Is Notre Dame Finished Being the National Powerhouse They Were?
Written by: O
College football is a little more than a month away and the excitement is building for the beginning of a new season. Many questions are being asked and many predictions are being made. A big question that has been going around is the state of Notre Dame football, clearly the most popular college football program this country has ever known. No other program has a network that just covers their home games exclusively and you can probably add up all of the movies that have been made about Notre Dame football and it would surpass all of the other college football movies combined. There used to be magic in Notre Dame football, but lately, the Fighting Irish have found themselves becoming a most distasteful term, “a has-been.”
When you list the accomplishments of Notre Dame football, it usually takes a while before you can finish them, even if you condense them. Notre Dame has won 8 “wire” (AP or coaches) national championships, although they credit themselves with 11 and have no problem letting anyone know that they were voted “national champion” by at least one sector 9 other times. They have had 12 undefeated seasons and 6 of their players have won the Heisman Trophy as well. Notre Dame has had the most All-Americans and after USC, the Fighting Irish has had the most NFL players and NFL Hall of Famers. The Fighting Irish also has the 2nd-highest winning percentage, .744, along with dozens of mind-boggling records. How could anyone think the football program is in trouble with numbers such as these?
Lately, the Notre Dame football program has fallen on tough times, especially for a program so used to success. Since 1980, Notre Dame has won one national championship in 1988 and one Heisman Trophy winner in Tim Brown in 1987. This was during the Lou Holtz era, the last Notre Dame coach to have big-time success there. Since then, Notre Dame has mostly been known for what they are no longer and that is a dominant program. The Fighting Irish have lost nine consecutive bowl games since 1994 and all but two of them were by two touchdowns or more. Last year, Notre Dame had an awful season going 3-9. This was Notre Dame’s fourth losing season since 1999 and they have only had 13 losing seasons ever at Notre Dame. Ironically, as bad as they were, it was the first time since 1992 that Notre Dame ended the season with two straight wins.
With the disappointing season last year, many predict that Notre Dame will be a much-improved team in 2008. Most still believe that Charlie Weis is still the right coach and the fact that last year’s team started nine true freshmen at some point gives Fighting Irish fans hope that better play is on the way. The question is how much better? Are the days of the dominant Notre Dame teams over or have they just disappeared for a while?
July 16th, 2008 at 11:24 am
This really pains me. Being originally from Indiana, Notre Dame football is what college football is all about. Touchdown Jesus, the Golden Domers and Rudy are just the beginning of the whole thing.
I think Charlie Weiss should be fired! The only time he won was with Ty Willingham’s players. Willingham wasn’t good enough to be the coach, but he brought in the players Weiss won with. We will wait to see what Weiss can do in the coming years, but it is costing a lot.
July 16th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
nd is not done, they just need the right coach and some good players and stop playin the toughest schedule in all of college football. weis is not the man.
May 6th, 2010 at 2:19 am
I’ve been out of the loop with football to much time. I loved it as a young child, becoming an adult. Being from Texas, it had been always the Cowboys. Back then, the heroes were Roger Staubach and Tom Landry. Later, after moving to California, I found myself occasionally rooting for John Brodie of the 49ers, but it was always Cowboys once the two came head-to-head. At this point, I’m retired. The demands of output deadlines, personal campaigns and endless errands have diminished. And I wax nostalgically for the gridiron and the pleasure of the contest. Yes, I’m going to be watching so much more football. You may bet on it.