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What is White Thinking?
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
12/16/2001
Reports have been on the Internet the past couple days and weeks stating that Tom Coughlin is interested in the Notre Dame job, but that he will not contact Notre Dame. He is waiting to be contacted. That being said, what is Kevin White thinking? I used to have full confidence in White, but that confidence is shrinking by the minute to the point where I doubt his abilities to get a top notch coach to Notre Dame.
Tom Coughlin, a successful college and professional coach who has stated in the past that Notre Dame a dream job of his, is interested and would strongly consider an offer from the Irish, but according to Internet reports it appears Kevin White is looking to hitch his wagon to Tom O'Brien. Tom O'Brien??? First White missed out on his A list candidates by hiring O'Leary only to have that backfire in his face, now he is dipping down into what has to be a C list.
The hiring of O'Leary didn't bother me much because I thought O'Leary was a solid coach who would install some discipline back into the program and would win a lot of games. George is no longer the coach though after an embarrassing turn of events for the university. White now has the chance to make up for not getting that top guy the first time around. Hiring Tom O'Brien will not excite any Irish fans and will only enrage them. People will be calling for White's head on a platter if this happens, and I can't blame them. O'Brien is a fine coach and quality individual, but at this point Notre Dame can't risk anything on a fine coach with good character (see Bob Davie).
I think White does get too much criticism for the Davie extension since is supposedly allowed Notre Dame to get rid of him much easier than his previous contract did so I am too critical of that. He could have made the deal shorter, but that's besides the point. Then he hired O'Leary. Like I said, I had no problem with that. Where I do have a problem with White is that instead of hiring an outside firm to help him, he did it on his own and the result was a disaster. Not only did he embarrass the university with this episode, he also cost it millions of dollars.
There is no doubt that Notre Dame needs to bring in a big name coach to take some heat off of it for this recent ordeal. Hiring someone like O'Brien will only highten criticism of the university as the media will continue to say that Notre Dame can no longer attract top coaches. Kevin White needs to make a list of 3-4 coaches that are at the top of the profession and do whatever he has to do to get them. A list of Gruden, Coughlin, Alvarez, and Mariucci wouldn't be a bad start.
I stated once before that White needs to hit a homerun with this hiring. He is 0-1 right now since his last hiring ended up lasting only 5 days. If he strikes out again, will get a third chance? I wouldn't think so. White's tenure at Notre Dame will be defined by this hiring. If he gets a top notch coach and the football team returns to greatness, he will be Notre Dame for awhile. If he comes up empty again, he will be doubling checking his own resume to make sure everything is accurate sooner than later.