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The Rise and Fall of Notre Dame Football
UHND.com - Jeff Bowdren
11/12/2001
Its sort of like the person who
watches NASCAR to see the car wrecks. That's what watching Notre Dame football has
come too. You watch the game, and you can visualize the car crashing in slow
motion. Folks, the car is careening wildly out of control. Bob Davie is at the
wheel, trying his best not to total a vehicle that he wasn't prepared to drive.
Unfortunately, the wheels began coming off the Notre Dame car a long time ago--we just
didn't realize it.
I'm just a guy. Never spent a day on a sidelines as a
coach. Not even in peewee football. Nope, I'm just a guy who's a fan of Notre
Dame for going on 30 years now, someone who has a video library of some 250 Notre Dame
games going back to the Joe Theisman years. What has looking at all those games done
for me? Well, for one thing, I can tell a well coached team from one that is not.
I can tell a team that has obvious talent that isn't being utilized properly.
I can tell a team that is just waiting for the right leadership to come along.
The last few years has shown a number of examples of this. Witness this
years Maryland team, which under the leadership of Ralph Friedgen has turned its program
around in one year. Bob Stoops took an Oklahoma team that had underachieved for
years under Gary Gibbs & John Blake and turned them into a national champion and a top
5 team for the foreseeable future. Those are just two examples. Is Notre Dame
ripe for a new leader? I would say obviously yes. Bob Davie has managed to
alienate most of the alumni and students with a consistent ability to put his foot
squarely in his mouth, but Bob's biggest problem has been his inability to the one thing
that is expected to be on a consistent basis at Notre Dame. Win. Well, not
just win. Win big. Win big often. Oh, and a national title or two every
decade wouldn't hurt either. Doesn't seem like much to ask, does it? So why
does Notre Dame seem so far away from that particular goal as we speak? Can it all
be thrown into the lap of Bob Davie? Well, in a word: No. Bob didn't
make the mess. He sort of inherited it and then let it continue to grow. Nope,
the wheels on that Notre Dame car began to come off years ago.....right around the time of
the.....
1) The Vinnie Cerrato Affair
So it was somewhere in late 1990 or early 1991 that something
relatively peculiar happened. Vinnie Cerrato, the charismatic assistant in charge of
Notre Dame's recruiting was coming off a 1990 class that was, by all accounts, one of the
alltimers. Future NFLers Jerome Bettis, Bryant Young, Aaron Taylor, Tom Carter, Jim
Flanigan, Jeff Burris, Tim Ruddy & Pete Bercich were brought aboard in one SINGLE
class. Truly an amazing accomplishment for Cerrato & head coach Lou Holtz.
Prep "experts" and recruiting guru's praised the class as the obvious
foundation for another national title for the Fighting Irish and Holtz. Notre Dame
fans licked their chops at the possibility of having Cerrato in charge of our recruiting
for years to come. And then, depending on who's point of view you choose to believe,
Notre Dame altered their admission requirements, refused to follow the adjustments that
other NCAA institutions made to their own, or...pulled the rug out from under Holtz &
Cerrato.
The following year (1991), the recruiting class was praised with
adjectives like "solid" and providing "good depth" to the previous
year's class. In other words, we had recruited a lot of backups. Now before
you start getting yourself all in a tizzy, obviously some talented players were brought
in. Lee Becton, Ray Zellars & Paul Failla came in and forged solid, if not
spectacular careers in South Bend. There were just no future Hall of Famers.
Explanations didn't exactly pour forth from either the admissions or football
offices. Rumors swirled that admissions department had stood their ground and had
denied several recruits admission to the school. This wasn't something that wouldn't
impact the football team for a few years, but when it did, you couldn't help but notice
the difference. But for now, it seemed clear that whatever the reason, the line in
the sand had been drawn, and the first casualty was the recruiting wunderkind himself,
Vinnie Cerrato, who heard the siren call of the NFL and moved on. Some would say
that Notre Dame football never recovered from the loss.
2) Schizophrenia at Notre Dame--Administration vs. Athletics
There are times when Notre Dame seems to display a split
personality. Is it a football school, or the Harvard of the Midwest? Certainly
the administration would seem to favor the later, no matter the status or impact of the
football team. So in lay the seemingly never-ending paradox for Notre Dame
football and its fans. History has shown again and again examples of the football
program becoming "too popular" or "too powerful" for the tastes of the
administration and then being taken down a peg or two (see the end of Leahy & Holtz's
careers as examples). The football program brings in a nice chunk of change to the
school, along with the obvious exposure that comes with having its own television network
contract (the NBC contract and its pluses and minuses could be the subject of another
article--but I digress) seem to be the subject of a never-ending struggle within the
hierarchy of the school. It would seem that when the football program becomes
successful--and by that I mean "too successful"--there seems to be a mindset
within the academic to remind one and all that Notre Dame is first and foremost a center
of learning and not a football factory. When the opposite is true and a few years of
underachieving on the gridiron occur (and perhaps the accompanying reduction in
contributions from well-to-do alums), a focus on "getting Notre Dame back where they
belong" in relation to football seems to be predominant theme. Hence, the
apparent case of schizophrenia. Is it a football factory? Is it the Harvard of
the Midwest? Probably a little of both at any given time in a decade. Depends
on when (or who) you ask.
3) Ron Powlus--Savior?
It was early in 1993 when the fortunes of Notre Dame football
under head coach Lou Holtz were forever altered by the recruitment of a hotshot
quarterback from Berwick, Pennsylvannia. The "recruitniks" had declared
Powlus the greatest QB prospect coming out of high school since John Elway or Dan Marino.
Holtz got Ron's signature on the grant in aid and a seeming perfect match was made.
Ron Powlus, glamor QB and Lou Holtz, head coach of Notre Dame, searching for that
other national title that would take him into the elite status of multiple national title
winner at Notre Dame along with names like Rockne, Leahy & Parseghian. Holtz was
sure that this was the final piece to a national championship puzzle. He could not
have been more wrong. They say that Holtz fell in love with the abilities of Powlus
from their first practice together. Ron was the much like the proverbial girl with
the curl, always teasing you just enough to have you come back one more time. And
yet, Holtz, a coach with a particular vision of football forged in his days as a defensive
coach under Ohio State's legendary Woody Hayes, abandoned his vision for the promise that
was Ron Powlus. It was ironic. Here was Holtz, who's option based attack
had brought the Fighting Irish a return to the success of being regarded again as a
national power, making the same mistake that his mentor Hayes had made. It was in
1978 when Woody Hayes, yes that Woody Hayes, old "3 yards and a cloud of dust"
Woody Hayes, brought in a hotshot prep QB from Miami, Ohio, named Art Schlichter and tried
changing his offense that he had spent over 20 years working on. Here in the fall
of 1993 Holtz was doing the same thing with Ron Powlus. Fate of course stepped in
and changed the course of Notre Dame football when Powlus broke his clavicle not once but
twice during the course of the '93 season and the Irish were brought to within a field
goal of a national championship by a young unknown named Kevin McDougal. A young
unknown who ran Holtz's offense to a T. The following year Powlus returned and
assumed command of the Notre Dame offense. The nation, the alumni & the Notre
Dame fanbase were all taken in by Powlus that first game just like Coach Holtz was that
first practice. Ron threw for 4 touchdown passes in his first start and had the
misfortune to be labeled a "2 time Heisman trophy winner" by ESPN
"expert" Beano Cook. It wasn't a label that Ron gave himself. It was
Cook who made the statement. Unfortunately, Ron Powlus was made to wear the label.
Over the course of his four year career, Ron had some nice moments in a Notre Dame
uniform. But none that came close to fulfilling the promise of that first practice
in the fall of 1993 or that first game in 1994. Truth be told, Ron Powlus was as bad
a fit in a Lou Holtz offense as Tony Rice would be in a Steve Spurrier scheme. It
doesn't make him a bad person, or a bad player. He just didn't fit, and Holtz
should've seen that and started recruiting another QB that year (Scott Frost who went to
Nebraska comes to mind as a QB that would've fit the ND system perfectly). The
Powlus years at Notre Dame will be remembered as ones where the offense seemed to have
trouble finding its identity. Holtz announced that he was going to a "blarney
offense", which would feature more passing and seemingly take advantage of the skills
of Powlus. And yet, the switch in offenses never came. So we had a slow QB
trying to run a quick QB offense. The running game, so dominant between 1987-1993
sputtered from game to game. That recruiting class from 1991 turned into seniors,
and the difference in ability between them and their predecessors from the class of 1990
was readily apparent. Suddenly, the talk of the college football world began to be
Notre Dame's LACK of football talent. Who had ever heard of such a thing?
Notre Dame? No talent? Holtz decreed that it was time to turn this thing
around and he meant quick. What he really needed was a difference maker.
Someone who could turn a football game around on one play. What he needed was a
freakishly gifted wide receiver from West Virginia named Randy Moss.
4) The Randy Moss situation--Wadsworth vs. Holtz--Round 1
When Randy Moss signed his commitment papers to Notre Dame in
February of 1995, he brought with him the expectation of an immediate upgrade to the Irish
offense. No longer would defenses be able to focus solely on WR Derrick Mayes, a
solid and occasional spectacular wideout. Now Holtz would be able to feature a true
"climax" performer, perhaps his first since the early departure of Raghib
"Rocket" Ismail after the 1990 season. This would give him the first
player who, like Ismail, would cause a stadium full of fans to hold their collective
breath each time his hands were on the pigskin. This would finally give Holtz the
weapon that could let him open up his prehistoric offense. This was, by the way, the
same offense that won Holtz a national title in 1988, but 7 years later was viewed as
archaic when being run by a quarterback who was not blessed with the skills needed to run
it, but I digress. Moss would give Holtz a wideout to play opposite of Mayes, and in
doing so would give Mayes even more opportunities. Surely Holtz must have spent the
early part of 1995 trying to create more variations to his offensive system, the very
picture of the mad scientist at work, tinkering with what he had created. And then,
cracks began to develop. Words came out of West Virginia that Moss had been arrested
after a fight at his high school. Naturally, since Moss was the #1 recruit in the
nation, going to the #1 school in the nation, his appearances in court in jail fatigues
made the national networks, providing plenty of fodder for Notre Dame's many
enemies. Holtz, realizing that the next star of his offense was hanging in the
balance, refused to cut Moss loose at that point, arguing that Moss was only accused, not
convicted, probably not exactly endearing himself to a Notre Dame administration that had
already begun running out of patience with him. Then, in the early summer of 1995,
some four months after his commitment, Notre Dame got the long awaited high school
transcripts from Moss's high school. It was readily apparent that not only would
Randy not be making the dean's list in high school, but that he was woefully unprepared
and unfit academically to attend the University of Notre Dame. Holtz would get no
free pass on this one. There would be no Tony Rice exception. Suddenly all the
planning that the coach had done in preparation of the '95 season had to be redone.
The offense again performed below the expectations, despite some good performances and an
end of the year trip to the Orange Bowl. Holtz's health also began to become a
slight concern. The glory years of '87 to '93 were past. The work being done
that year on the Golden Dome itself that year were a parallel to the work that needed to
be done to the football team.
5) Lou Leaves Town---Davie a willing accomplice?
Its 1996 and there's turmoil just beneath the surface in South
Bend. The Kim Dunbar story, a crushing loss at home to Air Force and new athletic
director Mike Wadsworth were all serving to make Lou Holtz's life miserable. The
Dunbar situation was particularly embarrassing to the university, even BEFORE the
allegations of embezzlement against her own employer came to light. Dunbar was, in
essence, Notre Dame's very own arena rat, who managed to get her hooks into safety Jarvis
Edison and parlay that into a relationship with several other players. (And amongst
all the lurid details of the story, one is still, nearly 5 years later, left with one
nagging question: Jarvis Edison??? She brings a university to its knees over a
relationship with a player as lousy as Jarvis?? Ahem...but I digress.) This of
course caused the NCAA to come sniffing around the campus for the first time ever, causing
those in the media who had long since disavowed the school as hypocritical for whatever
reason to begin squawking to whomever would listen. The loss at home to the Air
Force team, who for whatever reason had become a large thorn in the football program's
side, was too much for Holtz too take. At least it was after getting I'm sure what
was a lack of support from a.d. Mike Wadsworth. The illustrious Wads, probably the
least qualified administrator in the history of the school, had managed to get the
athletic director's position based solely on the fact that he had played football at the
school under Ara, played a couple of seasons in Canada, and was now prime minister to the
Ireland. Notre Dame fans were truly shocked when word began coming out of
league meetings that Wadsworth was seen as "aloof" and "pompous" by
other athletic directors in the Big East and around the country. Why not...the man
had zero qualifications for the position! So Lou, with a slight shove from the rear,
stepped down as head coach of the Irish, saying only that it was "the right thing to
do". Not only was it the wrong thing to do, it was the wrong time and the
ultimate replacement proved to be the wrong choice. This truly was, a dark day in
the history of Notre Dame football.
6) The Bob Davie Years---Getting Exactly What You Asked For
So Bob Davie is named to succeed Holtz. It was a rather
curious search for a new head coach, as the list of nominees was a bit odd.
Northwestern's Gary Barnett, depending on who you choose to believe, either was never
really a candidate for the position or was so lusted after by the Notre Dame
administration that they were ready to erect a statue on university grounds before he
coached his first game. The other candidates included Dave Wannstedt, who was
completing a less than compelling stint with the Bears (although, in fairness he seems to
have redeemed himself in his next coaching stint with the Dolphins), Davie himself, who
was Holtz's defensive coordinator, and the real stunner, former Notre Dame QB Tom
Clements. The reason I say stunning is that Clements probably had the least amount
to offer the university as a head coaching candidate. He had never been a
coordinator, either at the college or pro level, and other than returning to the college
where he had won a national title as a player, seemed to offer little. I've been
told that recruiting with Clements as head coach could've been a disaster, as Tom has
never been revered for his "people skills". So for better or worse, Davie is the
choice, and one that was fairly well received by Notre Dame fans at the time. After
all, Bob was thought of as a real up and comer in the coaching profession, having served a
high profile stint as defensive coordinator at Texas A&M and in the same position at
N.D. before being named head coach. This was the man who was going to open up the
offense. Remember that one? Remember how we complained at the end of the Holtz
era? How we justified the lousy treatment that Lou received because we thought the
game had passed him by? How we were sure that Bob Davie would be the guy who would
finally bring the Notre Dame offense into the modern era? Well, Bob proved to
everyone that he was going to do exactly that. He hired Jim Colleto as his new
offensive coordinator. The snickers from West Lafayette could be heard through open
windows in South Bend that spring. Colleto, the man who described himself as "a
pretty good coach when I have good players", was Davie's first big hire. And
Bob didn't get off to a rip roaring start as Colleto proved himself to be a disaster on
more than one front. And Bob's team were making mistakes that teams the caliber of Notre
Dame should not make. Poor clock management. Not in just one game, but in
two. In a row. In the same situation. Then we realized. Bob Davie was
essentially learning on the job. That quote from Ara Parseghian kept ringing in our
heads. The one about how he needed the benefit of every year he had as a head coach
BEFORE he got to South Bend to help him be a successful coach at Notre Dame. Bob
Davie of course, had exactly ZERO games under his belt as a head coach before taking the
Notre Dame job. Dark clouds were forming on the horizon. Over the course of
the next few years the best thing that could be said about Bob Davie's Notre Dame teams
was that they were maddeningly inconsistent. They would feature one game where they
managed to go an entire game without committing a penalty ('97 vs. LSU) and then have
another game ('98 vs. LSU) where a team seemingly head for a New Year's Day bowl game was
derailed by the inexplictable decision to have QB Jarious Jackson run towards his own end
zone on the last play of the game, only to be blind sided and injury his knee. Of
such things are gray hairs and ulcers formulated. This was Bob Davie's legacy.
A level of consistency that was...fairly inconsistent. A game in 2000 vs. USC where
everything seemed to come together, a brilliant performance by the offensive line and a
seemingly emerging defense is followed by a New Year's Day skunking by a flashy and speedy
Oregon State team (OREGON STATE??). Yes, Oregon State. But not too worry. Bob
Davie assured us that the team he would field in 2001 would be his most talented
ever. No excuses would be necessary. A schedule that was seen as one of the
toughest in the land would be dealt with. This was a team with a lot of talent that
would win, and all throughout the land the coaching ability of Bob Davie would be
apparent. Offensive coordinator Kevin Rogers, the man who molded no less than
Donovan McNabb, would have the reigns freed up, and finally Irish fans would get a true
look at what sort of explosive offense he could design. And the season started in
Nebraska. The Cornhuskers struck for 17 points within the first ten minutes of the
first quarter. The Fighting Irish, it was said, appeared to have something of a
"deer in the headlights" look about them. The tragedy of 9/11/01 allowed
us to peer even closer into what sort of head coach Bob Davie is. Notre Dame looked to
postpone that weekend's game with Purdue, primarily because reports had Davie doing pretty
much anything he could to get out of the game, fearing that his team hadn't
"emotionally recovered" from the spanking they had received from Nebraska on
national t.v. The Michigan State game followed, complete with a major publicity flap
regarding the national anthemn that truthfully may or may not have been Davie's fault, but
left a bad taste in the mouth of alums that needed a reason to like their head
coach. And the Fighting Irish lost. Again. Five years in a row to a Michigan
State that may have a head coach even weaker than Davie. The grumbling had
started. The Irish were 0-2 and headed to College Station, Texas, to a site where
the home Texas A&M Aggies hadn't lost to a visiting team in over 10 years.
Davie, badly in need for some good publicity, proceeded to insert foot directly in mouth
by openly discussing the good old days at A&M, the tradition there, and how much
better the barbecue is in Texas than Indiana (a point that I could not in good faith
dispute...ahem). And the Irish fell flat yet again. The offense was, in a word,
offensive. Suddenly the Notre Dame Fighting Irish offense was the thing of jokes and
water cooler snickering. The only light at the end of the tunnel was the emergence
of sophmore QB Carlyle Holliday, potentially the most exciting offensive player at Notre
Dame Rocket Ismail wore the blue & gold. A three game stretch against Pittsburgh, West
Virginia & USC seemed to give the diehard fans hope, and seemed to inspire talk that
Bob Davie could save his job by "running the table" and winning the rest of his
games in the 2001 season, which would mean winning home games against Tennessee & Navy
and away games against Boston College, Stanford & the makeup game with Purdue.
Unfortunately for Davie, a mistake filled efforts followed against the Eagles & the
Vols, although too his credit the team showed fight and certainly didn't quit at any point
in either game. Three games are left. A 3-0 run seems unlikely, not because
the Irish are without talent, but because this seems to be a strong Stanford team that
they must play at Palo Alto, and a game in West Lafayette is a dicey affair even in the
best of situations. So it would seem that the home game vs. Navy would be the last
home game for Bob Davie, the last game for him to remind the home fans of whatever legacy
he may want to leave with.
7) The Future--Gruden, Coughlin......?
So Notre Dame football will find itself at a crossroads in the
coming weeks. The decision by the administration and athletic director Kevin White will be
even more important than a usual coaching change. This is important because if Notre
Dame drops the ball again, then the Fighting Irish run the risk of falling even farther
below the radar of the college football elite. It is apparent that there are those
in the media who are enjoying Notre Dame's recent run of misfortune and would be all too
happy to see it continue. The network contract with NBC has made the Irish the
object of envy, scorn and probably the subject of a few choice expletives throughout the
college football world. So the search (allegedly) begins in earnest. There
have been quite a few names thrown into the fray, each with their positives (and a few
with a negative or two) to offer the university in their quest for a new coach.
Let's take a look at some of the leading candidates:
1) Jon Gruden----If it were a horse race, he'd certainly be the favorite at the gate. He
seems to have a lot to offer the school, not the least of which is an unquestioned passion
for Notre Dame football. He's very a very hot commodity within the NFL coaching
fraternity & media, almost too much so. (Meaning one would have to wonder whether the
university could meet his ever increasing price tag). There is also the looming
specter of Al Davis and the remaining one year that Gruden has on his contract. Does
he have a Notre Dame out clause? If he doesn't, will Davis be willing to let such a
valuable commodity leave his organization? These are legitimate questions to be
faced, as well as the potential problems that could arise in a best case scenario, such as
the effect on recruiting to not be able to name your head coach until right around or
after national signing day. My own personal take? I think if Gruden really wants it,
and I do, he'll get the job. I'm just not so sure that it will be right now.
2) Steve Mariucci----A sort of interesting candidate in that he's the one guy in the mix
of four that I'll mention who has seemingly been downplayed. He has the proper
connection with the school through his affiliation with the DeBartolo family & the
49ers. However, he's such an up & comer in NFL coaching ranks, perhaps without
the burning desire to coach in South Bend, that I worry that he'd be a perennial candidate
to leave the school for a job back in the NFL.
3) Mike Belloiti---Seemingly the leading candidate among the college coaches. His
connection seems to be his relationship with athletic director Kevin White going back to
his days in the Pac 10. Has made Oregon a national power and a perennial top 10
team, which isn't anything to sneeze at. Let's put it this way, if he gets the job,
we certainly could have done a lot worse. A very good, very solid coach who would
have to learn to recruit without using junior college players to plug immediate holes on
the team. Other than that, he's an attractive candidate.
4) Tom Coughlin---The candidate that in a lot of ways seems to make the most sense.
Which isn't to say that he's the BEST candidate, just the one who would seem to offer
Notre Dame what they need and want right now. Coughlin seems to have become burned
out on his position with the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL, and reports say that he
would be very interested in taking over the reigns of the Irish. He would bring with him
prior experience at a Catholic school (including one memorable game that will forever
vilify him in the eyes of some Irish fans), and a reputation as a disciplinarian and
taskmaster. Coughlin may be a lot things, but no one has ever called him a
"player's coach". He would also undoubtedly bring with him the knowledge
and ability to provide an offense with a badly needed identity. Coughlin may not be a long
term answer, but he could provide a Dan Devine-esque bridge toward that sort of solution
(as long as that solution is not Gerry Faust). One possible reason for concern
though. Notre Dame fans love to look back to history for its answers. Some see
in Lou Holtz a Frank Leahy figure, forced out in his prime by an administration seeking to
control a football coach that had acquired too much power. The same people saw in
Bob Davie a figure similar to Terry Brennan, who had succeeded Leahy and only had
"moderate success" (moderate success on the Notre Dame scale that is). The
only problem is that in THAT scenario, Notre Dame went to the NFL for a replacement, got
Joe Kuharich, complete with a reputation as a disciplinarian and with Notre Dame
connections, and he promptly fell flat on his face by going 17-23 during his tenure.
Notre Dame fans can only hope that we don't see a repeat of THAT scenario.
But of the four candidates I've mentioned, truthfully any of the four are better than any
of those that were supposedly considered at the end of the 1996 season. Notre Dame fans
can only hope that whomever is selected, comes to South Bend not only with an
understanding of what Notre Dame is, what its about, but also of its importance to college
football and its fans--those of Notre Dame and football in general. Let the echoes
of Notre Dame be awoken........