Ask Lou: Inquiries On Notre Dame’s Past, Present & Future
Welcome to the first installation of the “Ask Lou” series which we will attempt to feature at least a couple of times each month, if not weekly.
There also is a different series with recruiting insider Mike Singer that deals with Fighting Irish recruiting specifically.
The one today is separate and centers on questions from our BlueandGold.com message board regarding the past, present and future, especially in football and basketball.
GroggyGrizzly: Why doesn’t The Master, Frank Leahy, get the love he should from Notre Dame and many Notre Dame fans? I have never understood that.
Lou: This has been baffling for me through the years, but more so from a national perspective than a Notre Dame one.
This peaked in 2009 when a panel of more than 100 coaches and other experts on athletics history assembled in Sporting News the 50 greatest coaches — any sport, male or female — in American history.
Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler, with no national titles in his 21 seasons, made the cut, while Leahy — with four national titles and seven unbeaten seasons in 13 years (two of them spent at Boston College), and second in all-time winning percentage (behind mentor Knute Rockne) in college football annals — was omitted.
Leahy had a mind-boggling 23-6-3 record against teams that finished in the final top 10 (13-6-3) or final top 20 (10-0). That .765 winning percentage is by far the greatest among any college football coach on Sporting News’ Top 50 list.
Prior to taking the Notre Dame job in 1941, he led Boston College to an 11-0 record in 1940, capped with a 19-13 Sugar Bowl win versus 10-0 Tennessee and its Hall of Fame head coach, R.R. Neyland. Try going unbeaten at BC. No one has done it since then.
Because of unrivaled intensity toward the game that deteriorated his health, he stepped down from coaching for good at age 45, an age where most in his profession have not even reached their peak.
Prior to becoming the head coach at Boston College, Leahy was the line coach for Fordham’s legendary “Seven Blocks of Granite,” which included Vince Lombardi — who would later embrace and impart Leahy’s painstaking deal to fundamentals.
I have postulated two main reasons why Leahy is probably so overlooked. One is the way he exited. Whereas Rockne's Notre Dame legend from 1918-30 was elevated because of the way he tragically perished in a plane crash at age 43, Leahy left unceremoniously on Jan. 31, 1954.
He was basically forced out with two years left on his contract and was no longer wanted while Notre Dame attempted to upgrade its academic reputation under new president Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C.
Second is what we refer to as “middle-child syndrome.” Rockne was the first, while Ara Parseghian (1964-74) and Lou Holtz (1986-96) captured championships after extremely lean cycles in the program.
Meanwhile, Leahy was still not yet a decade removed from Rockne’s tragic death, and predecessor Elmer Layden won 77 percent of his games at Notre Dame. Leahy was neither the “first” like Rockne or the “saviors” such as Parseghian and Holtz.
The “middle man” often gets lost — sort of like unheralded 1993 quarterback Kevin McDougal was in between Golden Boy recruits Rick Mirer and Ron Powlus, yet McDougal is the all-time pass efficiency king at the school, and helped steer the Irish to an 11-1 and No. 2 finish in his one year as the starter (including defeating No. 1 Florida State).
Rockne was the original, while Parseghian and Holtz were the latest and greatest whose prosperity occurred in the age of television.
That’s still no reason for Leahy to be consistently ignored on “greatest ever” coaching lists. There were few, if any, who were ever better.
NDInspiration: What do you think the prospects are of Mike Brey returning next year? I didn’t think he would, but I could see the sudden end of the season changing his mind.
Part II call your shot early: Will this year's football coaching staff be the same, better or worse than last year's? Please tell us why.
Lou: There were several occasions this year I was wondering whether Brey was feeling it was time to hang it up, which will be his call.
Naismith Hall of Fame inductee George Keogan (1923-43) lasted 20 years, as did Digger Phelps (1971-91), so I began to ponder whether there would be similar 20-20-20 symmetry this year with Brey as there is with 11 years among former Fighting Irish football coaches Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz (all stepped down after year 11).
I felt when I talked to him this summer he had one eye on retirement, but also sensed that he would like to see the current sophomore group of Prentiss Hubb, Dane Goodwin, Nate Laszewski, Robby Carmodyand Cormac Ryan through the end of their careers.
It would not stun me if he suddenly called it a career because I believe deep down he might be thinking, “Have I taken this as far as this program can go?”
When he made a comment about he’ll take a 1-1 road split with Boston College and Wake Forest because that’s about as good as you can expect at Notre Dame, it does make one wonder if he feels a learned helplessness.
We saw appreciable improvement this year going from 3-15 in the conference to 10-10 (not including a first-round blowout of Boston College in the ACC Tournament before everything was cancelled). With reasonably good health next year, Notre Dame could contend to get into the NCAA Tournament — but is that enough at this point?
Brey has built up much good will, success and is well liked as an individual, but he and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick do need a candid heart to heart on the program’s direction beyond the current sophomore class.
Right now would seem an awkward time for a change.
As for the football staff worse, better or the same this year, defensively it should be, at worst, the same — which is good.
Clark Lea, Mike Elston and Terry Joseph have done outstanding work together the past two seasons, and Mike Mickens should have a relatively seamless transition as cornerbacks coach, although that position group might be the top question mark on the team.
On offense, I anticipate the esprit de corps to be stronger, but I’m not sure about overall performance — especially with the last 14 spring practices among the 15 cancelled.
New offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and first-year run-game coordinator Lance Taylor could have used those 14 practices to develop an on-field rhythm and identity with the personnel. For now, it can be about the same at best, although the first four games on the schedule (Navy, Arkansas, Western Michigan and Wake Forest) should allow the offense to find some flow.
It seems fashionable to blame former offensive coordinator Chip Long for everything, maybe even Original Sin, that went awry last season. Yet he had a good run with varied offenses in which he adapted to team strengths, even if his bedside manners with players and staff required change.
FightinMike87: Outside of the typical Notre Dame rivals or those they have played more than a half dozen times or so, who have been your favorite opponents that ND has played in your lifetime? What made those games memorable?
Lou: In the long ago it was having four-game series with Alabama (1976 and 1980, plus 1986-87) and Tennessee (1978-79 and 1990-91).
The meetings with Alabama especially had a championship-like atmosphere to them because both are all-time top five programs.
Tennessee also had the tradition aspect yet a newness feel at the time because the Irish hadn’t often played SEC teams during the regular season.
More recently, the home-and-home matchups with Texas (2015-16), Oklahoma (2012-13) and Georgia (2017 and 2019 provided a similar feel, although the Longhorns were down at the time.
Again, it goes back to playing a blue blood, where the importance and pre-game intensity for both teams and fan bases are palpable.
The next two years (2020-21) against a quality Wisconsin program also should feature that dynamic. Maybe this isn't a popular stance, but I do wish those games would be played on the on-campus sites instead of NFL stadiums.
Part II tomorrow.
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