The Fate of Notre Dame, part 2

The Fate of Notre Dame, pt2

I think I blogged on this before, and the answer is still up in the air.

Ok, so Charlie Weis was fired from Notre Dame, and now they are looking at a new head coach…to me if you want to ever see the foolishness of man’s wisdom, which comes to naught, here it is…Notre Dame.

Sometimes we are so smart we outsmart ourselves, to the humiliation of the rest of the nation. I think we all knew this was going to happen, but the foolishness in all this is how this “school of higher learning” and “religious” school has gone about this.

Let’s recap the last 20 years of Notre Dame football, starting with the last time the won the National Championship… 1988.

The coach of that team was (ugh) Lou Holtz. Only a couple of years after he got the Notre Dame job, he led the Irish to a National Championship, but it would appear that the rich alumni wasn’t too happy with that. Even haven gone to a bowl on New Years Day 9 straight times, there was some problems with the team. He “resigned” in 1996, but get this… he was only about FIVE games away from tying or breaking the great Knute Rockne as the most victories by a Notre Dame head coach. It was rumored at that time that a lot of these alumni didn’t want such a “holy” record broken by Lou Holtz, so there was pressure for Lou to resign. Lou Holtz had 100 victories, with 95 of those being during the regular season.

Yet this wasn’t good enough for Notre Dame, and there was heavy criticism to get rid of him…understand the foolishness of this folks…Lou Holts won them a National Championship, and outside of 1986, they had a winning season every year…it was quite obvious that he would have broken Knute Rockne’s record, no doubt about it, but the Notre Dame alumni didn’t want him to do it, so they ran him out. Sure, Lou said he resigned…but he also jumped right back into coaching shortly afterwards, at South Carolina…it implies he was never finished coaching, just forced out.

So then Notre Dame gets Bob Davie in 1997, trying to find a way to get back into the National Championship. The Irish struggled as it was ranked as high as #15 during Davie’s tenure, but failed to get the National Championship the blind Irish wanted. Strange though, because the 2001 squad received praise from the American Football Coaches Association for a 100% graduation rate…

Folks…isn’t THAT what is should be about? Graduating your players?

But no, that wasn’t good enough for Notre Dame, and with a few other problems in the university, they got rid of Bob Davie, after a 35-25 record. It was then they tried to hire George O’Leary from Georgia Tech, but some inconsistent facts in his resume forced Notre Dame to think twice, being humiliated by the scandal of getting a coach that wasn’t really on the level. In their embarrassment, they turned to hire Tyrone Willingham in 2002, and was immediately rewarded with a 10-2 season, one they had not seen in years. But problems stemmed from rich alumni for several reasons, some racist, some foolish pride. With Willingham not winning the way they wanted, and with the demand to have a National Championship, there was pressure to get rid of Willingham, especially since he was not their first choice anyway. Notre Dame would soon fire Willingham, and fearing a backlash of African American recruits not going to the school, was quick to get former Notre Dame player Tim Brown (and Heisman Trophy winner) to work in recruitment.

In 2005 Notre Dame hired Charlie Weis, a Notre Dame graduate and Offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. In an effort to spark offense and get the NFL flavor for recruiting, the rich alumn of Notre Dame felt that this would get them to the “promised land”. Like Willingham, Weis started out great, so great that in his first year the rich alumni gave him a 10 year extension…something they never offered Willingham after similar performances. They were even ranked as high as #2 in 2006, but it was shortly afterwards when Notre Dame would suffer numerous defeats. With soft schedules and weak performances, it seemed apparent that the mystique of Notre Dame had left, and exactly 5 years after firing Tyrone Willingham, Notre Dame fired Charlie Weis.

Yet in the midst of these times, we have seen the foolishness of Notre Dame extremists, with former coach Lou Holtz now working for ESPN who, with a lying mouth and heart, sits there and proclaims that Notre Dame will win the National Championship and go undefeated…he said this TWO YEARS straight…and was gravely wrong both times.

This is the same university, in some sad attempt to create glory for itself and their greatness, erected a statue of Lou Holtz during a Michigan/Notre Dame football game, perhaps hoping to appease the football gods to help them…remember folks, Notre Dame is a RELIGIOUS school…where are the standards…oh I forgot, it’s in the money.

So here we stand, just over 20 years since Notre Dame won their last National Championship. Notre Dame has had over 30 head coaches. Notre Dame, in their own selfish pride, has pushed off Lou Holtz for fear of him catching Knute Rockne, fired Bob Davie who seemed to emphasize education, forced out Tyrone Willingham amidst pressure from rich Caucasian alumni who obviously were about 50 years behind the rest of the known world as far as racial relationships and equality, and today are STILL looking for somebody to coach this radioactive university.

So what is the fate of this school? Times have changed since the late 80’s, and with ESPN, Fox, and other sports channels, the regular list of college football teams like Notre Dame, Michigan, UCLA, Nebraska and Oklahoma no longer apply. Back then, in the late 80s, you might be able to watch as many as 5 football games per Saturday, if you were lucky. This year, when Saturday comes around, and with even basic cable, I can watch as many as 15 games a day…and we are not including the Thursday or Wednesday or even Friday games that are on ESPN from time to time. Exposure is far, far greater now than it has ever been.

To Notre Dame, this means you are not the marquee team anymore. With more visibility teams like TCU, Miami, Florida, Boise State, Virginia Tech and many others get just as much time as Notre Dame does, even if NBC does carry them virtually every week. With scholarships down to 85 and such exposure, these old school teams no longer are the great teams they used to be. This is not to say that they cannot be any longer, it just means it is much harder to get those recruits than they used to.

Remember, it has been 20 years, and that was early in Lou Holtz’s tenure, so with it being over 20 years, the times have truly changed. But sadly, the rich alumni of Notre Dame are too dead set to those “good ole days”. I can dig that, because we always value the good times once time has passed. Notre Dame didn’t realize when they forced Lou Holtz out that they would relive those glory days 20 years later…if they had, they might not have gotten rid of Lou Holtz. But that’s man’s wisdom for ya, we always think we know what we are doing…only to make a fool of ourselves.

But to me, it is worse than that for Notre Dame. To me, the idea of being a Catholic school is almost a joke, because money speaks far greater than God to them. When rich alumni can make the call on who they want for such a job as a football coach, how can you truly say you are religious? Seems to me that money is the god of Notre Dame, or at least those with a lot of it.

Perhaps…just perhaps, this is their problem. If the school would operate more like a religious school, concentrating on human values and faith in God, maybe they would get in a better position to win a National Championship. I mean, after all, they won a ton of them right? They won 11 National Championships, and two in the last 32 years…it can happen. But who am I to say such things, I am no rich Notre Dame alumni, I don’t make decisions of a religious school with my money…

I let the foolish do that, the fruit of such efforts, and the fate of Notre Dame, seems to be clearly established in what they have sown….