By Adam Lucas

The Butch Davis era at Carolina officially begins with a question.

Davis was sitting in a room with several members of the Carolina athletic department in the days before his introductory press conference. Over sandwiches, the Tar Heel staffers were trying to break the ice with the new football coach. The typical subjects were covered: the weather, the schools...all the details a resident of Chapel Hill needs to know.

Davis had already familiarized himself with the layout of his new home state, which he wants to be the base of his recruiting efforts. But he was curious about the driving distance to the potential recruiting hotbeds of Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. He also had one other target area in mind.

"How close is Virginia Beach and that Tidewater area?" Davis asked.

After a discussion of the Tidewater area and its recruiting history, it seemed like a good opportunity to sell him (again) on his new home state. Sure, he had already agreed to be the coach, but you can never be too careful.

Besides, everyone else in the room heard "beach" and immediately pictured a sun-splashed afternoon, toes in the sand, and the Atlantic Ocean splashing over their legs. It was almost like a first date, so everyone quickly tried to provide their best recommendations.

"Coach, Wilmington is going to be your closest beach," he was told. "Topsail is close also. You could maybe consider..."

Davis humored the suggestions for a few seconds. Eventually, though, it became obvious they weren't answering the question he had asked. He interrupted with a laugh, and in the next few seconds he acted and sounded like Carolina's head coach for the first time.

"Guys, I'm not talking about swimming," he said. "I'm talking about recruiting."

"Beach" means one thing to some people. It means something entirely different to football coaches. That's why Davis had specifically inquired not just about any beach, but about Virginia Beach. He wanted to know about Tidewater because it's a hotbed of football talent, a place that has produced Carolina greats like Lawrence Taylor, William Fuller, and Dre' Bly.

Everyone else in the room was thinking like a representative of the Chapel Hill Chamber of Commerce...Davis was thinking like a football coach.

He spent the past two years as a television analyst. But he never really stopped being a coach. With a few minutes to kill before his meeting with the Carolina officials, he didn't put his feet up and watch some daytime television. He sat down with a thick white notebook labeled "Carolina Football" and worked on the details surrounding his transition to Chapel Hill.

Davis has a nice Arkansas twang that can pepper his speech with phrases like, "busier than a one-armed paper hanger." Don't let that fool you. The man has been to the top of the college football world at Miami and remembers exactly how he got there. He's a football coach, but he's also a CEO.

So he thinks about things like shirt logos. Handed a stack of shirts to wear for a photo opportunity, he picked out a navy one with a Carolina blue stripe.

"This is what I'd probably wear on game day," he said. But then he went on to suggest several possible alterations to the shirt, including the placement of an interlocking "NC" logo on the sleeve so it would show even if he wore a sweater vest on top of it.

"The recruits have got to see it," he said. "We don't want to cover it up."

Davis projects the type of no-nonsense authority you want in your football coach. He loves special teams. Loves aggressiveness, but tinged with a healthy dose of discipline. And he loves being a football coach.

Some coaches talk about players they've coached who have gone on to productive NFL careers. Davis talks about Pro Bowlers. All of them are talented, of course. But they also have one other common trait:

"I like players who really get after it and play with a high motor," he says.

You may not see much evidence publicly of that intensity from him in the coming weeks. There will be a big splash this afternoon when he's announced as the head coach, but then a quiet may envelop Carolina football. It's possible that the full coaching staff may not be assembled until the 2007 calendar year. Don't mistake that lull for a lack of activity. Davis has an astounding list of contacts throughout the coaching fraternity; his reputation combined with Carolina's football potential will generate a staff of like-minded football wizards.

There will be no learning curve. Starting this afternoon at 3 p.m., Carolina football is in the hands of one of the best coaches in the country. He'll pass his NCAA rules test (he's already been studying) and begin recruiting immediately.

Carolina football has long been distinguished by the beauty of Kenan Stadium, by Charlie Justice, and by periodic trips to bowl games. The new head coach has his own idea about the defining characteristic of Carolina football in the Butch Davis era.

"Winning," he said. "Winning will distinguish coming to a game in Chapel Hill. That's the ultimate compliment. If you come to Chapel Hill and come to Kenan Stadium, you're going to see a win."

Short, simple, effective. Ready to start working; ready to start winning.

Adam Lucas's third book on Carolina basketball, The Best Game Ever, chronicles the 1957 national championship season and is available now. His previous books include Going Home Again, focusing on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.