Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/616353
THE FIFTH QUARTER LOU SOMOGYI D u r i n g t h e C h r i s t m a s season, the 1946 movie "It's A Won- derful Life" is an annual television staple. The story revolves around an opportunity of an individual con- templating suicide to see what life would have been like had he not ex- isted. F o r m a n y a Notre Dame foot- ball faithful, if he had one chance to look back on the past 20 years and ask "what if," it's this: What if Urban Meyer would have accepted the Notre Dame head coach- ing post in Decem- ber 2004? W h e n Ty r o n e Willingham was fired after only three years on Nov. 30, 2004, there were at least three rea- sons. One was the worst recruiting in school history in 2004 and 2005 (which would be manifested in the 3-9 sea- son in 2007 when those recruits would be juniors and seniors). Second was an unprecedented amount of blowout losses while going 11-14 in his last 25 games (eight of the defeats were by 22 points or more). A n d p e r h a p s above all, the next superstar in coach- ing, Utah's 40-year- old Meyer, was in waiting as the next Notre Dame leg- end, and the Irish could no longer d i l l y - d a l l y w i t h their typical "give it five years" man- tra. They had to have a sense of ur- gency and jettison Willingham. It had become w e l l p u b l i c i z e d that just like Frank Leahy at Boston College in 1939- 40 and Lou Holtz at Minnesota in 1984-85, Meyer had the "Notre Dame clause" in his contract. Meyer, an Irish assistant from 1996- 2000, had just led Utah to a 12-0 ledger and top-five finish, just like Leahy had guided Boston College to an 11-0 mark in his second year. What If Urban Meyer Had Become Coach In '04? Meyer was a Notre Dame assistant from 1996- 2000 and once seemed destined to be the head coach of the Irish. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL