Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/476884
BY LOU SOMOGYI N ormally, the football coach- ing résumés that Todd Lyght and Autry Denson submitted to Notre Dame this winter would be tossed into the "more experience needed" file. Neither has more than six years on the coaching circuit. They have a com- bined one year as non-intern, on-field assistants at the Football Bowl Subdi- vision level, and that was by Denson last year at Miami (Ohio) of the Mid- American Conference. Vanderbilt hired Lyght this January as its cornerbacks coach, but when the opportunity to coach at Notre Dame surfaced, he couldn't bypass it. Likewise, in January, Denson ac- cepted an offer to coach at the Univer- sity of South Florida, where he is from and where his wife graduated, but he too couldn't leave the call of his alma mater behind. They are the walking billboards of everything the University of Notre Dame espouses, and it was that "Notre Dame experience" that became an overriding factor in head coach Brian Kelly's decision to hire them. In Notre Dame's illustrious football history, 1987-90 cornerback Lyght is A HEROES' WELCOME Former stars Todd Lyght and Autry Denson join Irish coaching staff Lyght, who won a national championship in South Bend and is one of only 16 Irish players to be named a consensus two-time All-American, was tabbed as Notre Dame's defensive backs coach because he embodies what the university is all about. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND