“Whatever you finish, that’s what you are…You can look in the brochure and see that the team is 5-9 but it lost six games by a total of only nine points. The reason the team was 5-9 was it wasn’t any good in close games.
“With sports P.R. guys, the implication is the team just ran into some bad luck and really should have finished 9-5. That isn’t the way it is, in my mind.” —Bill Parcells
That quote hung on my office door for more than a decade, long before Charlie Weis returned to coach his alma mater and recited it almost verbatim to his first Irish squad.
Parcells’ statement was there to serve as a constant reminder, because during my student days at Notre Dame in the early 1980s, I grew to abhor the mantra of how the football program was only a couple of plays away from being top-10 or national-championship caliber.
For example, in Gerry Faust’s 5-6 debut in 1981, four losses were by a total of 17 points.
Weis points to a handful of plays as the difference between 6-6 and 9-3.
Yes…and the previous year under Dan Devine, Notre Dame was maybe four plays away from being 6-4 (thank you, Harry Oliver) instead of starting 9-0-1 and rising to No. 2.
Pick any football season at Notre Dame, and 95 percent of the time one can point out the outcome hinged on a handful of plays, or at least on paper it did.
• Do you realize in 2004, had Boston College not completed a late 4th-and-13 pass in a 24-23 victory at Notre Dame, some dubious officiating had not erased an Irish interception in the end zone in a last-second loss to Pitt, and a play on defense had been made at BYU, the Irish might have finished 9-2 instead of 6-5?
My gosh, just a victory over Pitt and Tyrone Willingham would have been back in 2005, and my guess is maybe even 2006.
• Do you realize that in 2000, Bob Davie was two plays away from a perfect 11-0 regular season? There was a barely-missed interception while leading No. 1 Nebraska 24-21 in overtime, and then a Michigan State 68-yard touchdown pass on 4th and 10 with 1:48 left, when an Irish defender slipped on the midfield ‘S’.
• Do you realize Faust and Co. in 1983 could have easily been 10-1 instead of 6-5? This included a 31-yard field goal blocked on the final play by Air Force in a 23-22 loss, not converting 3rd and inches in the closing minute of a 34-30 loss at Penn State…etc.
This applies to championship teams as well.
What if in 1988 Michigan’s Mike Gillette had made the field goal on the game’s final play, Pat Terrell had not deflected Miami’s two-point attempt, Pitt’s Darnell Dickerson not fumbled at the Irish one while not even getting hit…it could have been 8-3 instead of 11-0.
Or in 1977, what if Willie Fry hadn’t broken Pitt quarterback Matt Cavanaugh’s wrist on a Panther TD play, or Devine hadn’t inserted third-team QB Joe Montana with the Irish trailing 24-14 at Purdue in the fourth quarter, or the defense not recovered a fumble at their 13 when Clemson was already ahead 17-7 in the second half…the national champs could have lost four games.
I have a similar pet peeve when somebody says, “The QB completed only 10 of 25 passes, but he had about three or four dropped.”
They never mention that probably on a couple of those catches, a receiver made a sensational grab.
The same way it’s not mentioned that San Diego State (2-10) might have put Notre Dame away in the opener had it not fumbled at the Irish 1-inch line.
When Tiger Woods wins a four-day tournament by four strokes, the runner-up is only one stroke per day behind the greatest player in the world.
“Do you know what’s the difference between a .250 hitter and a .300 hitter?” frustrated longtime minor-league catcher Crash Davis asks a prized major-league prospect in the 1988 classic Bull Durham. “About 24 extra hits a season. Six-month season, 24 weeks – that’s one extra hit a week.
“You get one extra ‘gork’, one more dying quail, one more ‘ground ball with eyes’ a week, and you’re playing in Yankee Stadium.”
And it’s not an accident when you consistently achieve such gorks or dying quails, just as it isn’t when they turn into pop-outs or just don’t have enough to get through the infield.
Yes, maybe the 2008 Irish were three plays away from 9-3 instead of 6-6. However, should they have been in such a position in the first place?
We look at one play maybe making the difference in the Syracuse game, but what about all the chances at plays that were there when you took possession at the Orange 23, 21 and 5 and coming away with only three points?
Who you are as a team is not determined by one play, but a multitude of possessions, quarters, games and even years.
There’s also a difference between being 5-6 against the nation’s No. 3-ranked schedule in 1986, and 6-6 versus the No. 82 slate this year. By the way, the two teams meeting for the national title, Oklahoma and Florida, have the No. 1- and No. 4-ranked schedules this season, respectively.
Outcomes are not truly determined by single plays, but rather by year-round preparation and the ebbs and flows of most any game that test mental acumen and tactics, emotional resolve, and physical execution and talent.
Lady Luck ultimately has to play a hand too…but she can be a fickle siren one shouldn’t get engaged to for the long haul.
Two More Thoughts
• This Hawaii Bowl reminds me of the Liberty Bowl matchup with Boston College 25 years ago.
There was quite an outcry about Notre Dame going to the Liberty Bowl with a 6-5 record to face 9-2 Boston College. In an editorial, the student newspaper The Observer had a cartoon of the Golden Dome with the words “Sold Out” rubber-stamped on it.
The Irish had lost their last three games of the season, and athletics director Gene Corrigan approached president Rev. Theodore Hesburgh C.S.C. about possibly replacing the head coach, but Hesburgh replied the five-year deal would be honored.
Rumors even circulated that the seniors voted against playing the game but were urged to reconsider.
Lo and behold, on a frigid Memphis winter night, the underdog Irish defeated the Doug Flutie-led Eagles, 19-18, and the Notre Dame locker room afterward looked like it had just won the national title.
All the elements from 1983 are in place again (6-6 record, late-season collapse, embattled coach…), which I don’t know is a positive or negative.
• The hiring of 34-year-old Steve Sarkisian at Washington, and 33-year-old Lane Kiffin at Tennessee reveal just how challenging it can be to find an experienced head coach at top programs.
What if Notre Dame would have made such a hire this year? The probable reaction would have been, “#@$&*, another guy with no college head coaching experience!”
Folks, it’s really, really, really hard to find everything you’re looking for in a Notre Dame head coach, from graduation rates at their previous school (or your own graduation rate), to having played and won in big games, to a vibrant personality…
It’s like the proverbial bachelor who says, “All I want is a woman who looks like Erin Andrews, has the maternal instincts of June Cleaver, makes me laugh like Lucille Ball, has the culinary skills of Julia Child and the heart of Mother Teresa.”
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