Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 NOV. 21, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED FAN FORUM not mean an 8-4 or 9-3 in 2017. It needs to be 10-2 or 11-1 at bare mini- mum. Go Irish! Ron Rabensteine Colfax, Ind. ENTERTAIN ME! Your excellent Rod West feature provided the latest lament on the loss of amateurism in college football. Mr. West's "The pivotal threshold issue that changed the landscape has been the economic consequences of success in football that threatens the sanctity of a university as the center- piece of amateurism," echoes Robert Hutchins of the University of Chicago in a 1947 issue of The Saturday Evening Post: "Of all the crimes committed by athleticism under the guise of athlet- ics, the most heinous is the confusion about the primary purpose of higher education. Even if it were true that athletics develop courage, prudence, tolerance and justice, the commercial- ism that characterizes amateur sport today would be sufficient to harden the purest young man. He is made to feel that his primary function in col- lege is to win football games." Our 24/7 commercial/entertain- ment driven society makes Samuel Johnson's definition of sport, "Tu- multuous Fun" a cruel joke. These games, especially the recent North Carolina State game, appear to be played primarily for the commercials. Meanwhile, in "Amusing Our- selves to Death," Neil Postman wrote: "Our politics, religion, news, ath- letics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial ad- juncts of show business, largely with- out protest or even much popular no- tice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death." The only difference between the 2016 Irish football season and the Ti- tanic is Notre Dame has a better band. Sad, but true. Matt Hart Trenton, Mich. FROM THE WEBSITE After Notre Dame's 28-27 loss to Navy that dropped it to 3-6, many Notre Dame fans on our BlueandGold.com site lamented that the greatest insult of all to them was that people who used to tease them or mock them now actually pity them and say nothing. Frustration and resignation were prevalent, with optimism about the future also sprinkled in. Here is a small sample in one of the threads. Chamgel: My phone generally blows up when Notre Dame loses, I didn't hear a peep Saturday — not even from my youngest brother who is in the Navy. Sums up where Notre Dame is at. Rockne1988: Since 1993- FOUR 10 wins seasons and ZERO big bowl wins! NDFaninMadTown: People used to argue that "Notre Dame is irrelevant." I laughed at them because they were arguing about it — but constantly talking about ND. Now we are officially irrelevant. The easiest schedule arguably in 50 years — and 3-6. All the while, the collars and Board of Trustees are asking for more and more from ticket holders for a product that is not remotely worth its asking price. ND025876: To be fair, the Board of Trustees "care" in that all things equal they would prefer a winning football team. But the restrictions they have established make it virtually impossible in the modern game. It's somewhat a vicious circle because a great coach might be able to overcome the restrictions — but a great coach is leery to come to ND be- cause of those restrictions. You need a coach who is both elite and loves ND. Not sure those are out there, and in years when we disappear, more and more of the passion that drives our program flattens. NDCorby: Even if ND hired Urban Meyer or a coach of that caliber, we can't really be sure he'd have the success he is having at OSU, because he wouldn't have the unfettered ability to run things as he sees fit like he does at OSU. I believe this is a huge reason why he turned us down in 2004. I certainly believe Brian Kelly moved the program forward, just as Charlie Weis did from Ty. But how much have these incremental steps closed the gap to building a true "program," as Lou Somogyi talks about? My answer would have been much different in August. This season has been unsettling. That said, I refuse to believe ND has topped out where it is now. I don't believe we can ever achieve what Nick Saban has built at Alabama (arguably the greatest dynasty in college football history). But we can surely become a perennial 10-win team with a playoff appearance every 3-5 seasons, with- out changing how ND values its players' academic experience. That's why with Kelly's failure I am now genuinely worried if it isn't just the coach, but Notre Dame that is the root of our struggles for over two decades. I don't think Kelly is a bad coach, but things sure have gone badly for him here. I think ND bigwigs realize it's impossible to win like the upper crust in today's climate. BGIUser2232: At the beginning of the season, Notre Dame brought more fans into Austin, Texas, than any team in history. Nobody cares about us at the moment. If you want to make anything more of it than that, you don't understand history. Tommy1380: While we certainly aren't 34-45 like 1956-63, continuously going 8-5 is not much different as far as relevance goes. 8-5 teams are a dime a dozen. The longer we sit in that "decent" pool, the more the per- ception will be that that's who we are, and the harder it will be to climb out of it. BGIUser 756: And yet, only a handful of other teams have made it to the national title game in the last five years. And only two handfuls have man- aged 8+ wins per season on the same timeframe. I think Brian Kelly knows he missed the window last year because of such. And now he's coaching scared because he gave Brian VanGorder way more consideration than he deserved, helping this year start off bad. Septon34: History doesn't apply because Notre Dame (prior to the pres- ent period of mediocrity) never before had a 25-year period where the team was elite (top 5) for one year. The New York Yankees stunk from 1965-75, but that is their longest period of futility. Has a blue-blood college program, other than Notre Dame cur- rently, ever had a 23-year period like now in which it finished in the top 10 two times (2005 and 2012)? Whether its Kelly or another coach, I don't see many top-10 finishes in the future. It's very depressing. BettisND: In the immortal words of Ara Parseghian "from these ashes the phoenix shall rise again." Book it! 60 NOV. 7, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? BY LOU SOMOGYI Thirty years ago, New Orleans' Brother Martin High School produced two of the premier student-athletes of their time, or any time. Outside linebacker Rod West was named one of the nation's top 100 high school football prospects by Sporting News, while defensive end Warde Manuel earned first-team All-America notice in the high school ranks. Shortly after their Sunday-Monday visit to the Notre Dame campus, they were told, heading to their Tuesday morning class, that Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler awaited them in the football office at Brother Martin. "I walked left to go to 8 o'clock phys- ics class, and he turns right to the foot- ball office," recalled West this October. "I didn't see Warde for two days — and the next time I see him he's wear- ing a Michigan sweatshirt." Manuel flipped to the Wolverines, where this January he was named its athletics director. Meanwhile, West re- mained with the Irish, even though he was a little bored with first-year head coach Lou Holtz's magic tricks during an in-home visit. Holtz was hired as the Messiah Coach two months earlier after Notre Dame struggled to a 30-26-1 mark the previous five years and ended 1985 with a 58-7 loss at Miami to finish 5-6 and with a three-game losing streak. When Holtz saw he wasn't making an impression on the brilliant scholar West — who was seriously contem- plating enrolling at West Point — he went into his oration that West recites verbatim to this day. "Rod West, I'll give it to you straight," Holtz said. "You come to Notre Dame and you'll get a world- class education and be part of the turnaround of America's most storied football tradition. Or your ass can go somewhere else and you can watch it happen on television and regret it for the rest of your damned life." Such salesmanship kept West in the fold and set him up for what already has been an extraordinary life, includ- ing getting named to Notre Dame's Board of Trustees in May 2009 — where he joined his host on that 1986 trip, 1987 captain and fellow business/ community titan Byron Spruell. TRIUMPH & TRAGEDY The start of West's journey began in the summer of 1986 when he enrolled at Notre Dame in an enrichment pro- gram for incoming minority students who had declared an intention for the engineering program. "Because I was a student-athlete, Notre Dame offering that benefit to me was against the rules and considered an 'extra benefit,'" West said. "We self-reported it and I had to do community service hours." Those service hours included being a Spanish and sign language interpreter for the Panamanian delegation at the International Special Olympics held at Notre Dame in the summer of 1987. Imagine that? Being penalized for being an actual student. As Holtz promised, Notre Dame rose to the summit, producing a national ti- tle in 1988 and a school-record 23-game winning streak in 1989. West switched to tight end after his sophomore year and became a top blocker there and as an H-back/fullback, playing for the national champs and earning his third monogram as a senior in 1989. Although West was invited back for a fifth season in 1990, he opted to attend Law School at Tulane, and by 1996 he became president of Notre Dame's national alumni board, the first African-American to hold that post and the youngest overall by nearly two decades. Content with his law career, West said his life changed on April 20, 1998, when his father, Felton, who played at Grambling under coach Eddie Rob- inson, was electrocuted at age 49 in a backyard accident. West joined Entergy Corporation as senior regulatory counsel in April 1999, and on Aug. 13, 2005, he gradu- ated from Tulane's MBA program. Two weeks later his native New Orleans was ground zero after Hurricane Ka- trina, one of the worst natural disasters in American history, put 100 percent of the city's electrical grid out of service and put 80 percent of the city under water, forcing the evacuation of about 85 percent of its population. At that time West was serving as manager of the metro New Orleans region with responsibility for the city's electric infrastructure. "What helped me guide myself and others through it were all the lessons I learned at Notre Dame — and I've told that to Coach Holtz and I've told that to former players," said West, who had to change his engineering major during his time because he couldn't devote the time he wanted to it. "There is something about having worn a hel- met, gone through two-a-days, having played competitive sports. "That part of you, that reservoir that you don't know exists — until you've been forced to go there — I knew that I had it in me to make it through the calamity. "I didn't know how. I knew how to lead, and I knew what I knew and knew what I didn't know. So I sur- rounded myself with people who knew what I didn't know. "We were able to put together a game plan, like a football game. What are the strengths and weaknesses? What's the objective, short-term, long- term? You break the game up into pos- sessions, into quarters …" After ensuring the safety of his workforce, many of whom lost homes to the storm, West and his team over- saw a $250 million reconstruction. In 2007, as president and chief exec- utive officer of Entergy New Orleans, West led the organization out of Rod West, 1986-89 Tight End/Outside Linebacker West, shown with daughter Simone, was named to Notre Dame's Board of Trustees in May 2009. PHOTO COURTESY WEST The Notre Dame Board of Trustees member has distinguished himself in various fields