Irish job isn't worth its weight in gold

Sporting News, The, Dec 17, 2001 by Tom Dienhart

The Notre Dame head coaching position should come with a warning from the surgeon general: THIS JOB MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.

Don't tell that to Fighting Irish athletic director Kevin White, who whispered sweet nothings into the ears of coaches such as Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, Oregon's Mike Bellotti, the Raiders' Jon Gruden and the 49ers' Steve Mariucci in his quest for a new head man. White surely uttered stuff about the Golden Dome, the Gipper and the Grotto. He also sang a tune about paying his new football master $1 million a year, quite a step for a school that long underpaid coaches, working under the premise that the privilege of coaching in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus was priceless.

Perhaps to White's surprise and certainly to his disappointment, none of his top candidates took the bait. But Georgia Tech's George O'Leary--already beaten out for the job once, when Bob Davie became coach five years ago--did.

Here's hoping White himself is well paid, since he was under great pressure to tap the right guy on the shoulder. After all, this is only the most important hire in Notre Dame history, with the program emerging from an era under Davie that featured two losing seasons and no bowl wins in his past five seasons. White was a one-man search committee, meaning there won't be any problem placing credit or blame for the hire five years from now.

A lot is riding on White's choice. If O'Leary can't bring the Irish back, NBC could decide to pull the plug on its deal to televise Notre Dame home games when the contract expires after the 2005 season. Without that money, budgets for all Irish sports would get much tighter, and Notre Dame would become a more ordinary Division I-A independent.

A great deal of that pressure will fall on O'Leary, but there is an equal dose of prestige to go along with it. Coaching Notre Dameis one of the most prominent jobs in all of sports, ranking right up there with being the man in charge of the Yankees, Lakers, Canadiens or Cowboys.

But don't confuse prestige with desirability. The Notre Dame job isn't all it's cracked up to be because expectations and reality are strangers passing in the South Bend night. Let me offer some realities that make this an undesirable job.

Tired tradition. Although tradition makes tailgaters who eat out of the trunks of their SUVs along Notre Dame Avenue all warm and fuzzy, the Irish's is as old and dusty as Grandma's prom dress in the attic. The school's last national championship came in 1988. Its last Heisman winner was Tim Brown--in 1987. The Irish's last top-10 poll finish was 1993. You do the math.

Last summer is ancient history for today's 18-year-olds, who think There's Something About Mary is an oldie but a goodie. Appealing to the past means little on the couch of prospect JohnnyHotshot.

Scholarships don't runneth over. Unlike those pre-1990 halcyon days, when the Irish were perennial national title contenders, schools are limited to 85 scholarships. That means Notre Dame can't stuff its roster with gem prospects. Schools are limited to signing no more than 25 prospects a year, hence a lot of very good players are left for other schools to ink. That has created an even playing field, which has allowed the likes of Virginia Tech and Oregon, among others, to become national players.

The Bob Stoops factor. He hit the ground sprinting by winning a national championship in his second year at Oklahoma, a program that had been in a 19-year title drought. That just-add-water success puts added pressure on new coaches. The thinking goes: Stoops had microwavefast success at Oklahoma, so why can't our new coach do the same? You can bet Notre Dame Nation will be looking at its watches often next fall.

It's all or nothing. As an independent, Notre Dame has nothing to play for except a national tree. There's no league tree to placate the masses, no berth in a conference championship game. And access to bowls is limited to the BCS and a couple of minor Big East slots, by virtue of its alliance with the conference in other sports. If Notre Dame doesn't win it all, the season is perceived as a failure. That makes for a lot of sad faces.

A backdrop to this cold, wet reality is that the coach at Notre Dame no longer can use difficult admissions standards as a crutch to explain away problems. White has said it's a myth that Notre Dame has unreasonable entrance requirements, and data support the fact that several other schools are producing just as many bright guys who also happen to play for highly successful football programs. For instance, Nebraska had fielded an NCAA-record 78 academic All-Americans entering this season.

So O'Leary won't be able to bring up how tough Notre Dame's academics are after a close loss to Michigan State. In any case, if wrapping itself in a cap and gown and rolling around in ivy was so important to Notre Dame, then why did White can a coach who graduated players at a stunning rate--100 percent last year?

It's obvious Davie's 35-25 record carried more weight than the left tackle's GPA. Indeed, the message being sent to O'Leary is loud and clear: Getting good grades and graduating players is fine, but winning is all that really matters.