Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 NOV. 28, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED A little more than 20 years ago when Bob Davie was the defen- sive coordinator at Notre Dame and deemed one of the best up-and- coming head coach prospects in the nation, he would in casual conversa- tion share with local reporters what he would do as the boss of a football team. Atop the chart would be running some triple-option on offense, or at least a Power-I/option offshoot like Tom Osborne at Nebraska. It would especially fit into the identity of Notre Dame as a hard-hat, lunch-bucket, tough-minded, physi- cal operation. Like Nebraska back then, Notre Dame could combine the dread so many opponents have when facing a triple-option team such as Navy with much more elite-level athletes the Irish could recruit. Yet when Davie did become the head coach at Notre Dame in 1997, it never quite materialized, partly out of fear of perception. He saw the same in predecessor Lou Holtz. Deep down, Holtz wanted to continue the Power-I/option look he had with quarterback Tony Rice during the 23-game winning streak in 1988-89, when the Irish would average about 10-15 passes per game. But he also felt he had to modernize to land top national quarterbacks/passers such as Rick Mirer in 1989 and Ron Pow- lus in 1993. Davie had some success, but was fired after the 2001 season, and didn't get back into coaching until taking over the nation's laughingstock New Mexico Lobos in 2012. They had been placed on probation in 2008 and ex- perienced three straight 1-11 seasons when Davie arrived. Last year, Davie from the ground up turned New Mexico into a bowl team, highlighted by an upset of Boise State. This year during a 7-3 start his New Mexico squad led the nation in rushing — running the tri- ple option. The now 62-year-old Davie can better recognize why previous head coaching success was/is so vital at Notre Dame. "I would never have admitted that at the time, but there is some truth to it," Davie told Greg Couch of Bleacher Report. "You have to be able to tell people, 'Here's how we should do it.' And the only way you get that kind of confidence is to have done it before. "It's fun, all the speaking things at Notre Dame and all the pep ral- lies and the luncheons; I spent so much time trying to prepare for those things. You're doing things no other coach in the country is doing. I can't spend two, three hours preparing what I'm going to say at a pep rally. "… I probably paralyzed myself at Notre Dame by overthinking things and over-calculating things. I knew there were things that had to be done differently, but I didn't have the con- fidence then to say, 'Listen, here's what we have to do to win.'" When new athletics director Kevin White arrived in 2000, he asked Da- vie to list 10 things needed to raise the football program back to the top. Davie replied with matters such as facilities, training table for the play- ers, salaries … all that have been in- corporated since his ouster. Now in his seventh season, Brian Kelly has been the beneficiary to some degree of a far greater overall commitment to the operation, but a 4-6 start this season has the masses perplexed. One has to wonder if he too sometimes paralyzes himself by overthinking. Some of it goes back again to not possessing the physical, productive ground attack that defines most pre- mier programs. In the two seasons under Kelly when Notre Dame sim- plified and committed to a strong ground game that averaged more than 200 yards rushing per contest, the Irish were 22-2 during the regular season. When it has been in the 130- to 160-yard range while lacking the program-like physicality, it has been more in the 7-5, 8-4 mode. Now, it's hardly as ridiculously simplistic as that, because so much more goes into the making of a football program. But the inability to establish a consis- tent physical mentality/identity has been a bane in Notre Dame football since the turn of the century. We thought Notre Dame was on its way after committing to that physical style in the 31-28 Music City Bowl win versus LSU while rushing for 263 yards. "It's the way Notre Dame should play football every Saturday," Notre Dame associate head coach Mike Denbrock said that spring. "Line up, physicality, leaning on the big boys up front to create space for the run- ning backs and getting the ball in space to some skilled receivers. … Playing sound, fundamental football. When I think of Notre Dame football, that's what I think of and that's really what we're trying to get to. "… We definitely want to enter ev- ery week and every game with the mentality that we're going to physi- cally take the fight to our opponent and we're going to match ourselves up and see what good can come of it." Hopefully, it won't take another 15 years like it did with Davie. ✦ Years Later, Bob Davie Runs With His Vision THE FIFTH QUARTER LOU SOMOGYI Senior Editor Lou Somogyi has been at Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 1985. He can be reached at lsomogyi@blueandgold.com Davie's experience at Notre Dame — where he went 35-25 as a head coach — has helped him with his current job at New Mexico. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS