On the Sunday morning of Dec. 2, 2001, fifth-year Notre Dame head coach Bob Davie entered the office of Irish athletic director Kevin White hours after a 24-18 victory at Purdue.
Despite the win, Notre Dame finished 5-6, and White quickly informed Davie that his employment would be terminated.
“Why?” asked Davie.
After all, the Notre Dame players were graduating per usual, attrition (a sore point with the administration during Lou Holtz’s tenure) was low, the Irish had reached a BCS bowl the previous year, and Davie had signed a five-year contract extension (read: the Kiss of Death) less than a year earlier.
White’s reply was succinct: “We’ve lost credibility.”
The credibility centered not merely on the collective 35-25 record from 1997-2001 as it did on a pattern of inconsistency and struggling against opponents such as Michigan State, against who Davie was 0-5, Stanford (Cardinal head coach Ty Willingham was 3-2 against Notre Dame), Purdue and Boston College.
A second loss to Navy in three seasons has once again raised questions about Weis' future in South Bend.
Where is the credibility of Notre Dame’s football program when it loses two straight at home to Navy?
The last time that occurred was during the darkest days of the program’s history (1956-63). But Navy was a power back then, even producing Heisman Trophy winners in 1960 (Joe Bellino) and 1963 (Roger Staubach).
The credibility is at the same place where it was from 1959-62 when Northwestern, under the direction of Ara Parseghian, was 4-0 against far more talented Irish teams.
The credibility is at the same place when Air Force was 4-0 versus the Irish from 1982-85.
Plain and simple, Notre Dame Nation in both cases had pretty much had its confidence shaken in the coaching acumen of Joe Kuharich and Gerry Faust in both of those eras … and it’s no different now with Charlie Weis.
This is the third straight November now where we will be wondering if Weis will be back. That’s just not healthy for a program. When you keep having to ask, “Is he going to get the job done?” then you’re likely just trying to rationalize your worst fears.
“If I can’t get the job done in three years, it’s not going to get done in five,” explained Parseghian on why he originally signed a three–year deal instead of five with the Irish.
Weis had a different dilemma to work with and wasn’t going to necessarily experience success in year three. But let’s face it … the job hasn’t gotten done in five years — and it’s not going to get done in six, seven, eight, nine.
You either have it or you don’t. The “It factor” is either there or it isn’t.
Contrary to many folks after the home loss last season to 2-8 Syracuse, I did not believe Weis should be shown the exit door for three reasons:
• One, there was nobody out there I was impressed with enough that could potentially have an impact of a Parseghian or Lou Holtz. To paraphrase former Boston Celtics and current Louisville head coach Rick Pitino, “Folks, Urban Meyer isn’t going to be walking through that door!”
Furthermore, because Irish athletic director Jack Swarbrick was on the job only four months, I was not confident that a quality short list had been assembled to make an informed and correct decision. That should not be the case this year — and the name Brian Kelly likely will become quite popular if no skeletons are found in his closet.
• Two, unlike Willingham, I believe Weis had earned the right to try to get it right in his fifth season. I respect the man’s work ethic and making the Irish relevant on the recruiting season again, and he had the right to try to reap the fruits of his labors in 2009. I viewed 2009 as the “tiebreaker year,” after two pretty good seasons in 2005-06, a miserable one (2008) and a train wreck cubed (2007). My base for 2009 was 10-2 regular season and a BCS victory, and I definitely believed it was attainable because this was not the football schedule of the 1980s or 1990s.
• Three … I really, really, really wanted Weis to succeed. I did not want to start over and not be sure of what we’re getting again, especially after all the headlines the last several years of how people don’t want this job. If you fail with three straight head coaches, it can get demoralizing and have the reputation of a graveyard. Last year, it was on the assistants, and several were replaced. This year it’s on Weis. You can blame assistants only so long (first two years, max).
This will be the fourth consecutive year that Notre Dame will not have met preseason expectations, at least in my opinion.
The 2006 team was overrated at the beginning of the season when it was ranked in the top 5. Nevertheless, it was quite disappointing to get destroyed 47-21 (Michigan), 44-24 (USC) and 41-14 (LSU in the Sugar Bowl) against the lone three “power” teams the Irish confronted.
We always apply the “any given day” mantra when a Navy, Syracuse, Purdue or even Boston College (how many of their players did the Irish recruit?) topple the Irish. Why doesn’t that also apply to Notre Dame when it faces a USC, Ohio State or LSU?
Anyone with half a mind (I don’t qualify because I have a quarter) understood that Notre Dame would struggle in 2007 because the recruiting shortages under Willingham in 2004-05 would finally catch up. But the 3-9 performance was over the top. Maybe I’m wrong, but I believed a well-coached team that year could have finished 6-6.
Last year, the schedule was screaming for at least an 8-4 finish. Someway, somehow, the Irish managed to finish 6-6 in the regular season.
So when people asked me for my prediction this year, my standard reply was, “Well, I’m expecting them to go 10-2 — which means they’ll probably be 8-4 based on how I’m usually two games short.”
Now, don’t laugh … but I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if the Irish ended up winning at Pitt this week.
If you’ve been around long enough, you know this drill at Notre Dame: Maligned coach on the hot seat comes up big victory when most needed and when the world is coming down on him.
Old-timers saw it with Kuharich. The year after going 2-8 in 1960, he opens 1961 by defeating three future Hall of Fame coaches in Oklahoma’s Bud Wilkinson, Purdue’s Jack Mollenkopf and USC’s John McKay — plus Syracuse’s Ben Schwartzwalder later in the year when the Orange were ranked in the top 10.
Interim coach Hugh Devore upset defending national champ and No. 6 USC in 1963.
Faust upset No. 1 Pitt in 1982, a 9-2 Boston College team with Doug Flutie in the1983 Liberty Bowl — and he knocked off SEC champ LSU (30-22), crushed Joe Paterno’s Penn State team (44-7), and Pac 10 champ USC (19-7) — the first Irish victory in the Coliseum in 18 years — after starting 3-4 in 1984 and losing three straight at home.
Davie had a miserable summer in 1998 after coming a 7-6 debut season and the ugly Joe Moore court case in which he was sued for age discrimination against the Irish line coach from 1988-96 … but then he opened the season with a 36-20 victory versus co-defending national champ Michigan quarterbacked by Tom Brady.
You saw it with Willingham when after upset losses to BYU and Boston College in 2004, the next week his Irish teams knocked off No. 8 Michigan and No. 9 Tennessee, respectively, the latter at Knoxville.
So no, it would be a surprise if the Irish won at Pitt and even ran the table. History suggests it’s more than possible — but that wouldn’t mean the program has a strong base.
Unfortunately, the pattern over the last five seasons has also suggested that Notre Dame is still spinning its wheels under Weis.
Make no mistake, the Midshipmen have been an extremely well coached unit since 2002, and the precision and execution of their team is one to envy given their limited resources in recruiting and other areas. The Irish need not apologize for having them on the schedule, and the threat of Navy’s ability was demonstrated by taking Ohio State to the wall at The Horseshoe in this year’s opener before losing, 31-27.
It is not my job to call for anyone’s ouster, nor would I feel comfortable doing so. I still really want Weis and his staff to thrive … but the confidence level based on the track record tells me it’s just not happening.
Mr. Swarbrick will have a decision on his hand in the next month, similar to Mr. White in the early part of this decade.
If the Irish finish out 9-3, the choice likely will be easy, even though he hinted that being in the BCS conversations would be important late in November. If it’s 8-4, some might contend that would be an easy choice too — but the other way.
It will come down to credibility. Right now, it’s once again lacking.
.jpg)
