This May Have Been the Break Bob Needed
UHND.com - Eric "BigE" Sims
October 31, 2000
First of all, allow me to call the Air Force win what it was: an unimpressive, if not lucky, win over an undermanned service academy. With the talent donning the blue and gold these days, the Fighting Irish should have been able to do nothing more than go through the motions and win handily. However, as all of us who nervously paced in front of our television sets and hopelessly prayed for divine intervention know, the game did not unfold as scripted. If not for Glenn Earl’s fingertips halting the forward motion of the winning field goal attempt, history would have repeated itself and Bob Davie’s job security would be on ever shakier ground. As it turned out, Notre Dame did find a way to win the game and stands at 6-2, ranked 15th in the country, and in position for a major bowl bid come season’s end. It may have been just the break Bob Davie needed.
Just over four years ago, in the same stadium and on the same end of the field, Air Force kicked a field goal that knocked off the 8th ranked Fighting Irish, a loss which precipitated the demise of Lou Holtz at Notre Dame. Bob Davie, when he took over the program in late November of 1996, inherited a team that had been in continual decline over the last several years of the Holtz regime. Lou, as he has done at nearly every one of his coaching stops, quickly resuscitated the dying Notre Dame football program and won a national championship within three years. Not long after that, however, the program began to slide, a slide that came to full fruition once Davie took the reigns. Holtz had relied on less stringent admissions standards and the brilliance of recruiting coordinator Vinny Cerrato to build a power in his first years at the helm, but Cerrato departed in the early ‘90s, admissions standards got tougher, and Holtz’s recruiting crops became increasingly less stellar. Although the inexplicable loss to Air Force on that October day in 1996 indeed signaled the end of Holtz’s tenure at Notre Dame, it was merely the final in a long chain of events that would have eventually led to his resignation anyhow.
Bob Davie began a reclamation project of which many of been skeptical and openly critical in 1997. Davie’s team struggled mightily throughout much of 1997, but it showed extreme character and determination in fighting through tough early losses to claim a bowl bid. The 1998 edition of Notre Dame football, led by a small group of talented and vocal seniors and helped by a surprisingly weak schedule, battled its way to a 9-1 record before the loss of starting quarterback Jarious Jackson proved too much to overcome in the last two games of the season. After the 1998 campaign, then athletic director Mike Wadsworth offered Davie a contract extension and the program seemed on the rise. The 1999 season, however, offered plenty of venom for Davie’s many detractors to spew in attack of his abilities. Crucial early losses to tough competition and late injuries proved the team’s undoing. While many of the losses resulted from things beyond the scope of Davie’s influence and control, his detractors still found fault in nearly every decision he made. Coming into the 2000 campaign, he was undeniably on the proverbial hot seat and endless discussion and rumors surfaced about potential successors.
What Bob Davie and his fellow coaches have done this season is really, despite what many detractors will claim, remarkable. The special teams are arguably the best in the nation, while the defense is much improved, and the offense, while inconsistent and unproductive at times, has found a way to supply enough points to put the team in a position to win in every single game. This team, because of injury, has had to start three different quarterbacks, each with zero starting experience. The schedule, in spite of many attempts to claim otherwise, has been very difficult indeed. In fact, of the thirteen teams ranked ahead of the Irish in the latest edition of the BCS poll, only two can tout having tougher schedules to date than Bob Davie’s team. The fact that he has coached this team to a 6-2 record, especially in comparison to the 1999 debacle, is truly amazing and deserves kudos.
A loss to the Air Force Academy on Saturday would have essentially erased all of the positives of this season and would have placed the Irish in a situation no further along than they were when they left the field losers against the Falcons four years ago. As it did with Holtz, an Air Force upset would have likely led to Davie’s demise at Notre Dame. But, miraculous or not, the Irish found a way to win and will live to fight another day.
Despite anyone’s claims to the contrary, a certain amount of luck or good fortune is needed for anyone to be successful in just about any difficult venture. Being the head coach at Notre Dame is certainly a difficult task, and no coach has succeeded at such a place without a little bit of luck. Up until now, Davie’s luck has been mostly bad. There have been questionable calls, untimely injuries, inauspicious bounces, NCAA probation, and an age-discrimination case to boot. It seems as though a dark cloud of misfortune has hovered over Davie since he took the position of head coach. With Glenn Earl’s leaping block late Saturday afternoon, perhaps Davie’s run of luck has taken a turn for the better.
The blocked kick has kept alive Notre Dame’s hope for its first major bowl bid in five years. It was the kind of break of which Davie was in dire need. Whole seasons, careers, and programs can turn on such a small play.
A harder working and more knowledgeable football coach than Bob Davie one is not likely to find. He often puts in fifteen hour workdays, spends the maximum number of days allowed away from home on recruiting trips, and has always remained optimistic in light of seeming despair. He has upped the talent level at Notre Dame to a point it likely hasn’t witnessed in several years and is finally growing into and becoming more comfortable with the demands of the job. The narrow escape from Air Force will likely serve as both a reminder to the team and coaches that they must perform at top level each Saturday and as an inspiration that any close win will provide. If the team and coaching staff can learn the lessens from this near disaster, they should be able to come out and earn that coveted BCS bowl bid. Such would do wonders for the state and confidence of the program and would prove a great catalyst into the increasingly important 2001 campaign. All of this would be for not if it wasn’t for Glenn Earl’s outstretched fingers in the closing seconds of regulation on Saturday. It may have been just the break that Bob Davie, and indeed Notre Dame, needed.