Notre Dame Football and the Handwringing

It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. Notre Dame hired Charlie Weis, an accomplished offensive coordinator for several teams in the NFL, to be its head coach after impatiently ousting Tyrone Willingham near the end of the 2004 season. Weis was a dream come true--a genuine Notre Dame graduate (and they hadn't had a ND graduate to be at the helm of the program in more than 40 years; indeed, the great Ara Parseghian was a Presbyterian from Miami U. and Lou Holtz, though Catholic, graduated from Kent State), who was also an established star coach in the "Sunday" league. After Willingham, whose opening season at ND in 2002 began with an 8-0 record before collapsing famously and was followed by two mediocre years, was fired, the thought was that Weis would return the program to the dizzying heights of Parseghian and Holtz. Indeed, some thought that the mythology of the 1920s might again return to ND, a mythology captured by the leading sportswriter of that era, Grantland Rice, in this 1924 description of the Notre Dame backfield:

"Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden.''

Well, Charlie Weis' tenure at ND started out auspiciously enough. In 2005 he led the team to a 9-3 record, including an appearance at the Fiesta Bowl where they lost to Ohio State 34-20. A bowl loss was nothing new to the Irish; they have lost the last nine in which they played. Indeed, I had the pleasure of seeing them bite the dust in a lopsided loss 41-9 loss to Oregon State Univ. at the Fiesta Bowl in 2001.

So, people were thinking that Charlie Weis was the miracle worker, for he seemingly had "repaired the damage" of the Willingham years and was ready to move forward. Well, they thought the same about Tyrone Willingham after the 2002 season--he had repaired the damage of the Bob Davie, who had the unfortunate experience of following Lou Holtz. Even though Davie posted a 35-25 record in five seasons, his winning percentage paled in comparison to the golden boy Holtz (100-30-2 over 11 years).

Well, back to Charlie Weis. During his outstanding 2005 season, where the Irish finished # 9 in one poll, ND did the unheard-of thing of offering him a 10-year contract (he had signed on with a six-year contract) worth an estimated $30-$40 million. In fact, they had bet their future on Charlie, convinced that he was the miracle worker they so needed to restore ND football to its former glory.

And, the 2006 season seemed to bring ND right to the brink again. It had a 10-2 regular season record before suffering an embarrassing but, by now, predictable postseason loss to LSU (41-14). The finished in the top 20 in college football, but were apparently only inches from returning to the coveted place atop college football's highest ranks. And, after the 2006 season, they announced that the recruiting class for 2007 was among the best ever. A highly-touted HS quarterback, whom I will call "Moses," was supposed to lead the ND "Israelites" back to the promised land.

Trouble Develops

Well, you know a football program is in deep trouble if the statistic it loves to tout is the graduation rate of its players. Or, said differently, if it boasts of its graduation rate, it probably is a division 2 or weak division 1 program. It is unfortunate that is the case, but those of us who have played sports and have brains realize that God doesn't frequently give outstanding doses of both abilities to the same person. Even at Notre Dame. So, ND began to boast of its graduation rate in 2007, just when the losses started piling up. ND fans had experienced the ultimate in humiliation in 2001 when they lost their first three, I said three, games. Bob Davie became about the most unpopular person in South Bend, IN, and he had to hustle out of South Bend at the end of the season, amid some scandals that the university was trying to handle. But now, the modern golden boy no. II, Charlie Weis, has not only lost the first three games, but the first five games--and the tough opponents are yet to come.

What To Do?

The media has tripped all over themselves to cover this story in the last few weeks as if it ranks up there with Iraq and Darfur. NPR has had a story; the evening news has chimed in. Online sports reports have shook their heads, wondering how this storied program with its golden coach can be in the dump. The most anguished people in the world at this moment may not be the people of Myanmar; they may be the ND fans who have been praying for a return to the Parseghian-Holtz eras like Fundamentalists are praying for the parousia. But nothing seems to work.

ND has gotten itself into a huge bind by selling its soul to the football gods and then having these divinities laugh at the pitiful human efforts to control the gridiron fates.

But, in the end, who really cares about ND football? It isn't a story that is worthy of national media attention; it isn't worthy of much attention at all. The tone of the stories is almost as if ND has an entitlement to win. But no more. Maybe they should realize that their future is to become more like Stanford University than LSU. Stanford will occasionally have a good season, but they exist for far more than football in this world. ND should realize that their greater good for the future is in values and corporate leadership rather than gridiron success. But maybe it will cost them $40 million, or much more, to figure this out. And, in the meantime, they will be wringing their hands.

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