INSIDE THE MEDIA HATCHET JOB ON ND

by Scott Michael Edwards

News flash: Notre Dame has sold its soul for football glory... again.

Yawn.

Sound familiar? It should.

Throughout history the media (heretofore defined as mob media mentality) has consistently bashed Notre Dame whenever it struggles, wins or moves to uphold its tradition of football and academic excellence.

Notre Dame must have "a lot of soul," because it apparently sells it all the time.

In 1958 Sports Illustrated asked whether the Irish had sold its soul for football glory in its cover story “Surrender Irish,” a hatchet job written in the wake of a Notre Dame coaching change.
Don Yaeger wrote his book about the Irish in late 1980s and early 1990s entitled… you guessed it: “Under the Tarnished Dome: How Notre Dame Betrayed its Ideals for Football Glory.” Predictably, Sports Illustrated ran with this ill-researched story on its cover.
But Sports Illustrated bounced right back in 2000 talking about how Notre Dame couldn't win with: “Irish Stew: How Strong Academic Requirements, a Suicidal Schedule and an Unproven Coach have Taken the Fight out of Notre Dame.”
Fast forward to 2004. After reading a year's worth of articles selling the story of how Notre Dame will never be great again, Notre Dame makes a coaching change. And, you guessed it again, ABC News undertakes yet another smear campaign, asking, yet again, "has Notre Dame sold its soul?” while broadcast sister ESPN seemingly went wall to wall with attacks on Notre Dame's integrity. It wasn't hard to find other stories using the same hackneyed approach. A quick google found ESPN.com's "Notre Dame football exists only in history books", the Baltimore Sun's "Already lackluster on field, Irish now tarnished off it" and MSNBC's "Notre Dame has sullied its Golden Dome."
These articles should really be titled: “How the media sells out Notre Dame to increase ratings and readership – Revised Version XXXIV”

The trick here is grade school simple: If Notre Dame is winning or making moves to win the headlines scream, “Notre Dame Sells its Soul for Football Glory,” “Notre Dame isn’t Special Anymore” or some predictable derivative from those who think they're being so clever. If Notre Dame is losing or making poor moves the headlines lament, “Notre Dame Can’t Compete Anymore.” Over the past few weeks, this journalistic bloodsport has hit a new low with writers and talking-heads making these seemingly contradictory cases "simultaneously."

Heads I win, tails you lose, but everyone's watching.

They said the same things before Ara Parseghian took over and Notre Dame won. They said the same things before Lou Holtz took over and Notre Dame won. They're saying the same things now and Notre Dame will win again.

There’s nothing new about any of this. It’s the exact same story that happens at Notre Dame every decade or so. It gets people to buy magazines and watch television. Why? Because people care about Notre Dame. They either love it or hate it, but they watch and read either way.

Let’s clear up one point. Notre Dame makes no apologies about being a winner, representing winning and, yes, *gasp* demanding winning. As Father Hesburgh famously said, "Football can be done honestly, and this place has proved it... we don't want to be third-rate in anything."

Notre Dame's football success is and always has been built on great coaches. While Tyrone Willingham is a good man who represented Notre Dame well, he wasn’t being paid 1.6 million dollars a year to be an ambassador for a mediocre squad. He was paid to build a champion.

There are many, many men who can represent Notre Dame well. In fact, Notre Dame has won the American Football Coaches Association's Academic Achievement Award six times, including the year before Willingham arrived (it hasn't won it since.) Integrity is not a novel concept at Notre Dame, it is expected, but that is just a portion of the job de????ion. Notre Dame has traditionally graduated players and put them in the NFL. At the beginning of the season Notre Dame had both more NFL players than any other school and the highest percentage (93%) of NFL players with degrees. In 1988, Lou Holtz won both the national championship and the Academic Achievement award while beating one of top ten toughest schedules in the country. Academic and football excellence are not mutually exclusive endeavors. As evidenced, integrity is certainly not new at Notre Dame, only losing is.

In the end doing it right matters little if you’re not doing it well. It is clear that though everyone desperately wanted Willingham to succeed, the University was correct to fire Tyrone Willingham. Willingham coached the Irish through their worst stretch of football in 40 years, his losses were unprecedented in Notre Dame history and, as recruiting guru Tom Lemming has repeated often, he was out-hustled on the recruiting trail resulting in Notre Dame’s worst recruiting class in 25 years.

There is talk in some quarters that buying out his contract somehow translated into dishonoring his contract. This is a red herring that is patently false and spread by those ignorant of the facts. Willingham negotiated for and agreed to this per????ance based multi-million dollar buyout when he signed his contract three years ago. Say it again, “he negotiated for it." One more time, “he negotiated for it.” He negotiated a specific per????ance clause that kicked in at the end of the third year and he failed to meet it. He knew the three year standard required of him when he signed on; it was in writing and agreed to by his hand. Buying out coach Willingham honored both the letter and the spirit of the contract.

What no one is talking about is that Notre Dame will be paying Willingham off while he works for the Un. of Washington, a job he was rumored to have lobbied for while coaching Notre Dame. You can cry for Ty all the way to the bank, because he’s getting paid for two jobs. We all wish him well and respect him greatly, but he’s hardly some poor misbegotten soul tossed out on the street. He's a savvy businessman and a multi-multi millionaire. Don't begrudge the man, but to martyr him is beyond absurd.

Notre Dame did give both Bob Davie and Gerry Faust five years, but those decisions were dismal failures. Each set Notre Dame football back years. No right-minded institution consciously repeats a failure simply because "that's the way we've done it before." The fact is that no coach in the history of Notre Dame has been able to meaningfully improve on his three year record. No coach. Fifteen coaches in Notre Dame history have coached less than five years and Davie was eventually bought out of his seven-year contract. The five year plan does have precedent, but it is a precedent of failure.

Despite some apparent missteps, the coaching search was far from the debacle portrayed in the media. Yes, Notre Dame had a deal in principle with Urban Meyer. Ultimately, his wife didn’t want to go there, Notre Dame said it wasn’t willing to admit Junior College players and the deal fell apart. Read this again, “Notre Dame wasn’t willing to sell out” to get Urban Meyer.

When the search committee convened, Charlie Weis was at the top of the list. Many coaches who withdrew their names did so after learning that ND was not interested in them, yet each time it was portrayed as a failure by the media feeding frenzy. Notre Dame Athletic Director Dr. Kevin White joked that he was afraid to go get a cup of coffee because the guy behind the counter might claim to have a coaching offer from ND.

The truth is that a two-week coaching search is lightning fast in the world of college football, yet everyday the media would make it seem as if Notre Dame Nation were falling apart at the seams. It's good drama to watch a powerhouse twist in the wind and seemingly get black eye after black eye. But in reality, the roster of coaches that inquired about the job was a who’s who of NFL and college names. Charlie Weis took on and beat the best candidates in the country to get the gig.

For perspective Florida's coaching search lasted 43 days. Oklahoma, Ohio State and USC all went through recent coaching searches that at different times were viewed as abject failures, two were viewed as moribund programs and all have since won national championships. For still more perspective note that schools like Michigan and Oklahoma graduate less than 50 percent of their African American football players. Now that is selling out. Hiring the best football coach and teacher available while graduating players is not. Unlike these football factories, Notre Dame doesn't have football dorms, low graduation rates, "football" majors like Michigan's kinesiology program or phantom classes. But, hey one makes good copy; the other is something most would rather not talk about.

In fact, both Florida and Stanford recently fired their coaches after three years and no one questioned their motives. Oklahoma replaced John Blake (a black football coach) with Bob Stoops (a white football coach) and no one cried racism. Yet the media tells you that Notre Dame has sold its soul (again) for taking the same actions. Much of the vitriol this time stems from the fact that Tyrone Willingham is almost universally respected and no one wants to see such a man fail. But it's also fueled by the understandable, but self-defeating outcry over the pathetically small number of African American coaches leading big-time programs. Credit incoming President Father Jenkins for not flinching in the face of such pressures. He recently said, "We welcome that scrutiny... we think we have it because we have high ideals for our program. We are going to keep them, and we are going to meet them."

And that could come soon at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame is stocked with talent, including 15 USA Today/Parade first or second team All-Americans. While its admissions are tougher than most football factories, they are flexible enough to allow success stories like Chris Zorich and Tony Rice a chance to play for Notre Dame. ????er recruiting coordinator Vincent Cerrato recently said that Ty Willingham could have fought to get players like this into Notre Dame, but he chose not to. That is a shame.

No, Notre Dame hasn’t sold its soul (yet again.) The media is doing what it always does, selling airtime and newspapers at Notre Dame’s expense. There’s nothing new here. Nothing’s changed. And once Coach Weis starts winning, and he will, the media will begin doing a whole “new” set of stories on: "The resurrection of Notre Dame."

The bottom line is this: win or lose Notre Dame sells.

As Father Hesburgh said in responding to the same criticisms fifty years ago, some things never change at ND, one is ND's commitment to excellence. The other is criticism for having the "arrogance" to strive for it.

Amen Father.

Amen.