The Coach
Notre Dame Needs
It's time the Irish goes to get the A list star
By
Pete Fiutak
Notre Dame has overcome an abysmal 2007 season, the worst ever in the
program’s history, to be bowl bound with a far better offense, a
not-that-bad defense, and even a little bit of hope for the future with
QB Jimmy Clausen a decent player to build around and a fantastic
receiving corps to get excited about.
Even so, the vultures are swirling around head coach Charlie Weis, with
a few unsubstantiated rumors saying he could be fired as early as
Monday, assuming the Irish get blasted by USC on Saturday night.
Whether or not Weis survives this, one fact remains painfully clear:
he’s just not working out both on the field and as the face of the
program. The same reason Irish alumni weren’t happy with Ty Willingham
(and no, his firing had nothing, nothing to do with race) is the
same reason there are problems with Weis. Like Willingham, Weis isn’t
giving anyone any confidence that Notre Dame can be a national
title-caliber superpower that everyone surrounding the program thinks it
should be. And. Of course, there hasn’t been nearly enough production.
One way or another, this has nothing to do with money. Really. Notre
Dame’s endowment is up to $7 billion (that’s with a B … as in buyout).
The Weis buyout, or bailout, if you prefer, reported to be anywhere
between $4 and $5 million, is tip money in the Starbuck jar considering
Notre Dame’s deal with NBC and the BCS. If a new coach comes in and
takes the Irish to the BCS within three years, remembering that Notre
Dame gets all that BCS bowl game coin for itself, then getting rid of
Weis would actually be a wise investment.
So let’s just assume for a moment that the Weis era that was so full of
promise, so full of arrogance, and so full of dashed hopes, really is
coming to an end sooner than later. Then what?
Notre Dame had the dignified head man in Willingham, who commanded the
utmost respect from his players and his peers, and while no one had
problem with him as a person, he wasn’t getting it done. Notre Dame had
the supposed know-it-all genius who eschewed people skills in the name
of sheer hubris, and it was all fine when the team was going to the BCS,
where his teams were painfully exposed. That didn’t work out, either.
Notre Dame needs a star. Not a guy who did a lot with a little, like
Willingham at Stanford, and not a hot coordinator, like Weis. It needs an
A list, mega-star who commands top dollar and is worth even more. The
time for kidding around is over, the time for low-balling is over, and
the time to think that the Notre Dame brand name should earn anything
more than consideration from a head coach who could name his job.
It’s time for Notre Dame to get Urban Meyer.
Meyer was an assistant in South Bend under Lou Holtz before going on a
meteoric rise to become a college coaching superstar with a perfect
season under his belt at Utah, a national championship, and one more
potentially on the way this season. Notre Dame was Meyer’s
self-proclaimed dream job coming out of Utah, but the Florida gig was
too good to pass up.
Meyer, of course, won’t even address the topic of coaching change at the
moment, and why would he? He has created a juggernaut in Gainesville,
recapturing the magic of the Steve Spurrier era, the Florida program
will pay whatever it takes to keep him, and he has a powerhouse of a
team currently playing at the peak of its ability.
He doesn’t need to posture to get a bigger or better contract, and he
certainly wants nothing to do with the distraction of the potential
Notre Dame coaching vacancy, especially considering his Gators have
become masters at focusing on the task at hand ever since the loss to
Ole Miss. Forget about another disaster like the Les Miles-to-Michigan
dance that overshadowed the great LSU team of last year around SEC
championship time; this is a non-issue. But that doesn’t mean that Notre
Dame can’t wait and get its man.
The question for Meyer will be whether or not there’s a ceiling on what
he can become. Coaches, by nature, aren’t able to pull a Joe Paterno and
stay in one spot for too long as they’re always looking for the bigger,
better gig. And that’s a problem for Meyer, because the jury is out on
whether or not he’s cut out for the NFL.
Considering the recent run of college football superstars who became
mega-bombs in the big league (Spurrier, Saban, Petrino, Davis), and
considering the way they didn’t just fail, but failed in epic, all-time
fashion, it’s not likely that anyone, even a seemingly perfect fit like
the Cincinnati Bengals or the Cleveland Browns, is going to be jumping
at the chance to give Meyer the whole kit and caboodle.
The other factor is his style. He’s a spread coach, and spread
quarterbacks have been dismal at the pro level so far. No, at the
moment, Urban Meyer is an elite of the elite head football coach who
currently resides in a select club.
So, Notre Dame, go get your man. You throw out the number of $25 million
for five years, and you go from there.
Pete Carroll is getting paid around $4.4 million a year in salary with
another 400K or so among friends in extras. According to a formula
created by Forbes that measures the amount of bang for the
coaching buck, Carroll is actually being underpaid in comparison to what
his teams are delivering. And that’s with USC having to split its BCS
money with the nine Pac-10 barnacles.
Each of the five 2009 BCS games is paying out $17.5 million per team,
and that number will go up and up after the coin ESPN is shelling out to
take over the big games. Let’s say Meyer, or any top head coach,
“settles” on $30 million plus incentives to make it closer to $35
million for seven years. Any coach worth even thinking about that kind
of a contract has to be able to get Notre Dame to at least two BCS games
in seven years, and don’t forget the revenue brought in from the bowl
games in the other non-BCS years. Remember, Notre Dame gets a chunk of
the dough, $4 million of it, for getting into the BCS, and that's just the start of the money a
top coach would bring in.
And if it’s not Meyer, then go after another A list head man (and NOT
Skip Holtz, just because the last name sounds good). Go be Notre Dame.
Go flex your muscle. Go throw money at the problem. Go fix the problem.