The Teacher, Coach, Quarterback And The Waterboy

Every group has an end goal. Some are attainable while others are not. Some face little obstacles, others face monster ones.

The way to approach any group setting is to use your skills as a judge of character and recognize talent in each person for the group to achieve great things.

An example of a team success despite considerable obstacles is the University of Miami Hurricanes football program. In 1995, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) imposed severe sanctions on the school that would have killed other top football programs in the nation. Soon thereafter, the Hurricanes named Butch Davis as their coach. Miami Director Paul Dee knew that he had the man who could perhaps restore some of the program's lost luster.

Dee spoke highly of Davis: "Butch exemplifies the qualities we were seeking in our search for the complete coach. He demonstrates outstanding leadership ability, integrity, commitment to academics and is among the best recruiters in the country."

As confident as Dee was in Davis, one got the impression that Davis was equally confident in himself. Davis had been part of one of the greatest turnarounds in sports history by helping the Dallas Cowboys go from 1-15 in 1989 to winning back-to-back Super Bowl Championships in 1992 and 1993 as a coach on Jimmy Johnson's staff. But while Johnson and staff were blessed with young talent in quarterback Troy Aikman and a steady flow of draft picks from the Hershel Walker trade to the Minnesota Vikings, Davis was not to be so fortunate in Miami.

Miami had been ravaged by the NCAA sanctions. Davis saw the number of scholarships he could hand out to players drop by 31 over the first three years of his tenure. Scholarships offered to promising high school players allow teams to recruit the best talent to win at the Division I College Level.

Entering the season, Davis' goal was to return the program to the level of unprecedented success that it enjoyed in the 1980s and early 1990s. During that era, Miami spawned Championship teams, legendary college quarterbacks in Vinny Testaverde, Gino Torreta and future National Football League (NFL) gunslingers Jim Kelly and Bernie Kosar.

Incidentally, Davis was the defensive line coach of the 1987 Miami team that won the Championship. At the time, he coached an All-American roster of defensive linemen in Russell Maryland (#1 pick overall by the Dallas Cowboys), Bill Hawkins, Cortez Kennedy, Daniel Stubbs and the late Jerome Brown. Miami also produced linebacker Ken Norton and free safety Thomas Everett. While various coaches could have done well given the talent at Miami, Davis was the best one suited for the job. First, Davis thrived when challenged; a true test of a champion. He was a leader to his team who stayed upbeat even when things look bleak. He was also a visionary on and off the field.

He knew the importance of laying down the foundation for a solid football program. He convinced the Athletic Director to invest over $2 million dollars to bolster the Greentree Practice Field. He also understood the importance of doing things right from step one. Corporate heavyweight General Electric mastered this "basic" concept with the Six Sigma quality program. The process that Davis wanted to perfect was one of human development; the same focus that former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch emphasized throughout his tenure, which started in 1981.

Davis understood better than anyone else that building a Championship team on the field was only half the equation: Davis wanted to mold his recruits into all-star human beings off the field as well.

He fostered an environment where players volunteered in the community. He once said: "I want us to be successful, but I want kids to leave here with the sense that there's more important things to individual success than winning football games."

Davis saw the bigger picture and prided himself in building Miami back to the powerhouse level it once was. Sure the flattery was nice, but the results were what mattered to Butch. He made the players see that if they cast aside their egos, commit themselves to success both on and off the field, act responsibly and work as one, then anything would be possible.

This was the focus that Director Dee was hoping for when he recruited Davis. From there, he let Davis take over and the results spoke for themselves.

Miami won the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in 2002 with Larry Coker as coach. But to some extent, it was an extension of what Davis had started. By then, Davis had been recruited as the National Football League's (NFL) Cleveland Browns coach.

Davis must have taken a cue from one of the greatest coaches in professional sports, Vince Lombardi, who said: "They call it coaching but it is teaching. You do not just tell them...you show them the reasons." Davis showed his players and his superiors just that.