Former Tar Heel Coach Joins Tampa Bay Bucs

(Streetre Lecka/Getty Images)

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced Monday that former Tar Heel head football coach Butch Davis has joined their staff as a "special assistant to the head coach." Davis, according to the NFL team, will "assist and advise" first-year coach Greg Schiano "in a wide range of football aspects."

Davis will be reunited with Schiano. When he was the coach at Miami, Davis hired Schiano as the Hurricanes' defensive coordinator in 1999. In a statement released by the Buccaneers, Schiano described Davis as "a close friend and mentor." 

After a tumultuous 2010 season that was marked by NCAA investigations into impermissible benefits and academic fraud, UNC fired Davis last July, just before practice was to begin. 

The school owes Davis an additional $1.77 million, to be paid in three $590,000 installments. Davis is to receive the first of those payments by Jan. 15, 2013, and one each on the same date through 2015.

If he accepts a coaching position between now and Jan. 15, 2013, his buyout would be affected and he'd receive a prorated amount depending upon when he accepted a given coaching position, according to Jonathan Sasser, one of Davis' lawyers.

Sasser said Monday that Davis accepted an advisory job with the Buccaneers not because he wanted to remain eligible to receive his buyout money from UNC but because the job with the Buccaneers represented the best opportunity for him to transition back into football.