Louisiana head coach Porter Davis leaving Lafayette
Davis cites "witch hunt" and "lack of faith" by university
By Karl Belcher | Jan 2, 2018, 4:47pm EST
The coach responsible for the most successful three year span in the history of Louisiana Ragin' Cajun football is leaving the university following what he called a "witch hunt" surrounding his relationship with former ULL student and athletic department intern Maya Collins.
The university's investigation found that the two began their relationship after Collins had graduated and that she never worked directly under Davis during her internship.
Davis led the team to three straight top ten seasons with 12 wins in 2015, 13 wins in 2016 and 12 again in 2017.
Louisiana won conference championships in each of Davis' three years and they appeared in major bowl games at the end of each season.
Davis had the team near the top of the defensive ranking each season.
He won coach of the year twice.
Davis stated that he felt the university mishandled the situation and could have avoided the whole mess had they simply spoken to him and Collins before allowing the situation to come to a boil.
"I struggled with this decision mightily." Davis said in a tweet a few hours ago. "I'm not happy that this is the way it had to go, but ultimately the university and their actions gave me no choice. I deeply regret leaving the players, coaches and other members of the football staff."
Davis said he has not thought about his future and that this matter and preparations for the Orange Bowl had consumed the bulk of his time for the past several weeks.
Davis was very professional in his statement on Twitter.
Collins was a bit less so.
According to Kirk Herbstreit and Todd Blackledge several schools have already been in contact with Davis.
ULL has not commented on the situation as of this time.