Florida International University held a press conference Tuesday to introduce Butch Davis as the new football head coach.
Davis was hired Monday as the new coach at FIU and agreed to a five-year contract. Davis is the university's fourth head football coach in its history, and by far the most well-known in the coaching ranks.
"If you had to look for an opportunity to get back into coaching, you couldn't visualize a better opportunity than FIU," Davis said at Tuesday's press conference. "It's got a great academic reputation, great athletes, in Dade and Broward and South Florida."
Davis was head coach for the Miami Hurricanes from 1995-2000 and had a successful 51-20 record overall. The 64-year old also made stops at North Carolina and in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns. Recently, the veteran coach has been working in television for ESPN and will immediately leave that broadcasting gig.
He has earned a reputation as one of the nation's best recruiters and evaluators of talent. His last UM team was loaded with players who went on to become NFL stars.
Davis said another huge factor is FIU's alumni base, more than 200,000 in South Florida. He said he's hoping to get the alumni and students to pack the stadium on game days next season.
But his first order of business is assembling a staff of coaches to evaluate the team's needs and then to hit the road recruiting.
