All's Well That Ends...Well?

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.
(All's Well that Ends Well, 1.1.209)

  Since we are days away from yet another season of Notre Dame football, now seems like a perfect time to post a video that encapsulates much of what has led us as Fighting Irish fans to this point in time, where we once again place our faith in another head coach to finally right the ship that has been drifting for so long. As the often say, let's go to the tape:

October 7, 2000
Notre Dame v. Stanford



  
Notre Dame's starting quarterback Arnaz Battle had gotten hurt the previous game, forcing true freshman Matt LoVecchio in his first start against the Cardinal. The video is every play of Notre Dame's first drive in the game. If you pay close attention, their is a familiar face on the sideline coaching LoVecchio before he takes the field for his first offensive snap.

This drive, and this game in particular, may encapsulate all that has been wrong with the stewardship of the Notre Dame football program since Lou Holtz retired in 1996. The 2000 season was Bob Davie's 2nd to last season as head coach, and his team had to win the last 7 games of the season for Davie to survive. According to popular lore, this particular series was actually called by Urban Meyer, who was WR coach at the time, instead of offensive coordinator Kevin Rogers. Meyer would leave after this season to become head coach at Bowling Green, beginning his illustrious head coaching career. Davie would be fired in 2001, after going 5-6 and missing another bowl game.

The coach that would replace Davie, Ty Willingham, was sitting across the sideline on this day. He guided Stanford to a 9-3 season in 2001, which impressed the Notre Dame administration enough to hire him as their 2nd choice after the George O'Leary debacle. After Willingham was fired in 2004, the Notre Dame administration tried desperately to hire Urban Meyer, who was in the midst of an undefeated season at Utah, even going so far as to fly out to Utah in the middle of the night to plead their case. Unfortunately, the University of Florida, who had already fired their head coach Ron Zook, had already made an offer to Meyer, and he had to politely tell Notre Dame to go pound sand. There were even some rumors that Meyer's old boss, Bob Davie, had advised him to take the Florida job over Notre Dame.

Since 2004, Urban Meyer has won two national championships, and posted an overall record of 57-10. His offense, which we saw just a glimpse of here, has averaged 36 ppg while at Florida. Meanwhile Charlie Weis posted a record of 35-27, and was fired after his 5th season.

Notre Dame will begin it's 2010 season with it's 4th head coach since Lou Holtz retired; we can muse on what could have been with Urban Meyer, but our fate lies with another coach who we pray can lead us once again to glory.