Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME CHARLEY MOLNAR NAMED HEAD COACH AT UMASS Notre Dame offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Charley Molnar was hired Dec. 8 to be the head coach of the Massachusetts Minutemen, but he will continue working with the Irish through the Dec. 29 Champs Sports Bowl. "I worked with [current Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly] for six years and this will be our sixth bowl game together," Molnar said at his introductory press con- ference at UMass. "I learned some real things from Coach Kelly in terms of organiza- tion, motivation and things that he looks for." A candidate for the head coaching position at Temple last year before the Owls chose former Notre Dame offensive line coach Steve Addazio (1999-2001), the 50-year-old Molnar succeeds Kevin Morris at UMass. Mor- ris was fired Nov. 21 after a three-year record of 16-17, including a disappointing 5-6 this past season, the last for the school in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Next year will be the first for UMass in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), where it will be a member of the Mid-American Confer- ence. Molnar has been an as- Molnar will finish his career at Notre Dame and his even longer tenure as a Brian Kelly assistant at the Champs Sports Bowl before leaving to be the head coach UMass next season. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND sistant for Kelly since 2006, when he joined his staff at Central Michigan as the quarterbacks and wide re- ceivers coach. He then held a similar post with Kelly at Cincinnati (2007-09), adding the title of passing game coordinator during that stint. Over his 29 seasons, Molnar has spent 12 years as an offensive coordinator and has coached quarterbacks for 18 seasons. Kelly said that if Notre Dame is to rank among the elite football programs on the field again, it will need to get used to having other schools hiring his assistants for head coaching spots. "I like my coaches a lot, and it doesn't surprise me that other programs would like my guys too." Kelly said. "We remind our recruits why they chose Notre Dame. You don't choose it for Brian Kelly. You don't choose it just for one particular coach. You choose Notre Dame for all of our distinctions." Although Kelly is the play caller for the Irish, he worked in close conjunction with Molnar in the offense's structure. Who will replace Molnar for the 2012 campaign is uncertain, although current offensive line coach/running game coordinator Ed Warinner might be promoted from within while someone else might be hired to coach just the quarterbacks. Or Kelly could also reshuffle assignments on the staff, as he did his first two seasons. Another Notre Dame assistant, wide receivers coach Tony Alford, had been mentioned as a candidate for the vacated head coaching position at Colorado State, where he was a star running back during his playing career from 1987-90. However, on Dec. 13 CSU hired Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain. 10 JANUARY 2012 Head Of The Classroom On Dec. 5, the NCAA re- leased a study on the Gradu- ation Success Rates (GSR) among the 70 football teams that will be playing in bowl games this season. The primary author of the study was Dr. Richard Lap- chick, a professor at the Uni- versity of Central Florida. He also is the director of both the National Consortium for Academics and Sports and the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. "Notre Dame and North- western would have played for the national champion- ship if there was a national championship game for Graduation Success Rate among bowl teams," Lap- chick said. "Both teams graduated at least 94 percent of all football student-ath- letes and at least 92 percent of African-American football student-athletes. "Notre Dame graduated 100 percent of their African- American football student- athletes." The bottom 10 gradua- tion rates among the 70 bowl teams were Florida Interna- tional (43), Oklahoma (48), Cal (54), Georgia Tech and South Carolina (55), and Ar- kansas, Florida State, Louisi- ana-Lafayette, North Carolina State and San Diego State (56). RATES FOR FOOTBALL A STUDENT-ATHLETES TOP 10 GRADUATION Rk. School MONG BOWL TEAMS Graduation Rate 1. Notre Dame 2. Northwestern 3. Rutgers 4. Penn State 5. Stanford 6. Vanderbilt 7. Air Force 8. Iowa 9. Wake Forest 10. Cincinnati Virginia Tech 97 percent 94 percent 89 percent 87 percent 87 percent 86 percent 84 percent 83 percent 81 percent 79 percent 79 percent BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED