Who Will be the Next Coach at Notre Dame

Moss was in. He signed with Notre Dame. He didn't end up there because he got arrested, I believe, or something.

 

One of my favorite sports books is "Under the Tarnished Dome"

Holtz did some crazy shit to get players like Ricky Watters into Notre Dame.

When I said Notre Dame has "unrealistic" expectations, I wasn't saying Weis should keep his job. If memory serves, it's been quite some time since Notre Dame was a serious national title contender.

 

Going from memory but yes he was signed and when he got in that fight Holtz still wanted him but ND admin would not allow.

 

Vinny Cerrato, the current GM of the Redskins, was the guy. His basic strategy was to keep kids away from the admissions radar long enough to get them on campus and at least get them an admissions interview.

In fairness, some of those risks worked out really well. Chris Zorich has a Notre Dame law degree and works in the athletic department now. John Foley, a Prop 48, is a millionaire businessman. They got some risks in there, but they also targeted risks who they thought could blossom under the right supervision.

 

That's much better than a vague, "Navy had a problem, didn't they?" which seemed kind of shaky. Thank you.

That said, having a couple of players busted for steroids only matters if Notre Dame is going to ignore its own history. Show me a program that has never had a player busted for steroids and I'll show you one that was turning the other way.

 

I was only thinking out loud about what controversy Johnson could have possibly been involved in. That was the only thing I remembered, and it doesn't seem like much at all.

 

Stanford, by the way which has academic standards very similar to that of the Irish. Doesn't seem to be hurting them this year.

 

That was my point.

And Stanford's standards are tougher than Notre Dame's. Way tougher.

 

I believe that ND was ready to let Moss in until he sent in partially blank admission form. That was the beginning of the end of the Holtz era.

 

Stanford's admissions are much harder than Notre Dame's. But I don't think Stanford has ever had consistent football success. The expectations there are also nothing compared to Notre Dame's.

Also, football tradition aside, take a student on the tour of the two campuses and see which one they would pick.

 

Don't you think that that depends on if the kid was from the West Coast or the Midwest? When I was in high school, a lot of kids had a dream university that they would have chosen over any other place, and it wasn't Stanford. Trying to explain to my own family why I would not be going to Notre Dame Law was an exercise in futility - though not as much as when I tried to explain it to Gerry Faust.

 

Let's not get carried away with the "Stanford has high standards too and does just fine" idea. Yes they are having a great season this year but that's hardly the norm. Stanford's recent seasons:

2008 = 5-7
2007 = 4-8
2006 = 1-11
2005 = 5-6
2004 = 4-7
2003 = 4-7
2002 = 2-9

You have to go all the way back to 2001 before they even had a winning season before this year. Additionally, ND is 17-6 against them all time, including seven straight. Even when ND had a miserable 3-9 season in 2007 they still managed to beat Stanford.

As for the argument that it's been a long time since ND has been a national title contender, they were 10-1 in 2006 before losing to USC on the last play of the game. In 2002 they started 8-0. In 2005 they were 9-3. So while the consistency is obviously not there, it's not like it's been ages since they fielded a good team.