2/6/2021 football Edit

Notre Dame’s Andy Heck Vying For Second Straight Super Bowl Title

Lou Somogyi • InsideNDSports

Senior Editor

Although Notre Dame will have no player representation in this weekend’ Super Bowl between Kansas City and Tampa Bay, Chiefs offensive line coach Andy Heck will be vying for his second straight Super Bowl title.

Here is a rerun of our column on Heck — a tri-captain for Notre Dame's 1988 national champions — after last year’s victory by Kansas City versus San Francisco.

Andy Heck with wife Jennifer and sons Jon and Charlie after last year's Super Bowl title. (Photo provided)

Fifty years ago in January 1970, linebacker Jim Lynch became the first Notre Dame football player to win both a national title with the Fighting Irish and a Super Bowl, achieving the latter with the Kansas City Chiefs.

On that Golden Anniversary in February 2020, Andy Heck became the most recent former Irish player to join that unique company (see below)— and likewise with the Chiefs, as their offensive line coach.

How fitting the symmetry is between Lynch and Heck.

Lynch’s freshman year in 1963 saw the Fighting Irish finish 2-7, yet his senior year in 1966 when he was the lone team captain they were consensus national champs.

Likewise, Heck’s first two seasons in 1985-86 were the school's first back-to-back losing campaigns in the 20th century (5-6 both times), but as a senior captain he helped steer a 12-0 finish and most recent national title.

Lynch and Heck were real-life versions of the mythical Jack Armstrong All-American Boy fashioned in days of yore by General Mills.

They especially embodied Notre Dame with their natural leadership traits, skill, determination, scholarly demeanors and immense pride in the school they represented.

At both Notre Dame and Kansas City, Heck said becoming No. 1 went beyond talent.

“For me it’s more about seeing the similarities of what separates a good team, a really good team, and then a championship team,” Heck said. “Our championship team at Notre Dame was talented — but maybe not as talented as the next two years. But there was some magical, if you will, combination of leadership, chemistry, grit, and certainly we had to have some breaks go our way.

“Similarly, we had talent here at Kansas City, but also football guys who created the right leadership and chemistry. It’s a terrific culture we got going. We also had to have some breaks go our way, and they did. That sure reminded me of ’88.

“Just one bad bounce of the ball and you don’t end up undefeated, or you don’t end up coming back from 24 points down in a playoff game [24-0 versus Houston before winning 51-31]. It was very special that way.”

Lynch played 11 years in the NFL and started each of his final 140 games (including playoffs), while Heck played 12 seasons with 164 starts along the offensive line.

Incidentally, both also had brothers who played football at the Naval Academy.

THE RISE TO GLORY

A member of head coach Gerry Faust’s final recruiting class at Notre Dame in 1985, the Fairfax, Va., native Heck’s affinity for the school — his other official visits were to Stanford and North Carolina — outweighed the football program’s struggles on it.

The Irish posted a modest record of 25-20-1 from 1981-84 and Faust was on the hot seat during Heck’s freshman year as a tight end.

A 5-6 finish in 1985, culminated by a 58-7 defeat at Miami, resulted in a coaching change to Lou Holtz. Personnel shortages and an extremely arduous schedule produced another 5-6 outcome in 1986.

However, the 1986 season that saw Notre Dame lose five games by 14 points — including 24‑23 to Big Ten champ Michigan, 21‑19 at SEC champ LSU and 24‑19 to national champ Penn State — ended with a dramatic 38-37 victory at archrival USC after trailing 37-20 in the fourth quarter.

Heck scored his first career touchdown in that game, and later bulled through several would-be tacklers for a crucial two-point conversion that cut the deficit to 37-35.

Improvement continued the next season with an 8-1 start in which Heck became the full-time starting tight end and a prolific blocker while finishing with five catches for 59 yards and a touchdown.

Alas, the Irish lost their final three games while getting outscored 80-30, and the staff was shaken up again with several new assistants hired, most notably esteemed offensive line coach Joe Moore.

Still, the consecutive No. 1-ranked recruiting classes in 1987 and 1988 that included the top-rated tight ends in Frank Jacobs (1987) and Derek Brown (1988) fueled optimism about the future.

“I’m sure they had talked about it as a staff, but Joe Moore first approached me and said, ‘Hey, would you like to play in the NFL?’” the 6-6 Heck recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah, that’s definitely a dream of mine.’ Then he said, ‘You should think about coming into my room because you’re not going to make it as a tight end but you have a shot as a tackle.’”

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Heck changed his jersey number from 88 to 66 and that winter began a process of caloric intake that elevated his playing weight by about 30 pounds to 265 (“267 at the NFL Combine,” Heck said) — a runt by today’s standards but large enough back then when sophomores Mike Heldt and Tim Ryan (a converted linebacker) were listed at 258 and 245 as the starting center and guard, respectively.

Among the 1988 team members, there has been a universal theory that the unit had the ideal balance of swagger tempered by humility.

Sophomore stalwarts Chris Zorich (nose tackle), the late George “Boo” Williams (defensive tackle), Todd Lyght (cornerback), Ricky Watters and Tony Brooks, among others — plus freshmen such as Brown, wideout Raghib “Rocket” Ismail and drop end Arnold Ale — provided a powerful infusion of talent.

They combined with the superb and steadfast leadership of upperclassmen such as Heck, Mark Green, Ned Bolcar, Tony Rice, Anthony Johnson, linebackers Frank Stams, Wes Pritchett, Ned Bolcar and Michael Stonebreaker, and safeties George Streeter and Pat Terrell, etc. — all of whom had experienced the throes of losing seasons and kept the team grounded with supreme dedication and focus.

Only four career starts (all by guard Tim Grunhard) returned along the 1988 Irish offensive line — but Heck uplifted everyone on the unit with positive but firm standards.

“You can’t say enough about what he did for us that year,” Moore said several years later.

En route to the national title, Notre Dame became one of a handful of teams in history to defeat four teams that finished in the Associated Press top 10: No. 2 Miami (31‑30), No. 4 Michigan (19-17), No. 5 West Virginia (34-21) and No. 7 USC (27-10).

Heck ended up earning first-team consensus All-America honors and was the No. 15 overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft.

LIFE IN THE NFL

After his 12th season as a starter in the NFL, Heck knew the direction of his next chapter.

“I was ready to leave the game physically because of the toll it took on my body, but I was not ready to leave the competition, the feeling you have after a well-earned win — there’s no feeling like it,” Heck said. “The preparation, the practice … the best part is that satisfaction and great feeling you have of a group of guys in this sport pulling together and earning a win.”

While breaking into the coaching world at Virginia from 2001‑03 as a graduate assistant, the thought of returning to Notre Dame in a coaching capacity was a viable goal, but not after he was hired by the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars as an assistant and gradually rose the ladder.

The reason was simple: the grind of recruiting.

“I have so much respect for what those college coaches do,” Heck said. “If you want to be good in recruiting, there’s no free time. If you have free time, you better be recruiting, writing a kid, somehow, someway regardless. To me, it just doubled the job.

“In the NFL it’s more about strictly the coaching. I liked being more focused on that, especially as I was starting a young family. It’s awfully challenging to be a college coach these days.”

He feels especially blessed to have been at only two locations the past 17 years: Jacksonville (2004-12) and Kansas City since 2013.

“That doesn’t happen very often,” Heck said. “I love being in an NFL stadium on Sunday. I still get chills during The Star-Spangled Banner. I feel like it’s an honor and privilege to be competing at the highest possible level.”

Now in his third decade of marriage to his wife, Jennifer, who he met at a freshman mixer at Notre Dame, they are the parents of four — son Jon, and triplets Charlie, Molly and Evelyn.

Jon was a four-year starting offensive tackle (50 career starts) for the North Carolina Tar Heels (2013-16) and is now a strength coach there.

Charlie, who as a 150-pound high school freshman was a soccer goalie, started 34 games also at offensive tackle at North Carolina from 2017-19 and is an NFL prospect.

Both were offered opportunities as preferred walk-ons at Notre Dame — a la current Colin Grunhard, son of Heck’s former teammate. (Grunhard has graduated and is now a graduate transfer at Kansas.)

“On some level it was disappointing,” Heck said of neither son getting a scholarship offer by the Irish, “but both were late bloomers. I’m not sure I would have offered them myself at Notre Dame when you look at the type of talent Notre Dame brings in.

“On the other hand, I thought the University of North Carolina was a great fit for both of them. I sure would have loved for my boys to play at Notre Dame, but I couldn’t be prouder of what they accomplished at North Carolina.”

Meanwhile, Molly and Evelyn graduated from Notre Dame in the spring of 2019.

One can’t spell Andy without ND.

THE RARE DOUBLE PLAY

The first Super Bowl was played on Jan. 15, 1967.

By our count, at least a dozen Notre Dame football players have achieved the unique distinction of winning a national title with the Fighting Irish and a Super Bowl as either a player or assistant coach:

Four from 1966:

• Linebacker Jim Lynch (1970, Kansas City Chiefs)

• Guard Bob Kuechenberg (1973-74, Miami Dolphins)

• Running back Rocky Bleier (1975-76 and 1979-80, Pittsburgh Steelers)

• Quarterback Terry Hanratty (1975-76, Pittsburgh Steelers)

Three from 1973:

• Tight end Dave Casper (1977, Oakland Raiders)

• Offensive tackle Steve Sylvester (1977, 1981, 1984 Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders)

• Quarterback Tom Clements (2011, Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach)

Two from 1977:

• Quarterback Joe Montana (1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990, San Francisco 49ers)

• Linebacker Bobby Leopold (1982, San Francisco 49ers)