For the first time in 12 years, someone other than Lou Holtz dismissed the Notre Dame football team for the summer. It happened Saturday, with new coach Bob Davie doing the honors after the annual zzzzz-a-thon, otherwise known as the Blue and Gold spring game.
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Bob Davie . . . Laura Davies . . . Davy Crockett–it doesn’t matter who blew the final whistle at Moose Krause Stadium. What does matter is that the high-maintenance Holtz is gone, and Notre Dame is the better for his absence.
Holtz won 100 games and a national championship during his stay, but each victory took its toll, both on him and on Notre Dame. By the time he announced his resignation, a gaunt, weary Holtz looked as old as Granny from “The Beverly Hillbillies.” You didn’t know whether to shake his hand or suggest last rites.
As it turns out, one of the best things Notre Dame ever did was to hire Holtz and have him repair the damage caused by Gerry Faust, the Goober of college coaches. But perhaps even more important is the day Holtz told Athletic Director Mike Wadsworth he was quitting–and Wadsworth didn’t ask the coach to reconsider.
Holtz’s legacy is secure, even by Notre Dame standards. Had he been smart enough to stick around for the 1997 season, Holtz would have become the school’s all-time winningest coach, surpassing even the great Knute Rockne.
Too late. Rust and arrogance had already formed on his coaching methods. Holtz worked hard, perhaps as hard as anyone in the business. But you don’t measure success by a time clock. You measure it partly by victories, but also by the ability to adapt, to inspire, to create loyalty.
Little by little, Holtz’s hold on his team, his assistant coaches and his support staff was compromised by his ego and a growing number of hissy fits. It wasn’t unusual for Holtz to confront a member of the Notre Dame football “family” for some real or imagined mistake and then rage, “Don’t you know how to do your job?”
Holtz was a sweetheart in public. He signed autographs, cracked one-liners, did magic tricks and waxed poetic about Domers. He was thisclose to being beloved.
But somewhere along the way, Holtz began making mistakes, enough to keep “Under the Tarnished Dome” on the best-seller list. Enough to alienate assorted players’ parents, who suddenly felt they had supplied a product, not a son, to Notre Dame. Enough to cause his starting quarterback to admit he had had enough of Holtz’s Fred Flintstone offense.
Admire Holtz or not, it was time for him to go. Holtz was a micromanaging mess, and because of it the Irish were becoming the football equivalent of Bob Knight’s recent Indiana teams: mostly joyless and playing not to lose.
Holtz lost 30 games at Notre Dame, but more than a third of the defeats (11) came during the last three seasons. Is that called a trend?
The worst of those 11 recent losses, the one that revealed how fragile Holtz’s program had become, was a 20-17 overtime defeat by Air Force at home. Despite rushing for 397 yards a week earlier against Washington, despite outweighing the Falcons’ defensive line by the combined poundage of an F-16, Notre Dame couldn’t move the ball on the ground. The Irish finished with 67 rushing yards, lost the game, lost the season finale against Southern California and stayed home for the bowls.
Even if Holtz had decided to return next season, it would not have been pretty. Quarterback Ron Powlus would have taken a flyer on the NFL draft rather than endure a fifth year of Lou. And chances are Holtz would have lost Davie and perhaps as many as five other assistant coaches.
Davie has zero head coaching experience, but that isn’t the point in April. This is the time of year to repair bridges, especially the ones neglected by Holtz. So Davie fixes things.
For the first time in years, the offense includes an actual passing attack, which explains why Powlus is being treated for Permanent Smile Syndrome. And for a pleasant change, the head coach knows the names of all the players, even the walk-ons. Nice.
Davie consulted with the team about the school’s new shoe contract. He quickened the pace of practices. He gave new life to players buried under the Holtz regime. And no longer do you have to check with a speakers bureau to see if your head coach is available for a private meeting.
Better yet, Davie wrote letters to every surviving former Notre Dame player and invited them to visit practice whenever in town. He made the rounds of the school dorms and, get this, solicited ideas from students to improve the program. Somebody complained about the gate colors of the renovated Notre Dame Stadium. Davie looked into it.
And unlike Holtz, Davie has instituted a policy that encourages players’ parents to become more involved in the program. Imagine that. Home football weekends will include chalk talks with parents, a newsletter, a picnic of sorts and an invitation to attend Friday’s workouts. At least one set of parents, in town for the spring games, nearly was moved to tears by the interest shown in them.
Holtz could have done all this. It might not have meant another win, but it would have meant a difference.
In time, we’ll know whether Davie can win games. So far, we know he can blow a whistle and make football fun again. All things considered, that seems a fair enough trade for Holtz.
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