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The Legacy of Ol' No. 26
UHND.com - Ronny P. Kaye
12/21/2001
Imagine you had been the head coach of a college football
program for the past five years, and during that time your team had won 35 of 60 games,
played in three bowls--including one BCS Series Bowl--and sent numerous players into the
NFL, including your program’s all-time career passing leader, its all-time
single-season passing leader, and its all-time rusher. You had put together an eight-game
and a seven-game winning streak during that period and graduated all your players. You had
twice been a finalist for one of the various coach-of-the-year awards. With such a record,
you’d consider yourself a success, and rightly so.
Rightly so--if the program was any program other than history’s best. What’s
missing from the Bob Davie equation is precisely the most vital factor, one that Notre
Dame’s 26th head coach never quite grasped: Notre Dame football is about glory,
tradition, mythology, unparalleled success, championships, and all that, yes. But what
makes Irish football unique is its total dedication to excellence. All the time. Every
game, every season. Without a psychotic devotion to that cause, no head coach at
Notre Dame can succeed against the highest standards any sports program has ever set. To
become an Immortal at Notre Dame, you’ve got to burn yourself to a crisp, and Coach
Davie never committed himself to immolation in the service of total excellence.
Not that Coach Davie is alone or a sinner in this respect. For an institution that has
produced so much excellence and intelligent graduates through the decades, the
administration at Notre Dame can sure do dumb things when it comes to football. Like
hiring a high school coach with no college coaching experience whatsoever. Or sawing off
Hunk Anderson’s legs by deliberately cutting admissions of football players in half
after Knute Rockne died. The same occurred in the early fifties under Leahy, a tactic that
undermined any success Terry Brennan might have achieved, and again in the early nineties
in reaction to Lou Holtz’s elevation of the program back to its accustomed pinnacle.
Like Anderson, Layden, Brennan, and Kuharich before him, the combination of sabotage from
Notre Dame’s administrators and the coach’s own lack of genius did Bob Davie in.
Why does Notre Dame insist on punishing itself every few decades in this manner?
When all is said and done, however, Coach Davie’s lack of talent as a coach was the
fatal factor. We should have known where things were heading when Davie’s team went
into a four-game losing streak during his first season in 1997. Using Lou’s recruits
and a softer schedule got him nine wins in 1998, but in the crucial third year the
handwriting was clear: the man did not have the wherewithal to win games from the
sidelines. Worse, his players did not improve as their careers progressed; nor did Davie’s
Irish teams improve over the course of each season--in fact, they got worse. They could
not stop third-and-longs on defense, they could not contain merely decent running backs or
passers from racking up insane numbers against them, they could not get a key turnover
when that was needed, Irish receivers never caught the ball on the run, never turned short
routes into game-breakers the way Michigan State’s receivers have done three years
running. The only time sacks were registered were the rare circumstances when the
outcome had been clearly decided in the fourth quarter of games that should never have
been close.
Legend states that Ara Parseghian refused a five-year contract when hired by Notre Dame,
saying, "If I can’t get it done in three, I won’t get it done in
five." Significant truth, here. Coach Davie’s third year, in 1999, was the
make-or-break time, and we all know what happened. Who can think back on those awful seven
losses without wincing? At the end of 1999 was when Davie’s firing should have taken
place, because each year an incompetent coach is kept on board, it takes two more years
down the road to recover. Had a new coach been hired after the 1999 season, Notre Dame
might be poised for a huge run in 2002. Instead, we’re starting over.
History informs us that Notre Dame has undergone three distinct periods in football: The
Pre-Dynastic Age (1887-1912); The Ascension (1913-1917); and The Dynastic Age
(1918-Present). Within the Dynastic Age, four Immortals have arisen: Rockne, Leahy,
Parseghian, and Holtz. Three Lesser Deities have also reigned: Layden, Brennan, and
Devine. And there had been, until recently, three Incompetents: Anderson, Kuharich, and
Faust. In Rockne’s case, an Immortal was succeeded by an Incompetent, who was in turn
succeeded by a Lesser Deity. In the cases of Leahy and Ara, each was succeeded by a Lesser
Deity and afterward by an Incompetent. The jury was out on Coach Davie prior to the
catastrophe in Lincoln this past September 8th: he appeared to be a potential Lesser
Deity, who would be followed by (gasp) another Incompetent. We should be calmed,
therefore, to recognize that whoever the new hire is will almost surely prove to be a
Lesser Deity and will be followed by the fifth Immortal.
So let’s allow a breath of relief to escape, content that Coach Davie’s
status in the pantheon has been confirmed and that recovery should be possible within two
seasons. Don’t expect more than a Devine performance from his successor,
though--history suggests he will not be the latest savior.
How bad has it actually been these past five years, objectively speaking? There have been
plenty of exciting games, two nine-win seasons, joy in watching Jarious Jackson, Autry
Denson, Tony Weaver, Rocky Boiman, and others compete. For a program like, say, Texas
A&M’s, this would be a good run. But of course Notre Dame is not Texas A&M,
nor Texas, nor Michigan, nor any old sports factory. Notre Dame is the Center of
Excellence in whose charge Coach Davie was entrusted. What was most distressing about
Coach Davie’s farewell conference was his persistent obtuseness in grasping his own
failures. Everybody loves his family, Bob. Most coaches like their players. That goodwill,
unfortunately, just isn’t enough to justify keeping someone mediocre in an important
job.
Looking back over the past sixty games, I count seventeen losses that were reversible with
stricter fundamentals, tougher character, sounder execution, and leadership. Turn just ten
of those losses into wins, and Coach Davie would be a Lesser Deity; turn all seventeen
losses into wins, and Coach Davie would be settling into his second five-year stint with
at least a 52-8 ledger and a shot at Immortality.
But that didn’t happen. The verdict is merciless: No coach will attain Immortality
while on a first-name basis with his players. And a final grade of 58% just doesn’t
cut it in South Bend.
Play like a Champion today.