**Quick Note: This is part 5 of the week-long series that covers the forgotten powerhouses of college football. On Monday, we covered the "Da U" aka the Miami Hurricanes, Tuesday we covered "Big Blue" aka Michigan, Wednesday's story was on Florida State, Thursday wall about "The Big Red Machine" aka Nebraska. In today's finale we focus on the powerhouse of all powerhouses, once-mighty Notre Dame. -Ed.**
The title of this post should really say it all, but for some of you young boys out there then know this...at no point in the history of college football, has there ever been a more dominant college football team in the land than the team in South Bend, Indiana. That team, is Notre Dame. Notre Dame is the Yankees, Celtics, or Packers, of this thing we call college football. That in being the historical lynchpin of powerhouses. I honestly don't have enough time in the day to go through the prolific history that Notre Dame has, but I can give you a couple.
The Fighting Irish have won the most consensus national championships (11) and produced more All-Americans (176) than any other Football Bowl Subdivision school. In addition, seven Fighting Irish football players have won the Heisman Trophy.
Yep, The Irish were pretty good.
However, lets be clear...I said were, pretty good.
Notre Dame hasn't had a skill position 1st-round draft pick out of their program in over 15 years...and for a program that had players like Joe Theismann, Joe Montana, Tim Brown, Jerome Bettis, and Rocket Ismail coming out of ND...
That's a big deal. Especially when every kid in America has dreams of playing in the NFL. Fact of the matter is, the only reason Notre Dame is relevant is because the media MAKES them relevant. They haven't been good our father Lou Holtz was coaching over 20 years ago, the years they have been decent have been sporadic as former coach Tyrone Willingham pieced together a 10-2 rookie season with yarn, barbwire, chicken string, and scotch tape. Everything went downhill from there. Then Charlie Weis came in and put together a couple of good seasons with Willingham's recruiting and went 19-5 in his first two seasons, in his last two seasons he's went 9-15. So what do we make of Notre Dame? They've quietly got some killers in the league that fell in the later rounds...Justin Tuck, Ryan Grant, Julius Jones, Bertrand Berry, John Carlson, and the ever mercurial Brady Quinn are sitting nice on some rosters right now, so they are still getting talent...but are they capable enough to really be a powerhouse again?
I personally have never liked Notre Dame my entire life, but I swear more than Miami, FSU, USC, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Texas, Florida, Nebraska, Penn State...any team you can name out there in college football, EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE WORLD has an opinion on Notre Dame. Go ask your co-worker, your mama, your best friend, your child, girlfriend, ask anyone about how they feel about Notre Dame and I guarantee they will have something to say. Doesn't matter if its hate in their blood or pure love, the feelings will be there. What are people's feelings about ND in '09?
We're about to find out in 2 weeks....
DO YOU ALL REALLY MISS NOTRE DAME? CAN THEY TURN IT AROUND? WHAT MUST THEY DO?
-Ed.
http://www.edthesportsfan.com/
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Comments
12 Responses to "Its A Damn Shame What Happened To Notre Dame..."Even as an Ohioan and natural OSU fan my favorite team is Notre Dame. I am not ashamed to admit that. The only reason I started playing football at age 8 was to earn a chance to one day wear a golden helmet and walk out of the tunnel, score a TD and point to touch down Jesus. I still think Lou Holtz is the best college coach ever despite his troubles at South Carolina. And Yes! "Rudy" is the best football movie ever.
The Irish are well below par right now, but they will be back.
My only explanation of why they have perform poorly makes sense...they are the only major D1 program that requires high school calculus for all incoming students. They refuse to lower their admission standards for anyone even a blue chip football player that could save the program and bring back the glory days. If you ask me college football could use more programs like ND.
I have any opinion about their situation. The BCS contract needs to be re-written and force ND to join a conference like everyone else.
Playing a few good teams amidst a schedule sweeter than Lil Richard in Dupont Circle during Free Ice Cream day does not a powerhouse make.
No disrespect to Notre Dame, but fuck Notre Dame. They have everything they need (strong reputation, TV contract, former players and alumni), but still suck. I don't understand how they can't recruit; don't get it whatsoever. Don't understand why they can't win. They're independent; isn't that supposed to be in their favor? I feel the same way about them that Stephen A. Smith feels about Kwame Brown. God bless them, but it's the truth.
ND has the toughest schedule in all of college football. On any given year they will play Michigan, Michigan St, Purdue, and Florida St and dont forget USC.
Every great program has a down decade. For example, USC in the 90's other than a 1-2 yrs was garbage.
First off...eff Notre Dame
Secondly...Jeremy, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Thirdly the Irish won't be back, primarily for the reason JKS mentioned.
Really good high school athletes are bred to be college players. Really good college players are bred to go to the NFL. Trig and AP Literature don't fit in the equation...but they're all up in the Notre Dame program.
The other reason is that with the advent of ESPN, Fox News, Scouts Inc., NFL Network, etc. A lotta kids feel like they can go to regional schools and still have a shot at the league.
Back in the day, even before the t.v. deal, Notre Dame had their games broadcast on the radio across the country. So people just had this mystique about the place and all the names that came along with it. But with all the media coverage out there a kid can go to Central Florida, Miami of Ohio or Connecticut and have a chance to get heard about just like they could at ND.
Wow, Ed.
Good thing you got this post done before Jimmy Clausen, Dayne Crist, Armando Allen, Golden Tate, Michael Floyd, Kyle Rudolph, Shaquelle Evans, Manti Te'o, Darrin Walls, Brian Smith, and Ethan Johnson all get to the NFL, a good handful of whom will likely go in the first round.
Actually, since most of them have already produced results and are STILL not seniors yet (Clausen, Tate, Floyd, Walls, Smith, Rudolph), I take that back.
You still have another year or two to be wrong about this.
Keep it up -
@William First of all let me say this...BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Secondly...I'm going to need you to not act like this was a personal attack on Notre Dame, and also act like this current crop of Notre Dame recruits and players are any different than the players brought in in the last 15 years.
Go back and look at the rankings of top recruiting classes and Notre Dame is ALWAYS in the Top 10, period. So one of two things are happening, scouts are blind (possible) or Notre Dame's system is failing them.
I seriously don't believe any of the players you just named are going to be drafted in the first round. Not Claussen, not Golden Tate, none of 'em. Honestly, because I can name 15 other players that are better than them. Not saying they aren't good, I think Mike Floyd is the best player on ND, but Claussen don't hit him enough...so his value isn't as high as it should be.
So I'm not sure what the hell i'm WRONG about, if you think 9-15 in the last two seasons is good then go drink a double shot of bleach and call me in the morning, don't worry...I'll wait.
Notre Dame does have a record that I'm sure you'll love...
Notre Dame holds the longest bowl losing streak in NCAA history with NINE (9) consecutive loses. They broke this streak recently by beating Hawaii. No offense, but Hawaii? Really? LOL...
-Ed.
Actually, he's already wrong...
"Notre Dame hasn't had a skill position 1st-round draft pick out of their program in over 15 years..."
Does the name Brady Quinn ring a bell?
SoulOnlce........
I'm not sure how you can justify Notre Dame not being able to recruit. You say you don't get why they can't recruit?
Let's look at each years final recruiting rankings since Weis took over in 2005.
2005: Notre Dame ended up with what many say as their worst recruiting class ever. Thanks to no one else other then Tyrone. By the time Weis took over in 2005, recruiting was basically over. Recruiting was one main reason Willingham got canned. The dude just didn't do it. A big reason ND has lacked depth at every position. But I'll save that point for another time.
2006: ND finished 8 in recruiting.....
2007:ND finished 8 in recruiting again.....
2008:ND finished 2nd in recruiting......
2009:ND finished 20th in recruiting. Sure your going to say 20th isn't good but, after 3 solid years of recruiting the simple fact is, they didn't have that many positions to fill. Weis is going after only the positions where players are needed for depth. Don't miss the fact that they still finished in the top 25 in recruiting. Oh and they did sign the top defensive player in the country, you know his name, so I won't even write it for you. Even though the 2009 class ended up ranked lower than the others, it's a solid class with at least 5 feshman guaranteed to see some playing time this season.
They currently have 14 verbal commits for 2010, with 3 others close to commiting. I'm not positive but I think they're ranked 10th in recruiting for 2010, and I can guarantee you they finish in the top 5 this season in recruiting.
One last point. I can also guarantee you ND wins 10 games this season. I don't listen to anyone talk about a soft schedule either. Do a little research and break down their schedule. Trust me there's plenty of info/articles available on ND's 2010 schedule. The simple fact is ND is going to become relevant in College football again, and haters like you can't stand the thought of it. NCAA football starts in 8 days, let the hateing begin.....
Ed. No team in football is good without depth. Not just depth but solid depth. ND has that now and you'll see it this year. Jimmy Clausen will be better this year and so will the running game, thanks to depth. They also have one of the best recieving duos in college footba.....never mind, I'm not going to give you the reasons while they'll be good because everyone has been saying the same things for years now. How can you argue why a 7-6 team some how ends up in the preseason top 25 in both AP and coaches poll? Even Mark May the ultimate ND hater, couldn't deny that they can win 10 games this season. He hasent yet admitted it, but he wouldn't deny it either
A couple of things then I'm done lol...
I understand what the pundits are saying about Notre Dame, even my boy Mark May conceding that this might be a good year for ND, but I don't really give a damn. And truth be told, its a sad day for Notre Dame when they are excited that folks "THINK" they might win 10 games.
Notre Dame is the preeminent in college football. The expectation for ND should be "national championship" that's it. That's how it is at USC, OU, Texas, Florida, Ohio State, and any other team who is really laying it on the line.
10 wins? So you wanna be Rice? (10-3) BYU? (10-3) Tulsa? (11-3) Missouri? (10-4) Because if that's who you want to be then go kill yourself.
Also, ND does not have the softest schedule in the world, and if ND was ND back in '89...then their schedule would be cake. But this ain't the same ND...
Seriously, Nevada will be a problem...who knows what Michigan will look like in year 2...Sparty is always an intriguing team...USC, well that's a guaranteed L...Navy (8-5) had a better record than ND (7-6)...Pitt's no ho, UConn's no ho...so I would put my bottom dollar that ND doesn't win 10 games, i'm not hating, but its a tough schedule.
And I missed on Brady Quinn, I'm sorry I forgot about a highly touted QB who was pegged for a 1st-round talent who "slipped" to 22nd because GMs probably considered who Brady Quinn really was and what Cleveland's dealing with now...an average QB with a great physique (pause) who did well in college, but isn't a #1 QB in the NFL.
Sorry Notre Dame, but reevaluate and get back at me.
-Ed.
As much as I love seeing Notre Dame suffer; I just like it better when USC is beating a good Notre Dame team than San Jose State's big brother. I hope Claussen gets his helmet knocked off four times on October 17th.
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