The Wet Season: It's Crying Time Again
UHND.com - Rock Kanutski
September 9, 2001

It’s Sunday morning, a misty rain where I’m at, and the Bob Davie Era is over. The coach just had his defining moment, and it occurred before the Nebraska game.

“At some point, we’ve got to go in and win a game like this,” Davie said.

This is a quiz—what’s wrong with that sentence? Answer—it’s the phrase “at some point.”

Every coach who expects to win, expects to win now. Davie wants to win now, but he only expects it “at some point.”

This is the difference between Davie the Good DC (“I know we can hold ’em scoreless”) and Davie the Work-in-Progress HC (“Oh, you mean actually win? Uh, how?”).

The Nebraska game, and all the struggly major games before it, are just the natural outcome of that problem. Honest Bob has told us the truth.

And now it’s over. The Davie Era is done.

MORE ABOUT DAVIE

Here is Rock’s Prediction Five—Bob Davie will never compete for the National Championship. Not at Notre Dame, not at any school.

Davie will learn to be a very good head coach, good enough for Texas A&M, for example, which is where the insightful Notre Dame Nation writers have him settling. The Rock agrees.

But Davie will never get past the hump of the 9-3 season. In an earlier article, we called that the top ring in the bathtub and said we’d already seen it. Put Bob Davie at a school where 9-3 is plenty good enough, a place where he can reduce his downside in peace, and he’ll be fine.

But no one, not even Davie at this point, believes he’s a fit for Notre Dame. After the Nebraska game, he said he has to fix the coaching.

Well . . .

As I said in an earlier article, the man’s not stupid. Count on Davie to start working with Kevin White now on a transition.

ABOUT KEVIN WHITE

I also said earlier I’d write about Kevin White, and I will. There’s more to say about Dr. White than his relationship with Bob Davie and the football program.

But in regard to the football program, White must know the transition has to start immediately. I imagine on this solemn Sunday the workaholic White is already deep in his Roladex, doing his legendary prep.

Listen—isn’t that the sound of a Waterman ND pen (powered by Scripto ND ink) scratching away on Kevin’s eighth National Office Products ND yellow pad of the day? The AD presses the buttons on his Panasonic ND speakerphone, slips that Plantronics ND headset over his ear, carefully adjusts his adidas ND cravat, and voilà, next year will be different.

Count on it.

THE REST OF THE SEASON

Unlike many, I don’t think this busted game spells collapse for the season. I see two more losses—Tennessee and someone—and wins the rest of the way. The regular season ends a respectable 8-3, capped with an appropriate minor bowl, say, the BustedDotCom.com bowl, a reasonable finish for the Davie Half-Decade. (Do we win? Maybe.)

Why the optimism (if 8-3 can be considered optimistic)?

Yesterday the defense played much better in the second half, Courtney Watson put on the shoes of the man who stood before him, and if Davie the Good DC can solve the problem of the soft middle of the line, this defense will be tough all year.

Offense is another story, as usual. Again there appears to be no good offensive coach on the squad—either because Davie insists on coaching the offense himself (in which case we have yet to see the “real” Kevin Rogers) or because, well, there’s no good offensive coach on the squad.

The line has serious trouble related to preparation, and Jeff Faine, who is growing one of the best O-line minds in the program, must be going crazy. There are generally three problems to solve in O-line coaching—talent, technique, and attitude, the what-it-takes to dominate a game the whole game. There’s clearly something missing.

Maybe Faine, with another year of experience under him, should coach the O-line himself next year. He’s probably already thinking about what he can do this year to “supplement” what the coaches aren’t providing.

At quarterback, it’s clear Davie should have been preparing Carlyle Holiday all summer to start against Nebraska, with Jared Clark to spell him for a change of pace. But Davie’s not capable of that kind of offensive decisiveness.

LoVecchio may still prove himself the best QB in the room (those comparisons to Montana are compelling), but as a Frosh/Soph leader, he gets rattled in the big ones, though with his usual outward calm, he only shows it in his play. Matt’s not ready for prime time yet.

For this season, Matt and Carlyle will likely split time at QB until Carlyle emerges, sometime in the second half of the season (no crystal ball needed for that one). In the meantime, look for Faine to take charge of the O-line and put them by force of will where they need to be mentally.

The team will play with pride; they won’t embarrass themselves or us. They might even win Tennessee, though for Davie that won’t matter.

Then it’s off to the Yesterday Bowl (“wasn’t that game on yesterday?”), and the season’s done. Time to move on, for all concerned.

I called this article “Crying Time,” and it’s true. These are not just the tears of a loss, a hard defeat. They are the tears of the end of a relationship that just didn’t make it, a five-year marriage in which everyone tried.

Bob Davie is a good man, and he’ll be a good head coach . . . just as soon as he fills those holes in his resume, figures out why defensive coaches don’t make good head coaches, and then makes that change.

I believe he will do all these things, and make some program proud. When he does, those of us who like him (and there are many) will be proud for him.

But lady, it just didn’t work, and there’s no one to blame. It’s been five years since Lou left, time for all the “honey, I can fix it” to be tried, and now it’s time for Kevin to be Kevin.

Prediction Six—Davie will beat him to it.

THE TRANSITION

I want to close with a few words on the transition. I firmly believe that Davie and White will work one in the background, starting very soon. Davie, bless his decent soul, may even initiate the conversation, though as I said, Kevin is on the phone (Panasonic) even as we speak.

There’s a lot to salvage. Davie’s done some very good work, and he loves the program. It will be important to both of them to build on Bob’s foundation. After all, the foundation has been Davie’s major product.

The issues are recruiting, the assistants, the players, and the timing of public perception.

Without going into detail now, the first two are the most critical, as they will be the hardest to manage; and the first two are linked. We have some of the best recruiting coaches in the country, several of whom aren’t the best coaches for their position; whom to keep, and how?

Recruiting is also linked to the timing of public perception. How do you reassure the current bumper crop of early commits, and add to it, with a transition going on in the background? This gets easier, of course, if the season rights itself (as I believe it will). But if it doesn’t? Problem.

Of course, that’s what Kevin’s paid for, isn’t it.

And that’s it for the Rock for this week. We’re going to have a sad year. But like all tearful ends, it clears a space for new beginning. Best to get the crying done now; there are plenty of tears left in this one.

The Rock has a ton of admiration and respect for Bob Davie, and two tons of appreciation for the good he’s done. The effect of his work will be seen for a decade, if the right head coach replaces him. (You Civil War fans of McClellan will understand this.)

I’d like to think that in the coming years the ND community will give Bob Davie the recognition he deserves and a place at the table in the Former Coaches Home. He won’t sit next to Ara, but he deserves as good as he gave, which is the best he had. Next year a very good coach will be glad to stand on his shoulders, build on his work, and we should be glad with him.

Thank you, Coach, for what you’ve done, and what you’re about to do.

Now on to West Lafayette. Knock ’em flat.

Yours in the mist,

Rock

Previous Rock Kanutski articles:
    The Dry Season
    The Dry Season 2: A TQM Coach
    The Dry Season 3: But Does He Have the Mark?

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