“Say, didn’t you use to be Notre Dame football?”
Rumor has it that Saturday night, Athletic Department officials were huddled with University administration demanding to know if they could get a refund on the off-season exorcism designed to lift any and all remnants of the Charlie Weis era. This followed notification from Rome that after much consternation and pondering, they could find nothing to prove having every ticket buyer say a mandatory Novena prior to kickoff would really make much difference.
Once a National Title contender, so long ago there are those who believe the Protestant Reformation hit about the same time, the “Team formerly known as the Fighting Irish” are now little more than an also-ran. The team with a field color seemingly able to induce LSD-style optical illusions (Boise State), and a Florida-based program that in recent years was known for attracting so-called “scrubs” who couldn’t cut it at “the major football powers” (USF), have not only overtaken the Notre Dame reputation but neatly helped bury it right under the Rockne Memorial.
Suffice to say there are plenty of people around this fine country that weep not a single tear for the Tarnished Dome. Then again, Notre Dame has no one to blame but themselves.
South Florida’s 23-20 win over the Failing Irish wasn’t really that much of an upset. Certainly it will rankle the alum who haven’t had anything post-season to cheer about since Texas A&M rolled over in consecutive years back in the early ’90’s. But when you look at the manner in which Notre Dame has been consistently diluting their football holy water since 1997, why should any be surprised, shocked or in need of special dispensation?
First and foremost, Notre Dame didn’t deserve the right to be ranked in the Top 25 before the first kickoff, much less #16. An 8-5 season in 2010 wasn’t that impressive, and that includes the Sun Bowl victory against a University of Miami team that bumbled their way into coughing up a 27 point deficit before remembering how their forebears used to vex Notre Dame on the field more effectively than the snake did with Adam. Then again, those Hurricanes were paid a lot better than the ones from last season.
If (and when) Notre Dame again becomes something even remotely resembling a national power, they must stop seeking out “the next legendary head coach to inflate the Dome” and employ decision makers who either have a clue or, at the very least, understand how to find one.
The University allowed themselves to be held hostage by Lou Holtz, who dragged out his departure and eventual resignation better and more effectively than Sarah Palin’s current vise grip on the Republican Party. Instead of seeking out the right man for the job, they allowed Holtz to call the shots even when he was Casper by taking on Bob Davies as new leader. Davies did nothing more than hang on and ride out the players he was given, going to 3 Bowl games and losing them all. Even after the complete embarrassment of the 2001 Fiesta Bowl crushing at the hands of Oregon State, Davie was given another season and couldn’t even muster a .500 record.
Here’s where the wheels not only came off, but the entire Notre Dame football limo fell apart as if constructed from Lego’s and then tossed into a baby’s playpen after arming the kid with a ballpeen hammer. The person who decided to make South Bend his personal explosive demolition testing ground was then-recently hired Athletic Director Kevin White.
White was truly the centerpiece in this eventual crown of thorns. Lauded by ND officials and the media as the man who helped clean up point-shaving scandals at Tulane and Arizona State, he in reality was little more than an errand boy for both programs after they were caught red-handed keeping their backs turned to cheating, and then told what to do by the NCAA. As an Athletic Director for a major University athletic program such as Notre Dame, White was eminently prepared to be in charge of jersey requisition orders.
Following Davie’s exit and likely aware of the clover fire he would be stepping into, Jon Gruden knew better than to stick his neck into the mess at Notre Dame. With that one hiring strike, White goes after then-Georgia Tech Head Coach George O’Leary. Not only was O’Leary another “flash in the frying pan”, but White did such an excellent job of vetting his choice that he missed the fact O’Leary lied in his resume to get an edge on the job. Everybody fudges a little on this job history, so what’s the big deal? Were it not for “New Hampshire Union-Leader” sports reporter Jim Fennell uncovering O’Leary’s fabrications, the hiring likely would have been cheerfully approved. As it happened, O’Leary was hired, exposed, shown the door, and the University looked a little more than ham-handed in their approach.
Two strikes and where does this paragon of athletic leadership turn?
Like a little kid attracted by the glistening of some new toy, AD White was mesmerized by the “confidence” of Tyrone Willingham. A coach that in 7 seasons at Stanford had, in reality, done very little to warrant an upgrade to the hallowed halls of any true national contender. Bristle if you will at the mention, but there are plenty who still feel this was little more than a political move. Hire an African-American coach, savor the publicity, increase their recruiting ability to those talented kids who saw Notre Dame as little more than a haven for rich non-minority players, and prove that South Bend was the home of socially responsible leadership.
Willingham will perhaps go down in college football history as the worst hire ever at a major University, though a case could be made for a tie with the hiring of Gerry Faust, oddly enough another weak link in the Notre Dame decision armor.
To paraphrase legendary football announcer Keith Jackson, Willingham rumbled, bumbled and stumbled thru 3 seasons at the helm. His 2004 recruiting class was judge by the alleged experts to be the worst at Notre Dame in more than 20 years. He succeeded in alienating fellow coaches, players, deep pocketed alums, the local media, (which isn’t a really big deal seeing as we in the media are always feeling more than a little disrespected at all times), and despite the fact we have no hard evidence can assume he wasn’t very well liked by “Lucky” the mascot. Willingham was such a dour, lifeless, angry and sullen human being, he had to be bounced prior to the prestigious Insight Bowl, which in the hands of a staff replacement brought a fitting and predictable end to Willingham’s tenure with a 17 point loss to Oregon State.
By this time there were rumors circulating around Notre Dame Nation that the Beavers were actually a team of pigskin hit men hired by those fat cat alums to do the real dirty work in cleaning out ineffective Head Coaches.
Of course, out came the slings and arrows from those who “knew” the only reason Willingham was fired was because of his skin color. Sorry. The man was bounced because he was an under-prepared, overmatched, overhyped and under achieving Head Coach.
Armed with a nice clean slate, and a frighteningly bare cupboard of real talent, Athletic Director White sallied forth and obviously learned a donut hole from his previous experience. This version of “The Next Great Thing” was New England Patriots Offensive Coordinator Charlie Weis, lauded as the genius who turned Tom Brady from a draft afterthought to the best QB in the NFL.
As you’ll remember, Weis was such a logical selection that White waited for the inevitable rejection from Urban Meyer, whom he knew would take the job at the University of Florida. For one shining moment, White seemed to have a firm grasp on how the coaching game was played, safe in the knowledge that by at the very least making an attempt at Meyer, it would prove to his superiors his obvious knowledge in choosing the right man for the job.
And I typed every single word without falling off my chair in peals of laughter.
Weis certainly had the football coaching chops to be considered as the savior. Assistant with the NY Jets, NY Giants and winning Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, he seemed a natural. However, Weis came to the job with only 4 seasons as an assistant coach in college, and that was on the University of South Carolina staff in the mid to late 80’s. Bookending that stint was as a high school coach. And while there have certainly been coaches with a measure of success going from the pro ranks to college, this was Notre Dame. Heady for anyone at amy level, but with so much pressure and anticipation comes that demand to come out blazing and never take that foot off the victory gas for a single second.
Weis did what many coaches do in that haloed first couple of seasons. Face it. From the players standpoint, they’ll just naturally play better for someone new in the “make an impression on the new guy because he has no idea of what I truly can do” phase. Initial seasons are not always the best judge of what a coach can do.
19 wins and 6 losses in those first two seasons. Excellent. Losing major bowl games to cap both seasons. Oops.
Back in the shadows of those first two campaigns lurked the clueless claw of Kevin White. The Irish start 5-2 in that first season, and White digs into that South cash vault and comes up with a 10 year extension for Weis, valued at between $30-$40 million dollars. $7M for each of this first campaign victories. No one has been so handsomely rewarded for doing so little since M. Night Shyamalan was predicted to win multiple future Academy Awards after directing “The Sixth Sense”, and then managed to put dead people from that film into permanent spiritual exile after they were forced to sit thru a single showing of “Lady In The Water”.
White wasted more Notre Dame time and money, one of which they certainly have more of than the other, and mercilessly was finally bounced in 2008. If you believe he stepped down voluntarily, then I have a pair of rosary beads blessed by the Pope to sell you. Cheap.
Jack Swarbrick, eminently qualified for the position, took the AD reins and saw everything he needed to when Weis managed to lead Notre Dame to their second loss in 3 years at the hands of Navy. Shoveling down extra doses of Dramamine to stave off the motion sickness left behind by White, Swarbrick scuttled Weis and sent him back to the NFL with a boatload of Irish cash.
Swarbrick has embarked on what will be his crowning career achievement, or be remembered as one who destroyed his excellent reputation by working for a University leadership that couldn’t find the Stations of the Football Cross with a divining rod and Holy GPS.
Year 2 now of the Brian Kelly era has begun with a thud. However, he certainly deserves a break after inheriting a legacy of messes left behind by an ineffective and chaotic leadership at the top of the food chain, and more than a few measly crumbs left behind by those who gorged at the cash contract table with nary a thought at the messy pile in their wake for someone else to clean up.
But there is no reason to believe Notre Dame football will return to prominence any time soon. No coach fears the Flailing Irish. Every player goes into a three-point stance confident they can knock the jock off any Golden Domer. What was once hallowed gridiron ground in South Bend is now little more than a burial site for
Prayers can no longer save Notre Dame football from itself. However, until such time as Swarbrick and Kelly prove they are more than just models for the latest line of Irish bobbleheads, prayers and faith are all this program has.
The loyalists still believe, but even “Touchdown Jesus” may sit this one out until someone is able to clean that losing stain off the Golden Dome.
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