People love to describe North Carolina as a basketball school, but first-year football coach Butch Davis said that he has discovered many of the people at Carolina want to win just as much in football.

"One of the things that has surprised me the most is the passion for the football program," Davis said. "Carolina has a phenomenal reputation, and it's well deserved for all the success they have had in basketball. But I don't think it has ever been at the expense of the football program. Carolina has had its glimpses of football success. Mack Brown's last couple of years there were as fine as anybody in the country.

"Coach [Bill] Dooley had some success. Unfortunately, there have been some periods of inconsistency. I think the reason that inconsistency never manifested itself in the basketball program is you had Dean Smith for 36 years. It's pretty hard to screw that up. Then you get Roy Williams. They've had a run of some of the best coaches to ever coach college basketball."

Davis said that what he has discovered is that UNC wants to be the best at whatever it does, and he likes that attitude and knows it will help him build a winning football program.

"I have jokingly said that Carolina ought to adopt the Oakland Raiders [motto]: 'A Commitment to Excellence.' Almost every single athletic program at the University of North Carolina has high expectations.

"They are all extraordinarily successful at the national level. I think that helps. With recruits around the country, we're talking about that. The university is committed to be good at everything.

"There are schools around the country that want to be good at a program," Davis said, "but they really don't care about the rest of them. They pick and choose three or four programs to try to be competitive. Everything else is like intramurals. That is not the case at Carolina. They want to be national champions in all 28 sports if they could."

As for football, Davis said he has been extraordinarily pleased with the way in which everyone has embraced him and his push to turn the Tar Heels into big-time winners in football.

"It has exceeded my expectations," Davis said. "You never really know. You think the research you do and talking to people, you know a little bit about the program, I have just been happy and pleased with the unbelievable support. The administration has been excellent, the Board of Trustees.

"The passion to bring outstanding football to the University of North Carolina is some of the things you don't really know. You can look in the media guide and look up weight rooms and stadium capacity and those things, but grass roots, how important is it truly to have a great football program. I have been very impressed, from the administration to the faculty, their willingness to jump in and help in recruiting."

The desire to get better, he said, has extended to the players, who are in the end the most important part of the equation.

"One of the things about the '07 football team is these players who have been there, they have just been spectacular," Davis said. "They have absolutely bought into everything. Change can be difficult. But these kids have embraced everything we have asked them to do, from classroom to workouts to the way we practice, the tempo.

"A lot of times there is a lot of resistance. The one thing I will tell you about this football team is they want to win. They want to win. They want to change the perception of themselves. They want to change the perception of the program. They are willing to work hard to make it happen."