Death by Hubris

The Notre Dame football drama has been thick for about two weeks but today it will come to an end. At 1pm Eastern, a press conference is scheduled to introduce Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly as the 17th coach of the program. This occurs after 5 years of failure (dare I say karma) under Charlie Weis to restore the luster of the golden helmet as a power in college football. Sadly, I think ND's slump into football mediocity was self imposed and it began with the firing of Tyrone Willingham. I was outraged that Willingham didn't get at least 5 years to get it together. At that time, ND seemed to be headed in the right direction and maybe they could get back to the promised land. But after a winning season, a season that didn't produce a national championship or a major bowl appearance, Willingham was let go prompting outrage among African-American's who felt he didn't get a fair shake considering coaches at ND with worse records were permitted to coach and finish their contract before they were released.

I grew up a ND fan, hey how can you be Catholic and not I thought! The 90's under Lou Holtz were a golden age for the golden domers, consistent winners, top 10 finishes and the 1989 national championship. And who could forget the epic battles against Miami, those were some great days! After Willingham was dismissed and ND went on a search for their "great white hope", I lost all interest in their program and watched with a bit of delight as Weis tried and failed to revive the program. Weis, a protege of Bill Parcells is all his former boss, arrogant and unapologetic. But I can say this about Parcells, he was a winner although you didn't like him very much.

But as conferences have grown, bowl alliances have changed so has the landscape of college football. ND continues to be an independent in football but aligning itself with the Big East for all other sports. Top that off with having an exclusive TV contract with NBC and you have all the makings of a program that continues to find ways to cut the oxygen off to it's dying legacy in college football. High School players these days can only take so much of hearing about the classic days of a program, they want to know what can you do for me now! ND continues to harp on their legacy and uses that as why they don't want to join a conference. Unfortnately in the age of "What have you done for me lately", it may be time with a new coach and a possible revival joining a conference may help to save the program from sinking to the depth of what the majority of programs view as success. That would be seasons of 7-5, 8-4. 9-3 etc. as opposed to 12-0 and national championships. I will watch today's press conference with keen interest and I hope Coach Kelly will have some success. Maybe he is what ND needs to get back onteh natinoal scene, he seems genuine and put Cincy (a basketball school) on the football map for the time being. I hope Cincy will not fall into obscurity, that does seem likely but only time will tell.