Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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many schools have been in the na- tional championship game the past five years?" (The answer is seven, and only 10 the last nine years.) Swarbrick said his benchmark of success begins with the experience of the student-athlete while aspiring to- ward the national title. "We can be 12-0 and if the experi- ence of our student-athletes wasn't what Notre Dame wants it to be, that would make the decision easy," Swarbrick said. "How are we doing in reflecting the values of NCAA compliance? Have we got all the elements of the program built and operating to help support competitive success? It's a much fuller analysis than what did last season bring." When Swarbrick was on the field during the 2009 Alabama-Texas na- tional title game, he said it was sober- ing to view up close the difference in personnel those two programs had, es- pecially physically and in depth, com- pared to Notre Dame, when it finished 6-6 that year under then head coach Charlie Weis. Three years later, Notre Dame was the one vying for the national title, but even then Swarbrick said it was more a case of being ahead of schedule than fully arriving as a consistent con- tender. Now, the elements are much more in place overall. "The coaches are bringing in top student-athletes into the program an- nually, and I think it's in real good shape," Swarbrick said. "Our sup- port of those students and preparing them to play is really good. I couldn't be more comfortable and am certain that we can match up in physical at- tributes." He does have a couple of caveats. "I think we will, from time to time, run into depth issues because of the nature of the place," Swarbrick said. "That's inevitable. We can't bring in a ton of walk-ons for more depth. There's depth and then there's depth. How you build and maintain quality depth is always critical. "We can't manage our schedule al- ways as we'd like. Our schedule is going to be more physically demand- ing than almost anybody's schedule in the country. That's okay and we understand that, but that can have a consequence on your depth. Under head coaches Bob Davie (1997-2001), Tyrone Willingham (2002- 04) and Weis (2005-09), Notre Dame averaged exactly seven wins per year. With Kelly, it's been upped to nine, but … "Those numbers are irrelevant to me," Swarbrick said. "It is a program now that can compete for a national championship. Injuries, though, can give you a year where you're not go- ing to come close to that [like in 2014 after a 6-0 start]. "What I'm concerned about is what does the program look like? Are we bringing in sufficient talent and intelli- gent people that can compete for a na- tional championship? Are we support- ing them in medical services, sports science, strength and conditioning so they can win a national champion- ship? Are we coaching them that they can win a national championship? I'm very comfortable in all those scores that we are.