Ron Powlus may have had an up and down career that never really lived up to the unreasonable expectations that were placed upon him, but now that he is back in football as Notre Dame’s quarterbacks coach, its hard not to root for him after reading articles like the one in today’s South Bend Tribune:

“I don’t take into account, in my college experience, I don’t take into account football. I can tell you that my college experience at Notre Dame as a student was phenomenal — friends, classes, all that. You throw in football and it makes that experience 100 times better. And some people say, ‘Oh really? You got hurt and you know …’

“I don’t care. That’s life. That’s playing the game. So yeah, I missed my freshman year because of injury. What am I going to do? I missed it. I was hurt. I played four years after that. I broke my arm and I missed 2 1/2 games. Yes, I missed 2 1/2 games.”

Powlus would add:

“I had a terrific experience. I had the opportunity to represent Notre Dame and its alumni and its professors and its students and the kids that lived next door to me in Flanner Hall and the opportunity to wear the gold helmet on the field every week. I mean, that enhances my experience a hundred-fold. Just because there was a statement that was made that I was supposed to win Heisman trophies and didn’t, and got a lot of criticism for it, that doesn’t ruin my college experience.”

Quotes like that make it hard to not root for anything but success for Powlus who may have received more unfair criticism than any quarterback in Notre Dame history during his time with the Irish.   Quotes like that also make me very pleased that Powlus will be at Notre Dame to coach and mentor Jimmy Clausen who will have all the pressure Powlus had and then some.  Luckily for Powlus the internet was not nearly as big when he was under center for the Irish.  With Clausen, however, the pressure will be even greater in this age of message boards and blogs as Jimmy is already finding out.

Here’s hoping Powlus flourishes in his new role and works his way up the coaching ladder while at Notre Dame.

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the UHND.com Blog RSS feed .