Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/408565
FAN FORUM UNEVEN RANKING After nearly 30 years of Blue & Gold Illustrated subscriptions, I found a typo. You listed coaches Brian Kelly and Ken Niumatalolo as "even." Must be a mis- take. His résumé reads "my teams played Notre Dame tough most years" and not much more. If they are even should he be considered for the Notre Dame job when Kelly jumps to the NFL? Tony Ardizzone Indianapolis Mr. Ardizzone, we rate coaches not necessarily by records but more so by the "Parable of the Talents." Some are blessed to have more talent at their disposal, but don't always maximize it. Some are given smaller resources but make the most of it, and beyond. Kelly did that at Cincinnati the way Niumatalolo is doing it at Navy, averaging eight or nine wins every year. That's a laudable feat. For what Niumatalolo has, he does prob- ably as good a job as any coach in the coun- try can do at a service academy. Look at Bobby Ross. He won a share of a national title at Georgia Tech in 1990, went to a Super Bowl — but then was 9-25 at Army from 2004-06. Ara Parseghian was "only" 36-35-1 at Northwestern, but we think that might be even more impressive than his 95-17-4 at Notre Dame. Woody Hayes had a much better record at Ohio State than Parseghian at Northwestern, but did that make him a better coach? Lou Holtz was 13-20 at William & Mary, but people loved how competitive his teams were, which is what got him bigger jobs. Niumatalolo would not be hired to suc- ceed Kelly because top programs don't want to hire triple-option coaches for fear of not recruiting top passers or receivers in to- day's pass-oriented attacks that premier prospects gravitate toward. But he is an ideal coaching fit at Navy. BE HEARD! Send your letters to: Blue & Gold Illustrated P. O. Box 1007 Notre Dame, IN 46556 or e-mail to: lsomogyi@blueandgold.com FROM THE WEBSITE The dominant theme the week of the Navy game was the College Football Playoff selection committee releasing its first rankings Oct. 28 and the need for Notre Dame to "lobby" for a higher ranking. Many board members provided better perspective. Coachcft: There should be more threads fo- cused on our team and our concerns about how to get through our opponents. Arizona State and Todd Graham provide us with our biggest threat, with either USC or Louisville a close second. JMJGramps: Just getting through November will be a trial in itself. MonteCristo: If we take care of business, good things will happen on their own without all these playoff algorithms. GoIrish1234: Remember in 2012 when ev- eryone was freaking out about how Notre Dame was going to miss out on the title game because Oregon, Kansas State and Alabama were going to finish unbeaten? How did that play out?