Is being the Notre Dame Football coach still a marquee job?

[Bobber]

No contest. Yes!

It's like UCLA, Kansas, North Carolina in basketball.

[Clones85']

Guess I should have figured that we couldn't have a decent conversation without you trying to derail it with "you're a Hawk fan and hate Notre Dame" crap. Thanks for at least waiting till nearly the end of Page 1.

Is it not true? I am not ripping on the Hawks here but I have yet to meet an Iowa fan who does not hate Notre Dame.

Do you?

[rdubbs]

Lucky for you they don't have the 30 min delivery guarantee at Domino's anymore then.

Thanks for bringing something to the discussion.

[rdubbs]

Is it not true? I am not ripping on the Hawks here but I have yet to meet an Iowa fan who does not hate Notre Dame.

Do you?

Honestly I don't worry about Notre Dame. They had a chance to be in the Big Ten (give us two divisions and a championship game in football) and they chose not to, unless they are playing a Big Ten opponent, I really don't follow them.

[wesley_w]

Living up to those expectations and losing your job due to it would be something I'd be a little concerned about.

Yeah, I would agree that is something that I and maybe most people would be concerned about but regarding the type of personality it takes to be a D1 head football coach it's been my observation that they simply don't think they will fail because they have that much faith in their own abilities.
But I agree your point is valid for 99.9% of the population.

[WalkingCY]

Honestly I don't worry about Notre Dame. They had a chance to be in the Big Ten (give us two divisions and a championship game in football) and they chose not to, unless they are playing a Big Ten opponent, I really don't follow them.

Why would they lower themselves to be in the Big Televen? As an independent, they can play anybody. They get around the entire country....and people watch them...because they are ND. Penn St. made a horrible choice IMO....they could have had the same power as the Irish if they played their cards right.... They (ND) are the most prestigious team ever. Oh, and a sweet contract with NBC. Great recruiting tool in that....since they are ALWAYS on national TV....and get the best ratings.


If they get an outstanding coach again...they will be tough to beat.

[Tre4ISU]

Absolutely. NBC contract and ESPN talks about them daily. They recruit top 10 talent there and they have a fanbase second to none.

If they get a good coach, they will be a 10 win team in a year or 2 IMO

The NBC contract has been diluted in recent years. A lot of teams make it on TV. Boise was on 7 times this year.

I do not believe this is the job it used to be. Yes, it is high profile, but it is also very hard to compete with the top schools for National Championships. I think the reason for this is primarily admission standards. There is a reason ND typically has a great offense with below avereage defense. If you look at who the smartest players are on teams by Wonderlic scores, the vast majority are offensive. QBs are first, followed by Olineman and tight ends. The smartest defensive position according to wonderlics is safety. The reason this stuff matters is the ND admission requirements. They can get top talent on the offensive side because they meet their requirements. On the defensive side, some of the top talent cannot be recruited by them even though it is the top talent. Florida can accept those kids, ND can't. The problem lies with the fact that ND is expected to win National Championships consistently, or at least in a BCS bowl.

I am not arguing that Charlie Weis should not be fired. Even taking the above explanation into account, he has greatly underperformed. The schedule this year was set up for a NC run. They lost to a Michigan team that is offensively explosive, but doesn't play defense. They lost to Navy again. This stuff isn't tolerated after 5 years. I think the thing that is very worrisome is that Weis won with Ty Willingham's kids, not his own. Look at the trajectory of the program under Weis. At best it is flat. Most likely it is getting worse.

[Tornado man]

Why would they lower themselves to be in the Big Televen? As an independent, they can play anybody. They get around the entire country....and people watch them...because they are ND. Penn St. made a horrible choice IMO....they could have had the same power as the Irish if they played their cards right.... They (ND) are the most prestigious team ever. Oh, and a sweet contract with NBC. Great recruiting tool in that....since they are ALWAYS on national TV....and get the best ratings.


If they get an outstanding coach again...they will be tough to beat.

Agree totally. They realize that once joining a conference (and having to share their cash), they can no longer make decisions on their own. Of course the Big Ten would love them, but they have no chance of getting them.

[rdubbs]

Agree totally. They realize that once joining a conference (and having to share their cash), they can no longer make decisions on their own. Of course the Big Ten would love them, but they have no chance of getting them.

That's not 100% true

[melt]

Why would they lower themselves to be in the Big Televen? As an independent, they can play anybody. They get around the entire country....and people watch them...because they are ND. Penn St. made a horrible choice IMO....they could have had the same power as the Irish if they played their cards right.... They (ND) are the most prestigious team ever. Oh, and a sweet contract with NBC. Great recruiting tool in that....since they are ALWAYS on national TV....and get the best ratings.


If they get an outstanding coach again...they will be tough to beat.

The problem with being an independent is that it's harder to get to the BCS, or another Janurary 1st bowl. Losing two or three times for Notre Dame likely means no BCS game, you can lose three games overall and still be conference champs in a lot of places. Also, Notre Dame doesn't have the depth of bowl tie-ins a conference does. It's pretty much BCS, Gator or nothing for Notre Dame.

[DaddyMac]

The problem with being an independent is that it's harder to get to the BCS, or another Janurary 1st bowl. Losing two or three times for Notre Dame likely means no BCS game, you can lose three games overall and still be conference champs in a lot of places. Also, Notre Dame doesn't have the depth of bowl tie-ins a conference does. It's pretty much BCS, Gator or nothing for Notre Dame.

That's a good point...

at the same time, Notre Dame is pretty much completely in charge of their schedule and SOS - which (supposedly) is a big factor in such things as BCS as well.

They are at the mercy of the other teams' performance - since they schedule 2 or 3 years out. But ND usually has some pretty solid competition over the years and it's up to them to avoid the conference affiliated dead-beat teams.

[weR138]

Absolutely. NBC contract and ESPN talks about them daily. They recruit top 10 talent there and they have a fanbase second to none.

If they get a good coach, they will be a 10 win team in a year or 2 IMO

Like who? Bob Davie, Ty Willingham, Chuck Weis? It has been what, fifteen years since Holtz left? At some point ND will drop off the radar.

Is this a real question? It is one of the top positions in all of CFB and will always be.

Like Yale, Harvard or Army.

Notre Dame has the most national titles, heismans, history...you name it. It is the BEST college football job.

The clock is ticking, I haven't seen one of these at ND in a while; USC, tOSU, Florida yes. ND no.

A coach knows what he is getting into if he is good enough to lead that program.

So why can't the greatest CFB program ever find one in the last umpteen years?

Why would they lower themselves to be in the Big Televen? As an independent, they can play anybody. They get around the entire country....and people watch them...because they are ND. Penn St. made a horrible choice IMO....they could have had the same power as the Irish if they played their cards right.... They (ND) are the most prestigious team ever. Oh, and a sweet contract with NBC. Great recruiting tool in that....since they are ALWAYS on national TV....and get the best ratings.


If they get an outstanding coach again...they will be tough to beat.

Yeah, they can get beat by Navy, on TV, two out of the last three seasons.

So NBC keeps a contract with a perennial .500 team?

ND is the greatest program ever, right? There should be no "if".

As I've posted before; if ND doesn't get Urban Meyer they go into nuclear winter.

[WalkingCY]

Like who? Bob Davie, Ty Willingham, Chuck Weis? It has been what, fifteen years since Holtz left? At some point ND will drop off the radar.



Like Yale, Harvard or Army.




So why can't the greatest CFB program ever find one in the last umpteen years?



Yeah, they can get beat by Navy, on TV, two out of the last three seasons.

So NBC keeps a contract with a perennial .500 team?

ND is the greatest program ever, right? There should be no "if".

As I've posted before; if ND doesn't get Urban Meyer they go into nuclear winter.

Is that kinda like the scene in Terminator 2 when Sarah Connor is screaming at everyone from the fence....but then everyone is just blown away ....and her bones are clutching that very same fence?

[weR138]

Is that kinda like the scene in Terminator 2 when Sarah Connor is screaming at everyone from the fence....but then everyone is just blown away ....and her bones are clutching that very same fence?

Actually no; it's more like nearly two decades of mediocrity making the ND job less and less desirable until the job falls off the radar of all coaches who are qualified for the job regarless of what ND can pay because the qualified coaches make the same or more and are content with their success. (wow that's a long sentence)

If ND doesn't hire a coach who is a lead pipe cinch to win an NC, ND goes into a deep sleep, loses the sweet TV deal and wishes they could join the B10 and be a version of Boston College.

[jumbopackage]

The problem with being an independent is that it's harder to get to the BCS, or another Janurary 1st bowl. Losing two or three times for Notre Dame likely means no BCS game, you can lose three games overall and still be conference champs in a lot of places. Also, Notre Dame doesn't have the depth of bowl tie-ins a conference does. It's pretty much BCS, Gator or nothing for Notre Dame.

Unless there is an explicit BCS provision for your team.
All ND has to do to be in the top 8 (which isn't overly difficult considering that they are consistently the most overrated team in college football) and they are locked into the BCS. No other team has that deal.

And, while it doesn't have the depth of tie-ins, it is a lock for the best at-large spots, and will always be the first at-large chosen if it's possible to choose them due to their fanbase and popularity.

I agree that ND will always be a high profile job, and I suppose that makes it a marquee job, but it doesn't have the glisten that it used to have. The expectations are so far out of whack with the realities of the college football landscape these days, that I really don't think it's a very appealing job for coaches who are already in great situations. Urban Meyer? Nick Saban? Why would they want to leave great, high paying jobs at schools with deep pockets in the heart of recruiting country to come deal with more unrealistic expectations with fewer "natural resources" at a school that is less likely to ignore minor transgressions?

I guess these days there are far more "marquee" programs than there used to be. Notre Dame is just one marquee job among many, IMO, where it used to be one of the handful of top jobs in the nation.