Friday, November 30, 2001
Irish football takes the fight out of a coach
By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service
The old Notre Dame coach was calling from his car phone, talking of the days when he felt the blast furnace that Bob Davie feels now.
“No one knows what it's like until you sit in that chair,” Gerry Faust was saying. “You have a love for the place. You understand what is expected, and when it doesn't happen, you put pressure on yourself. I don't care if you say you don't, you do.
“It was tough on me. I showed it a lot. But hopefully it never got me down to the point I didn't do the right things, and I think Bob is doing the right things now.”
Faust lasted five years at Notre Dame, went 30-26-1, then politely was told it was time to go.
Now there's another coach finishing his fifth season, with a 34-25 record. Not nearly good enough.
So the critics howl, and the talk shows boil, and the rumors fly about who will take his place.
Driving somewhere in Ohio, Faust, who came to the Irish after a successful high school coaching career at Moeller, could understand.
“Every coach has gone through it. There's always a point at Notre Dame when the pressure is on you. ... The Notre Dame people are super people. They're just competitive, and you have to understand that.
“People ask — Lou (Holtz) and I have talked about this — how to explain the mystique of coaching at Notre Dame. Lou never could, and I can't either.”
The feeding frenzy on a wounded coach can reach absurdity, never more than at Notre Dame.
The place may be storied and beautiful, but there is a toxic edge to its job of football coach, which must be a reason why no one since Knute Rockne has lasted more than 11 seasons there.
Penn State can have its Paterno, Florida State its Bowden, Nebraska its Osborne, Michigan its Schembechler. But nobody lasts that long at Notre Dame.
The Irish went 9-3 last year, played in a BCS bowl and have a stellar graduation rate.
“I think there's a big picture,” Davie said. But that's wishful thinking, and he knows it.
“I understand that everything comes down in the end to win-loss record.”
Holtz once warned Davie of this job: “About 51 percent are for you, and 49 percent are against you.”
Those are the best of times. Facing a bowl-less, losing season with a 4-6 record, Bob Davie should be so lucky.
Want to hear a man bleed?
Davie on Tuesday: “If you sit around and you spend a bunch of time feeling sorry for yourself, then I think everything starts to crumble around you. ... So I've tried to isolate myself from all the negative. At times, it is a lonely spot.”
And this: “If you are going to step in the ring, you're going to get knocked down. ... You'd better get off the ground, or you're going to be laying on the ground a long time.”
And this: “I don't know that anybody is going to come in here and just have the fans jumping up and down each and every week. I don't know if that guy exists. If he did, his name was Knute, or one of those statues outside my office.”
Sounds like a man who now knows the perils of his position. Understands they may get him very soon, and his five-year contract is useless.
I don't know if he can coach or not, but it is sad, what can happen to a man at Notre Dame.
“Some things you can't control,” Faust said. “I tried to handle them with grace.”
The toughest test for a coach may not be getting the Notre Dame job. It may be knowing how to act losing it.
Mike Lopresti is a columnist for Gannett News Service.
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