outplaying Couch; he tries to make it into an attempt by Davis to gain credibility among some of the players who had some doubts about the conviction in his words.
I have a little trouble with Banks theory. Everything that I've ever seen with Butch Davis indicates that he works on building credibility through success. Davis wants to win and he knows that if he wins, he could put me in as QB and the players would still follow behind him.
The job of the coach is to make player decisions; the job of the players is to play. When a coach abdicates his job to the players in the interest of building "credibility" with the locker room, he has essentially ended his career.
Davis has got to know this. I'll agree that Holcomb over Couch is probably the best controversial preseason coaching decision that was made in the NFL. But I don't believe that it had ulterior motives beyond putting the best QB on the field. The convergence of Davis' decision and the locker room's wishes just happens to be a nice coincidence, and one that may benefit Butch.
Butch Davis is a smart coach. He knows that winning is the best way to build loyalty and credibility among his players. Holcomb is there because Davis thinks he will make Cleveland a winner.
And Davis is all about the winning.
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