FOOTBALL: Lockwood faces divided loyalties
ANDREW SOUKUP
Associate Sports Editor
He played for West Virginia. He coached for West Virginia.
And now Notre Dame cornerbacks coach David Lockwood is getting ready to coach against West Virginia.
"It is unusual," he said. "It is my alma mater, and now I'm going to play against them. It's going to be a little funny."
Lockwood came to Notre Dame after spending the 2000 season as West Virginia's secondary coach. He was intimately involved in the recruiting process for West Virginia last year and knows the tendencies of certain players — something he believes might help the Irish a little bit.
"I don't know everything in the world," he said. "But if one of them asks about a kid, I try to answer it."
Lockwood got into coaching immediately after he finished his collegiate career at West Virginia. In 1989, he stayed with the Mountaineers as a graduate assistant. He spend the next five years at Delaware and James Madison coaching tight ends and receivers. In 1995, Lockwood went to Memphis to coach the secondary. After a one-year stint back at West Virginia, he came to Notre Dame.
"I really like David," Notre Dame head coach Bob Davie said. "I think he brings a background of having been an excellent player himself. I think that's really important, particularly at positions like corner and wide receiver. There's an awful lot of nuances that they can coach."
Lockwood just wasn't any normal college player — he played four years for West Virginia, concluding his career against Notre Dame in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl playing for the national championship.
Although the top-ranked Irish had no problem beating the No. 3 Mountaineers 34-21, Lockwood said he still treasures the opportunity to play for a national championship.
"I get reminded of that loss every day," he said. "Some people say that, they tease me, I don't look at it that way. I look at it as, `I had an opportunity'. Not many people in this profession can say that they had the opportunity to play for a national championship."
Now, only 13 years out of college, Lockwood still remembers the fine details of playing cornerback. And he's still a pretty good player. During a practice before the Michigan State game, Davie surprised Lockwood by giving him a chance to show off.
"I had heard so much about this guy being a great player, that guy being a great player, I got our whole team lined up on the sidelines and put David in man-to-man coverage, bump-and-run, on [wide recievers coach] Joker Phillips," Davie said.
Phillips took off down the field, and then cut to the corner route. But Lockwood stayed with him and, when the pass came, knocked it.
"He snuffed him out," Davie said. "Just snuffed him out."
"I lucked out," Lockwood laughed. "He got up there, lined up and ran the right route. I guessed right. He went easy on me, he didn't take me deep."
That's where Lockwood earns his respect — by showing he can still play and
that he can do anything he asks his players to do.
"He brings a relaxed attitude and he is someone who played the position as well," said cornerback Shane Walton. "We respect him for his ability. He knows what he's talking about."
Come Saturday, Lockwood has no question where his loyalties will lie. He nearly won a national championship for West Virginia. He helped recruit a quarter of this year's Mountaineer squad. But now he's coaching for the Irish.
"It'll be weird," he said. "It's not just me, again, I root for WV every game except this one. This is the only one where I root against them."
All Sports Stories for Thursday, October 11, 2001
