It happens every time there is a coaching change at any major college football program, and Notre Dame is no exception.
From the head coach on down, everyone on the previous staff was a bumbling idiot who did things the wrong way, and all of the new guys are brilliant innovators who will re-invent the wheel, walk on water and take the team places it has never been before.
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Olsen's 35 reps of 225 pounds proved to be fifth-most of all participants at last weekend's combine.
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But let’s be real about this – just about every coach that gets hired at a major Division I program knows what they’re doing. It’s not like these guys suddenly forgot the game when they’re losing – Roy Williams isn’t going to be yanked out of the Hall of Fame this winter, even though he’s posting a losing record with seven McDonald’s All-Americans on his roster at North Carolina. Sometimes things just don’t click for whatever reason, and even the most wildly successful coaches are susceptible if the circumstances line up in a certain way.
Fans generally only know how to define success by wins and losses, though, and so when you stop winning, they stop remembering any of the previous good. Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis both won national coach of the year awards in their first season at Notre Dame, and both were being burned in effigy by the end of their third.
“There’s one thing you learn very early as a coach,” Michigan State’s George Perles once quipped. “If you lose, everything you’re doing is wrong. If you win, you can walk backwards and stick your finger in your ass. That’s the kind of game it is.”
Thus, when Notre Dame wore down at the end of the 2008 and 2009 seasons, one of the sweeping assumptions was that former strength coach Ruben Mendoza was a massive failure. But if this week’s NFL Combine results are any indication, those indictments may have been a bit off base. Quarterback Jimmy Clausen didn’t work out at all because of his toe injury, but four other former Irish players showed the scouts their stuff at the annual meat market, and their results were pretty impressive:
Kyle McCarthy didn’t blow anyone away with his 40-yard dash time, but he was first among the 23 safeties – and sixth among all combine participants, trailing only two receivers and three cornerbacks – with a time of 11.13 seconds in the 60-yard shuttle run. McCarthy was also second among safeties in the 20-yard shuttle (4.13 seconds) and the three-cone drill (6.74 seconds).
Offensive linemen Eric Olsen and Sam Young tied for ninth among 46 players at their position group in vertical jump, with each getting 29.5 inches of separation from the ground. Young was also 10th among linemen in the standing broad jump (8 feet, 8 inches), while Olsen was tied for fourth in the three-cone (7.50 seconds).
Receiver Golden Tate didn’t surprise a lot of people with his excellent time of 4.42 seconds in the 40, which ranked fourth among 44 wideouts, or his 10-foot broad jump, which tied for 10th at the position. But while Tate performed as expected in the speed and agility drills, he also impressed with his 17 reps on the 225-pound bench press, the lone strength measurable at the combine.
Tate’s number ranked him seventh among receivers, and he wasn’t alone – each of the Notre Dame players placed in the top 10 at their position group on the bench press. McCarthy tied for second among safeties with 24 reps (or one more than Oklahoma defensive tackle Gerald McCoy). Young tied for 10th among offensive linemen with 29 reps, while Olsen tied for third with 35.
Perhaps these guys were forced to do some work in the weight room all this time after all.
Despite the strong showing by this Irish quartet – and the other impressive combine efforts in recent years by Mendoza pupils like Trevor Laws and Brady Quinn – the former weight-room regime will continue to be maligned by Notre Dame fans.
Mickey Marotti was the target of similar complaints when he was ousted with the rest of the Willingham regime. Luckily for him, he has been able to plug his ears with the national championship rings he’s earned at Florida since his departure.
Shows what we all know.
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