Notre Dame: Irish don’t always shop at high-end stores
The idea that Notre Dame would want Bob Stoops, or that Stoops would be interested in the Fighting Irish, is not ridiculous. I don’t think it’s true. But I don’t think it’s ridiculous.
But a Stoops-to-Notre Dame move would fly in the face of history. For two reasons. 1. Notre Dame historically has not hired away coaches from big-time programs. 2. Coaches ALMOST NEVER jump from one big-time program to another.
A quick list. Here is where Notre Dame has gotten its coaches from since Knute Rockne:
New England Patriots assistant (Charlie Weis), Stanford head coach (Tyrone Willingham), Bob Davie (Notre Dame assistant), Minnesota U. head coach (Lou Holtz), Cincinnati Moeller High School (Gerry Faust);
Green Bay Packers head coach (Dan Devine), Northwestern head coach (Ara Parseghian), Notre Dame assistant (Hugh Devore), Washington Redskins head coach (Joe Kuharic);
Notre Dame assistant (Terry Brennan), Notre Dame assistant (Ed McKeever), Boston College head coach (Frank Leahy) and Duquesne head coach (Elmer Layden).
That’s 13 coaching hires, and only one from a fellow blueblood — Leahy 69 years ago. When the Irish swiped a pro coach, it was Kuharic in 1959, when NFL jobs weren’t near the caliber of Notre Dame, and Devine in 1974, when Packer fans were trying to run him out of Green Bay. Even killed his dog.
So the idea that Notre Dame can go out and get whoever it wants is just silly. The Irish never have done that, even when they ruled college football. No reason to think they can do it now.
But there’s no great reason to think anyone can have whoever they want. The jumping around of coaches from big-time program to big-time program is virtually non-existent.
OU hasn’t lost a coach to another school since Jim Tatum went to Maryland in 1947, and the Sooners were not a power yet. Nebraska hasn’t lost a coach to another school since Pete Eliot went to Cal in 1957, and the Huskers weren’t yet a national power. Texas never has lot a coach to another school, at least not in the modern era.
Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, USC? Same thing. The few times it has happened were long ago.
Paul Dietzel left LSU for Army in 1961; I assume he thought the Cadets were going to stay a power. By 1965, he figured out he was wrong and jumped to South Carolina. Johnny Majors left Pitt after his 1976 national championship for Tennessee, his alma mater.
Doug Dickey left Tennessee for Florida in 1970, but two extenuating circumstances: Florida is his alma mater, and neither the Vols nor the Gators were the level they reached in the next generation.
Jump-arounds from the schools just below the national power level is more common. Tommy Tuberville from Ole Miss to Auburn in 1999. Houston Nutt from Arkansas to Ole Miss in 2008. Ken Hatfield from Arkansas to Clemson in 1989.
Maybe the closest thing we’ve seen in recent years is Rich Rodriguez leaving West Virginia in 2007 for Michigan. WVU is not in the Florida-USC-Oklahoma-Texas-Alabama class, but it’s just below.
Only one top-shelf school seems prone to losing its coach to another school. Alabama lost Bill Curry to Kentucky in 1989, though Bama was trying to kick him out the door, and then lost Dennis Franchione to Texas A&M in 2003, when it most certainly didn’t want to lose Fran.
A&M can be sneaky. The Aggies got Franchione from Alabama, Jackie Sherrill from Pitt in 1982 and Bear Bryant from Kentucky in 1953.
A&M, that’s who schools like Oklahoma ought to worry about. Not Notre Dame.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Berry
You are wrong on two counts: First, calling Boston College a “fellow blueblood” is really a reach. They have never been in the class of the big boys. Except for Doug Flutie, no one outside the state of Massachusetts even think of BC. Secondly, it is incorrect to think of Notre Dame as a “big time program.” Since the departure of Parseghian, there has been five or six years that ND looked “big time,” but mostly they resemble a second or third tier team in the Big 12 or the Big 10. I agree with the writer who recently said ND needs to quit thinking they are a big time program and start modeling themselves after Northwestern, Standford and the like.