A long-time bachelor was once asked why he hasn’t settled down. His reply: “I don’t know. All I want is someone who looks like Gisele Bundchen, has the purity and heart of Mother Teresa, the culinary skills of Paula Deen, the maternal instincts of June Cleaver, a sense of humor like Lucille Ball, and the financial security of Mrs. Howell (for those who ask “Ginger or Mary Ann?).”
That can sometimes sum up what many Notre Dame fans seek in their head coach. If there is indeed a search out there right now, what the Irish need is someone with the brilliant oratorical skills of Knute Rockne, the uncompromising will to win of Frank Leahy (71-3-5 in the 1940s), the charisma of Ara Parseghian, the wit and banter of Lou Holtz, the big-game excellence of Urban Meyer, the pristine background of Tony Dungy …
Obviously, we’re exaggerating a bit here. Nevertheless, there are at least eight major areas that need to be addressed to get “the right hire.”
Background/Fitting In At Notre Dame
Count on Notre Dame to be ultra cautious when doing a background check because of the 2001 George O’Leary fiasco with his résumé that kept him on the job for only four days. Digging up some dish on public figures is a popular American pastime, particularly when Notre Dame sometimes, in the public’s eye, projects itself as “holier than thou.”
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Weis' work ethic and recruiting efforts are quailities that need to carry over to the next coach.
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In his first meeting with the Notre Dame students in February 2005, Charlie Weis informed them that they wouldn’t have to worry about their coach getting headlines for misbehavior “because I don’t do anything.” He doesn’t golf, fish, go out with the boys … the only two involvements in his life are football and his family. It’s similar to the rule handed down by Vince Lombardi to his players when he took the Green Bay job in 1959: the only three things are your faith, your family and the Green Bay Packers.
We’re all mere mortals who have erred, so it’s not about perfection. But there also cannot be a pattern of skeletons in the closet as far as discipline issues with players, compromising photos or legal issues that could come back to haunt you.
Another wild card is what kind of graduation rate did your program produce if you are coming from another university. Also, is a coach willing to work within certain parameters of academic guidelines, including not accepting junior college transfers, etc.
If there is a search … then people such as Jim Harbaugh (Stanford) or Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern) have the advantage of recruiting and excelling at schools with premier academic reputations. Ara Parseghian came from Northwestern, and said his fit into Notre Dame was virtually seamless — even though he wasn’t Catholic — because he was used to recruiting at a small, private school with high standards. The same with Tyrone Willingham, who came from Stanford in 2002.
One worked out brilliantly, and one didn’t. You don’t know until about two or three years whether it’s indeed the right fit. By the end of the third, you get a pretty good sense.
College Coaching Experience
The Notre Dame head coaching position is not ideal for “on-the-job” training, although attempts have been made with Terry Brennan (1954-58), Gerry Faust (1981-85), Bob Davie (1997-2001) and Weis (2005-present).
Prior to Holtz’s hiring, Parseghian told Irish athletic director Gene Corrigan, “I was a head coach for 14 years before I came to Notre Dame — and I needed every one of those years.”
Part of that experience I believe is necessary to be at Notre Dame is failure and misery mixed in with success. Parseghian was 0-9 in his second year at Northwestern (1957) and was on the hot seat. He said he learned and benefited from that season more than any other. You can learn at Northwestern, but not at Notre Dame.
Holtz was fired as an assistant in the 1960s, his 1976 experiment with the New York Jets was a failure, and he was released from Arkansas in 1983. Dan Devine was 5-6 in his last season at Missouri (1970) and fired at Green Bay (1974).
With a 174-17-2 career high school mark, Gerry Faust did not taste failure, and panic immediately ensued when situations went awry his first year in 1981, when the Irish finished 5-6. This is not the place to cut your teeth.
Losing a game at Notre Dame becomes so magnified that a coach has to have uncommon resilience to continue to function and keep his sanity. Leahy and Parseghian burned out in the prime of their careers, ages 43 and 52, respectively.
That’s why as impressive as Chris Petersen has been at Boise State the past four years with a career record of 46-4 (.920), he is Moby Dick in a lake. When the last two Boise State coaches went to BCS schools, it was a struggle. Dirk Koetter was fired at Arizona State, and Dan Hawkins (53-11 at BSU) is on the hot seat at Colorado with a four-year record of 16-32.
Seldom do you find a Meyer who seems to have the King Midas touch of turning everything to gold, whether he’s at Bowling Green, Utah or Florida.
Desire To Coach At Notre Dame
Former Notre Dame athletics director Dick Rosenthal (1987-95) summarized it best: “It’s more important for a coach to pick Notre Dame than for Notre Dame to pick a coach.”
Leahy had an alma mater clause in his contract for his Irish when he was at Boston College. Holtz had an escape clause at Minnesota. Parseghian placed the initial call to Notre Dame executive vice president Rev. Ned Joyce about the availability of the Irish job — Hugh Devore was merely titled as the interim coach — when his contract wasn’t extended at Northwestern. Missouri head coach Dan Devine almost took the job in ’63, and Joyce told him the next time the job came open, he would receive the first call. Indeed, that’s what happened once Parseghian announced his resignation in December,1974.
Leahy, Parseghian, Devine and Holtz all wanted the Notre Dame job, were hungry to thrive, and they had proven head coaching experience, an ideal combination.
Now, wanting the job without head coaching experience on the collegiate level is different. Faust wanted it in the worst way, but he had never been a college coach. Neither had Davie, and neither had Notre Dame alumnus Weis.
Joe Kuharich also wanted it when Terry Brennan was fired in 1958. At that point, Kuharich had tasted success both on the collegiate level (10-0 at San Francisco in 1951 to finish No. 14 in the final AP poll) and in the pros (NFL head coach of the year with the Washington Redskins in 1955). But he lacked the “it factor” at Notre Dame.
Weis admitted he was disappointed when he wasn’t even approached by Notre Dame after Davie was ousted in 2001, the year Weis was an offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots the first time they won a Super Bowl.
But after Davie, the foremost goal in the coaching search was to land somebody who has been a winner as a head coach. That led to the hiring first of Georgia Tech’s George O’Leary and then Stanford’s Willingham.
Facing Weekly Pressure
Not everyone can face the expectations that exist at Notre Dame. Every game is a BCS bowl unto itself.
Records of 7-4 and 8-3 win you adulation at some places. At Notre Dame, they get you lambasted. That’s why when Willingham liked to say he “never had a bad day” and complimented the 6-5 finish in 2004 as “a winning season,” it was evident he didn’t “get it.” That didn’t make him a bad person; just someone who didn’t quite appreciate the expectations.
It takes some guts to want the Notre Dame job. Somebody such as a Gary Patterson is already has rock idol status at TCU, where he has thrived for more than a decade. Would he really want and need the headaches that come with the Notre Dame post? It’s not a case of being complacent with what you have, but not messing with an already good situation.
When you’re in the spotlight and every game is scrutinized on national TV, it takes its toll and can affect performance. That’s where having gone through ups and downs before as a head coach should be beneficial.
Timing, Timing, Timing
If Faust had resigned after his fourth season (1984) instead of his fifth (1985), Holtz would not have been available. In addition to his escape clause for Notre Dame at Minnesota, there was another contingency: He reportedly first had to lead the Golden Gophers to a winning season and a bowl before he could use the escape clause.
In Holtz’s first year at Minnesota (1984), he improved the team from 1-10 to 4-7, but that wasn’t good enough yet to take the Notre Dame job. The next year, when Faust resigned and Holtz led the Gophers to a winning record and a bowl, he had fulfilled his end of the deal.
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Ara acknowledges that he needed every bit of his 14 years of head coaching experience prior to taking the job at Notre Dame.
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Had Ron Zook enjoyed a good enough season at Florida in 2004 to not get fired, Meyer may have made the move from Utah to Notre Dame. When he didn’t and nobody else wanted the position, the choice pretty much came down to two Notre Dame alumni with zero head coaching experience: Weis and Tom Clements (currently the Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach).
Had Parseghian not had a fallout with Northwestern AD Stu Holcomb in 1963, he said he never would have picked up the phone to call Notre Dame.
Timing is everything.
Records/Winning Ways
Parseghian was only 36-35-1 at Northwestern when he took the Notre Dame job, while Holtz had a career winning percentage of .637 prior to joining the Irish, not including a 3-10 mark in the NFL. That’s not the stuff of legends — but one must evaluate the programs from whence they came.
At Notre Dame, the minimal expectation level is around 9-3 (.750). At a Northwestern, Stanford or other schools, if you can achieve .500, it’s phenomenal. So when a Harbaugh is 16-18 at Stanford (7-4 in his third) … keep in mind that in the seven years from 2002-08 the Cardinal joined Baylor and Duke as the lone schools among the 64 in the BCS not to finish with a winning season. Likewise, Fitzgerald finishing 9-3 and 8-4 the last two regular season at Northwestern is like a Notre Dame coach posting consecutive 12- and 11-win campaigns. He’s 27-22 overall, but that’s a sensational mark at Northwestern.
Willingham was 44-36-1 at Stanford, but that was better than esteemed predecessors such as Bill Walsh (17-17-1) and Dennis Green (16-18). It’s extremely difficult to finish above .500 at Stanford. Willingham not only led the Cardinal to the Rose Bowl in 1999, a first in 28 years, but his 9-2 regular season there in 2001 was the best at the school since 1951.
Recruiting
Is there a willingness to recruit? Most pro coaches can be discounted for that reason alone. Pete Carroll has proven otherwise at USC, but he also located at an extremely fertile recruiting base in southern California.
As a Notre Dame alumnus, Weis understands the school’s culture and has developed a strong reputation in presenting its assets. Not everyone might be as capable. Many of today’s premier recruits are drawn primarily to the four Cs: climate, culture, comely coeds, and championships (not necessarily in that order).
To today’s recruit, Notre Dame is an isolated school in a cold-weather climate, not located in a big city, has one top 10 finish in the last 16 years, isn’t a player on the national scene, and has some limits in who it can recruit.
It takes a powerful personality to sell them otherwise, and the passion to go that extra mile for Notre Dame is a necessity.
Charisma/Public Relations
This is better known as the “it factor.” When Weis was asked what makes a great quarterback, he described it the same way one describes a coach.
“The biggest, most important factor is the ‘it factor,’ ” Weis said. “You either have it or you don’t have it … Now, I can’t describe what ‘it’ is, but the good ones have it.”
Weis made a number of personal PR gaffes with former players and coaches, and even early on with the media when he had a bit of a bull-in-china-shop personality. When he started losing big, it came back to haunt him. He has made an effort the past couple of years to be more amenable and has done a good job with it … but the question is whether it’s too little and too late, especially with the losing continuing?
Now, if dealing wonderfully with the public was all that mattered, Faust would be completing his 29th season as the Irish coach.
“You know what charisma is?” Devine asked one time. “Charisma is winning.”
Indeed, a Notre Dame coach has to have and be a little of everything — but winning big ultimately takes care of most everything.
