Football: Tumultuous season brings coaching change
By: ANDREW SOUKUP
Sports Writer
Everybody knew Bob Davie would be fired. Few people knew who would be hired.
But nobody expected what happened in December.
When Notre Dame started the season with losses to Nebraska, Michigan State and Texas A&M — the worst start in school history — Davie's fate seemed sealed. Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White met with Davie shortly after the Irish were embarrassed by Texas A&M 24-3 and essentially told Davie his job status would be evaluated at the end of the season.
News of the impending evaluation leaked to the media, and the Davie Watch was on. Irish fans printed T-shirts with "Dump Davie" written across the back. He was booed during the 1812 Overture. Reporters grilled him at weekly press conferences. He stopped speaking at pep rallies.
But Davie didn't quit coaching and the Irish didn't quit playing. Notre Dame won its next three games against Pittsburgh, West Virginia and USC to even their record at 3-3 but dropped three of the final five games, beating only lowly Navy and Purdue and losing to Boston College, Tennessee and Stanford to finish the season 5-6, the second time in three years the Irish failed to break .500.
Players quickly pointed out that the losses weren't the coaches' fault. Quarterback Matt LoVecchio started the first two games of the season, but Carlyle Holiday took over as starter at the Texas A&M game. However, Holiday tended to win more games with his feet than his arm. By the end of the season, opposing defenses were focused on shutting down the option and daring the Irish to beat them in the air.
They couldn't. The offense couldn't execute the most basic plays and killed themselves with turnovers. After an atrocious game at Stanford where Holiday completed just 1-of-16 passes, offensive coordinator Kevin Rogers angrily said, "The kid couldn't throw the damn ball."
So when Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White announced Davie's firing less than 12 hours after the Irish beat Purdue, it was a remarkable turnaround for Davie, who's job seemed secure after White gave him a five-year contract extension in 2000.
But the extension was a mistake, White said.
"A year ago at this time, I believed that we had turned the corner under Bob and that we were prepared to reclaim our traditional standing among the nations' elite college programs," White said. "Today I can no longer say that."
White fired Davie on a Sunday, and by Monday he disappeared from view as he launched a massive coaching search. A week later, White returned to South Bend with former Georgia Tech head coach George O'Leary.
"I'm very happy to be at Notre Dame," O'Leary said. "I think the two best jobs in America are the head football coach of Notre Dame and the manager of the New York Yankees."
The fiery O'Leary was introduced at a public press conference where hundreds of T-shirts were printed with "By George, it's O'Leary" emblazoned on the front.
But his reign only lasted five days. A reporter from New Hampshire writing a story about O'Leary's college football days started a chain reaction of events that caused O'Leary's resignation after he admitted that he lied about obtaining a master's degree and playing football at New Hampshire. The shirts printed five days before stopped appearing on student's backs and started showing up on eBay.
The nightmarish resignation shocked the nation and sent White scurrying around the country again. This time, the search was slower and more cautious. While it took White only a week to hire O'Leary, it took him 16 days to hire Tyrone Willingham, the former Stanford head coach.
"This is an exciting moment," Willingham said on New Year's Day, the day he was formally announced as Irish head coach. "It is a moment that you often go back in your life and you try to figure out what has brought you to this moment."
Now Willingham faces the challenge of trying to resurrect an Irish program that hasn't won a national championship since 1988. But his straightforward, no-nonsense attitude and West Coast offense already has Irish fans excited.
However, Willingham doesn't spend too much time thinking about what could happen. He's too busy trying to make things happen.
"I don't think," he said after one spring practice. "I just go."
All Sports Stories for Friday, May 17, 2002
