The rasp remains in Gerry Faust’s voice, the product of a thousand football practices.
“I’ll be back at Notre Dame,” Faust said Tuesday.
Fear not, Irish fans: He won’t have a headset on. On the opening weekend of the 1997 season, Faust will be in the campus bookstore signing copies of “The Golden Dream,” his account of the five tempestuous seasons known as “The Faust Era.”
Or, in the eyes of many Irish followers, “The Faust Error.”
In a period that debunked the infallibility of Notre Dame football, Faust went 30-26-1 between 1981 and 1985. He had a few highs, including a No. 1 ranking in his second week. But most people remember the lows: two minor bowl invitations, a near loss to Navy and a humiliating 58-7 loss to Miami in his final game.
Demanding Irish “faithful” didn’t exactly line up behind Faust. But they are lining up to buy his book, which is headed for a second printing. Faust recently signed 300 copies at two appearances in Cincinnati, where he coached at Moeller High School before taking over at Notre Dame. He has left athletics for a job in the University of Akron administration.
There’s little news in the 356-page book, but Faust and ghostwriter Steve Love give a glimpse behind the headlines.
For years, Notre Dame has clung to the public line that it won’t ask a coach to leave before his five-year contract expires. But Faust writes that the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, Notre Dame’s executive vice president, asked him to consider quitting after his fourth season.
When Faust told his bosses he wanted to finish his contract, then-Irish Athletic Director Gene Corrigan went to see Faust at his home. According to Faust, Corrigan told him, “You ought to step down,” prompting a heated argument that ended in Corrigan’s storming out into the night.
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Corrigan, reached at his retirement home near Charlottesville, Va., remembered the discussion a bit differently.
“I talked to him about whether it was wise for him to stay,” Corrigan said. “I didn’t think it was going in the right direction. But I didn’t tell him he should resign.
“After he said he wanted to come back, I said, `Let’s do what we can to keep him here the rest of his life,’ ” Corrigan said.
There’s also an amusing anecdote involving former Irish basketball coach Digger Phelps, who came to Faust’s office with a suggestion during a dismal three-game home losing streak in 1984.
“Gerry, did you ever think of going over to the stadium, looking up to the heavens and asking Knute to help you?” Faust quotes Phelps as saying.
Faust reads his readers’ minds when he writes that the suggestion “sounds crazy.” But he tried it after the Irish blew a home game to South Carolina. Notre Dame swept its last four games and earned an invitation to the Aloha Bowl, where it lost to Southern Methodist.
“To me, it was no joke,” Faust writes.
Faust mostly resists the temptation to blast back at his many critics, turning his sharpest criticisms on himself. For example, Faust acknowledges his weakness in recruiting, the lifeblood of major-college football. One time, an aide asked Faust to view films of an awkward-looking prep quarterback named Bernie Kosar.
“He can’t play at this level,” Faust said of Kosar, who went on to lead Miami to the 1983 national title.
Some might find Faust’s blather tiresome, but no one can deny his love for the university. Faust said he was moved by word that Notre Dame will add his autobiography to its library’s special collection. There, he hopes, its testimony will reach beyond the little world of Irish football.
“I wanted to show that as long as you have faith and the love of your family,” he said, “you can get through anything.”
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For 15 years, Kickoff Classic organizers have done a fine job of raising money for a variety of worthy causes, not for just television and the competing schools. And they offer a bowl trip experience to heartland kids visiting New York City.
But when it comes to the actual game, the Kickoff Classic has recently produced all the drama of the Super Bowl–and that’s not meant as a compliment. Three of the last five games have been blowouts and shutouts, including Syracuse’s 34-0 rout of Wisconsin Sunday.
“We’re not dissuaded at all by the outcomes on the field,” said Mike Graime, director of college sports for the New Jersey Sports Authority. “People have remarked to me that a lot of these matchups looked good on paper. We can’t control the weather and we can’t control the outcome.”
A crowd of 51,185 showed up at Giants Stadium to see Eastern power Syracuse meet Wisconsin, whose group of traveling supporters is among the largest in the country. That’s a drop of about a third from the record crowd that came out to see Penn State stomp Southern Cal 24-7 last summer.
Because Kickoff Classic organizers aren’t allowed to invite the Nittany Lions every year, here’s a proposal for jazzing up what should be a rousing start to the college season: Make the Kickoff Classic a mandatory matchup for defending champions from the major conferences. The slots could rotate yearly, in a round-robin format.
And throw in the Pigskin Classic, which drew fewer than 37,000 to watch Northwestern and Oklahoma slog around Soldier Field.
Under this scheme, this year’s matchups could have pitted SEC champ Florida vs. Big East champ Miami in one game and co-Big Ten champ Ohio State against Big 12 winner Texas in the other.
The fans would love it, as would TV.
NCAA politics make it a pipe dream. And there would be heavy resistance from coaches who want to munch on a few non-conference cream puffs.
But if the super alliance is serious about using strength of opposition in its rankings next year, national-title contenders ought to upgrade their schedules. Upgrading the preseason “classics” is a logical way to start.