Who Will be the Next Coach at Notre Dame

Just a few thoughts from an Irish Catholic addressing some of the points made throughout this thread.

1. If Notre Dame decides it is not interested in Brian Kelly because at some point, somewhere a rumor started that he was pro-choice simply because he once campaigned for John Kerry, then this institution deserves all the mediocrity that is sure to come. You are not the cosmos, Notre Dame. Your football coach is not a moral beacon, spreading light throughout the world. He is a football coach, and the idea that Kelly's private opinion (which is based only on campaigning for Kerry, nothing else!) about a difficult moral subject being the same thing as telling his players to get abortions when they knock up co-eds, or holding up a sign outside the Supreme Court lobbying to overturn Roe v. Wade, is moronic. However, being a private institution, it is certainly your right to demand that your football coach subscribe to your dogma. Just don't pretend you're should be able to regularly compete with the USCs and Floridas of the college football universe when you put yourself at a competitive disadvantage by saying "we want to win like them, but only with people who think like us."

2. Notre Dame's NBC television contract, as Bubbler pointed out, means jack squat to 18-year-old kids. EVERYONE HAS CABLE. One of the main reasons everyone still thinks ND is one of the top jobs in college football is because everyone who currently works in media grew up in an era when Notre Dame was the most important program in college football. And so they bring up Notre Dame constantly. National following really doesn't mean dick to the people most responsible for a program's success -- the players. Why in the world would I want to play for Notre Dame if I grew up in, say, Texas or Florida or Louisiana or California? Because the weather is better? Nope. Because the women are hotter? Nope. Because the night life is more fun? Nope. Because the campus is cooler? Nope. Because of academics? Um, I'm going to play in the NFL. Why do I care about academics? Every school is on TV every week somewhere. My parents can watch it on their big flat screen TV when they're not in town, which is every weekend anyway. Also, every major college program has a rabid fanbase with thousands of hot girls who will blow me every weekend if I am a gridiron stud. You can watch me on YouTube instead of watching me on NBC.

3. How in the world can Notre Dame afford to cough up $14-18 million to buy out Weiss' contract, then cough out another $20 million (or $25 million if they want Urban Meyer, because it would take $5 million per for five years) for a new coach in this economy? Complete madness.

4. You know who would have been a great hire for Notre Dame? Paul Johnson. I said this way back when he was coaching at Navy. But Notre Dame would never do that because they think running the triple option is beneath them, and even though Johnson would be a smart hire, he's not a sexy hire. Well, if you're going to compete with so-called academic disadvantages, maybe you should hire a coach who has an offense that can win with a competitive disadvantage. He has an ego, sure, but it's not in the same stratosphere as Meyer's. He would be everything Willingham and Weiss were not in terms of handling alums and the media.

5. As for the argument about academic standards, Notre Dame probably should lose the right to make this with two loses to Navy, considering to get into the Academy, you need 1,400 on your SATs, a congressional letter of recommendation, and you need to be willing to serve five years in the military and also not have sex with another classmate while in college. But realistically, I fail to understand how giving the football coach 10 to 12 academic exceptions would cripple the institution. Certainly Texas and Florida and LSU and Alabama can get players into school that Notre Dame cannot. But that's college football. The entire enterprise in prostitution. Either decide you want to play by those rules and play for national championships, or decide you want to hold yourself to a higher standard and accept something less so in terms of on-field success.

 

Why is it that every single year, the recruiting experts seem to put Notre Dame in the top 5 classes and talk about how the program is rebuilding itself... and then when the team stinks, we hear that they just can't recruit as long as they have academic standards?

 

Couple of things.
Yep, I forgot 'Bama. My bad.
If Notre Dame's NBC contract means jack squat,tell that to the people who wanted to watch Florida play yesterday.
The game was on pay-per-view. Admittedly it was Florida International, but still. I guess I could have watched Alabama, the No. 2 team, nope, also PPV. No. 3 Texas? ABC regional. No. 4 TCU, nope and on and on until you get to No. 9 and Ohio State.They had a national broadcast.
The point is that the NBC contract does matter.

 

That TV contract is a double-edged sword. How much has it helped Notre Dame to lose so many big games in front of a national audience? Yes, the Irish are on TV all the time. But if they're losing as many games as they're winning, that hurts recruiting. For instance, if you're a recruit and you watch Notre Dame lose to a Navy or a UConn, but you can "only" see highlights of undefeated Florida or Texas beating the shit out of their latest opponent, which team has the recruiting advantage?

 

Exactly. People are saying "oh everyone has cable so it doesn't matter." But just because you have cable doesnt mean you get to watch any team you want. Most cable broadcasts are regional, so just because the people in Texas are getting the Texas game doesn't mean the rest of the country is. Even with the 400-odd channels that I have, I have trouble ever seeing Texas and USC unless they are on a prime time national broadcast. Being on NBC (nationally, not regionally) ensures that EVERYONE can see you play. Having cable doesn't mean you get every single game around the country.

 

By the way, what's up with this ESPN Overdrive crap anyway? Yesterday the channel guide said Penn State and Michigan State was on ESPN (a game I wanted to keep tabs on during the ND game) but ESPN instead aired that Overdrive thing. Last week I was hellbent on watching the Iowa and Ohio State game and again it was advertised on ESPN but again they showed Overdrive instead. What gives? (And this also reiterates my point about the NBC contract mattering. A game as big as Ohio State and Iowa and it was NOT nationally televised.)

 

I guess it just seems that way. But the experts really haven't ranked them that well.

ND's past 5 recruiting classes ranked 21st, 2nd, 8th, 8th and 40th, according to rivals. Five-year average = barely in the top 20.

 

Who's coaching Notre Dame?

You know who's coaching Notre Dame....

 

That's still a 2 and two 8s for a school that we are told simply can't compete because their standards are too high to recruit effectively. And those classes were 2006, 2007 and 2008, which should make up much of this year's 6-5 team.

Rivals puts them 11th for 2010.

 

Whoever tossed out Tony Dungy - I think he would be a great hire for ND.

 

No way in hell. Bobby Lowder.

Chicken dinner.

I mentioned him on one of the college football threads. In retrospect, I can't think of a reason (other than money) that he would leave TCU at this time.

 

But isn't it always about the money, 2MCM?