Can Notre Dame 2017 Be Dallas Cowboys 2016?
On Sunday night, the Dallas Cowboys improved their 2016 NFL-best record to 12-2. Believe it or not, that prompted me to start thinking about the 2017 Notre Dame football season more optimistically.
That’s because when you look at Notre Dame football and the Dallas Cowboys’ franchise history over the past 50 or so years, there is quite the symmetry:
• In the 30 years from 1964-93, Notre Dame won four consensus national titles, 10 major bowls (most of any team in that time), and barely missed out on four other consensus titles (1964, 1970, 1989 and 1993).
Meanwhile, in the 30 years from 1966-95, the Cowboys captured five Super Bowls, won 10 conference titles (most of any team in that time), and barely missed on four others (losing three Super Bowls by four or less points, one as a field goal was converted as time expired, plus Green Bay’s fourth-down quarterback sneak by Bart Starr in the closing seconds of the 1967 Ice Bowl).
• Both have been known as “America’s Team” for decades because of their appeal to a national audience, not just a provincial one. This has inspired enmity and envy, prompting belief, “You either love Notre Dame/the Cowboys, or hate them. There is no in between.”
• At the end of 2015, Forbes rated Dallas as the most valuable NFL franchise ($4.2 billion). On the collegiate level, Notre Dame was rated No. 2 ($112 million), behind only Texas, whose enrollment is much larger.
• Since 1997, both have been mired in overall mediocrity on the football field, living more off their glorious past or the perfume of a vanished flower. Including this season, the Cowboys are 164-154 in the much more competitive and parity-driven NFL, while Notre Dame is 150-99 (.602 winning percentage).
Dallas has gone through six head coaches since 1997, while Notre Dame has had five since 1996 (but if you want to say six also, you can include the four-day term of George O’Leary in December 2001).
• Best manifesting their frustration in the past 20 years is the postseason. Since 1997, Dallas is 2-7 in the playoffs — and has not won a divisional playoff game, which is akin to a “major bowl.”
In that same span, Notre Dame is 4-10 in bowl games — and has not won a major (0-5).
• Both have had moments of a temporary return to glory since 1997, including four division titles for Dallas (plus a fifth this year), highlighted by an NFL best 13-3 regular season in 2007.
Likewise, in those 20 years Notre Dame has finished in the Associated Press top 10 twice (2005 and 2012) and been invited to five major bowls, where it is 0-5 (average margin of defeat 23.4 points). This was highlighted by its appearance in the 2013 BCS National Championship Game.
• Within the past decade, both operations undertook massive spending on their home field, with Dallas opening AT&T Stadium in 2009, and Notre Dame in recent years revamping the locker rooms/infrastructure, installing FieldTurf and in 2017 unveiling its $450-million Campus Crossroads project.
• In 2010, Jason Garrett began his first season as the Cowboys’ head coach, the same year Brian Kelly began his Notre Dame stint. Many wondered how Dallas owner Jerry Jones could keep Garrett after the 4-12 season in 2015 — while many are contemplating the same about Fighting Irish vice president/director of athletics Jack Swarbrick doing likewise with Kelly for 2017.
• The 2015 Dallas Cowboys finished 4-12, only the sixth time in their history (or since 1960) they had four or fewer wins in a season.
This year, Notre Dame finished 4-8 — the sixth time since 1950 it had four or fewer victories in a campaign.
Now comes the optimism for 2017: From those 4-12 ashes last year, the 12-2 Cowboys own the best record in the NFL this season. Making it even more amazing is it had to replace injured four-time Pro Bowl quarterback Tony Romo with Dak Prescott, a rookie taken in the fourth round.
Why not Notre Dame next year, especially with a first-time QB in Brandon Wimbush now having to replace projected first-round pick DeShone Kizer? After all, Kelly has demonstrated he is at his best at Notre Dame with a newbie QB, including 12-1 in 2012, the upset of LSU in the 2014 Music City Bowl with first-time starter Malik Zaire, and the 10-1 start last season with another neophyte in Kizer.
Furthermore, Wimbush will be surrounded by a much more veteran cast on both sides of the ball in 2017.
Will the symmetry continue?
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