Ages removed from the blue-gray October sky that helped a university achieve a national identity in a simpler time, coach Bob Davie stood on a practice field last week and watched another Notre Dame football season begin. For one brief series of moments on a sunny, breezy August morning, hope and possibility replaced the embarrassment and defensiveness that has characterized Notre Dame’s long, hot summer.
In those places where the institution of Notre Dame football is revered or reviled–and isn’t that just about everywhere?–the approaching season brings a set of questions that go beyond the response to a 7-6 year. How far can the effort of the Davie regime advance a program that remains a work in progress? How much will the fallout from the unfinished and unflattering business interfere with that push? How long, given the widespread perception of a tarnished and divided house, can Notre Dame expect to remain on the pedestal it has occupied for generations?
A dollar figure will establish the extent of the university’s financial setback in the age-discrimination trial won by former assistant coach Joe Moore. The university’s loss in stature is not so easily measured. A finding by the NCAA will define two violations that Notre Dame has reported, one of which involves five current members of the team. As unrelated as the two episodes may be to the challenging schedule that begins Sept. 5 against Michigan, administrators are prepared for a clear emotional link in the minds of the team’s believers.
But as Davie paced to different parts of the practice field, examining a strong freshman class on its first morning together in uniform, damage control was an exercise for another time and place. Upperclassmen strolled by to take a look, and remembered the apprehension of their first days here.
“If we knew then what we know now,” said Mike Rosenthal, a captain and senior offensive tackle, “we’d be a lot better off.”
The expanded foundation of Davie’s program consisted of children of the 1980s, many of whom had cried the night before when they said goodbye to their parents. Their names had not yet appeared on a depth chart. Their collective outlook toward the school reflected no disillusionment. Their reputations as Notre Dame athletes were untarnished. They had not lost a game. And their gold helmets were spotless.
This was something new. The freshman helmets last summer had a black stripe down the middle, a rite of passage that extended back to Lou Holtz’s tenure as coach and beyond. The thinking then was that the gold helmet had to be earned. Davie decided against issuing stripes after learning that they had created one more level of anxiety for his first recruiting class, with no clear criteria for removal.
So this year, following a subtle refinement that projects a unified organization, the newest players are not marked by stripes. “I’ve still got mine,” Davie said as he sat on a golf cart on a nearly empty field after the first practice had ended.
He smiled, for the coach of the Fighting Irish, as much as anyone, understands that the criteria for a Notre Dame coach to gain acceptance are far more specific.
The standards that have made Notre Dame’s enterprise so distinctive may never have faced a challenge as imposing as the current, cumulative damage to its image. Once university leadership determined that a proposed $1.3 million settlement in the Moore case was an untenable invitation to charges of a coverup, an institutional humiliation began to take shape.
“It’s not like the Notre Dame football program is radically different than it was five, 10, 15, 20 years ago,” said Rev. E. William Beauchamp, a university executive vice president who oversees the athletic department. “The policies that govern athletics at Notre Dame really haven’t changed. . . . I don’t happen to think that anything that came up in the trial is a dramatic reflection on the integrity of the athletic program. There are some issues that needed to be addressed, and they have been addressed.”
The Quarterback Club was disbanded after the NCAA ruled that a $25 fee for the right to buy tickets to Friday pregame luncheons made each member a representative of the university. Kimberly Dunbar, a club member who had a child with former player Jarvis Edison, provided tickets for five current players to attend a Bulls game. The five players who accepted Edison’s invitation to the game placed their eligibility at risk.
Players and coaches have been encouraged to be more aware of conditions that could lead to violations, no matter how insignificant they may seem.
“You’ve got to watch out for these things,” Beauchamp said. “What may not be obvious to you may be a technical violation. And what you put at risk is not just your reputation, but the reputation of the university, the reputation of your fellow student-athletes. Something you don’t pay attention to can cause a lot of damage.”
That damage has led the university to take an unusual step. At Notre Dame, the tradition of embracing the past has inspired long lines outside the bookstore on those autumn Saturday mornings. But now, a recent portion of that past has been placed at a distance.
Michael Wadsworth, the athletic director and a former Irish player, was asked if the coaching staff faces a greater urgency to win in order to obscure the unfavorable publicity.
“I think it would be unfortunate if our staff felt a heightened pressure because of these events,” he said. “This football staff did not cause any of what are the really unfortunate aspects of what is being talked about. These are stories that have a long tail on them, and predate this staff. The unfortunate part of this is they have walked into a situation that they have to contend with, but it was not their doing in any respect.”
Wadsworth acknowledged a perception that separates this summer from previous controversies, the fact that many of the current issues were created not from external forces such as critical books or investigations at other schools, but from within.
“The matters that were internal don’t exist anymore,” Wadsworth said.
On the feeling of openness among coaches–was that outlook lacking in the past?
“I think that degree of openness was something that had to happen,” Wadsworth said.
Moore joined Holtz’s staff in 1988, the championship season. Davie’s decision not to retain Moore on his 1997 staff led to the suit that placed Rosenthal in the middle. His deposition stating his admiration for Moore was built on a truthfulness and loyalty that Notre Dame seeks and attempts to develop. Only now, a captain’s opinion was assisting the other side in court.
“I’m never going to compromise my values for anything,” Rosenthal said. “I can honestly tell you it never really bothered me the whole time. The whole trial never affected me. I just took the approach that I did what I had to do, and I’m done with it.”
For Rosenthal, the episode is in the past. For those who converge on Notre Dame Stadium as summer turns to fall, the reporting is still catching up to the reality. Rosenthal says he feels comfortable talking to Davie and asking for advice. He looks upon the experience as a crash course in business.
“That’s Notre Dame,” he said. “I’ve learned that since I’ve been here. One of the greatest things about the place is it forces you to grow up. From the second you get on campus, if you’re immature, you’re not going to make it here.”
What appears from the outside as a protective little world, one that has provided comfort in times of crisis, can seem to some on the inside as a harsh place where young people must cope with overwhelming demands. The ties that bind take shape in weight rooms and practice fields far from the Saturdays when a campus becomes a fairground. The strength of those ties could determine the future of the team and its coach.
“The thing he focused on was that as seniors, we have to take things into our own hands,” wide receiver Bobby Brown said, recalling a session with Davie. “We talked about what went on in the summer and what’s going on right now, and we realize that this isn’t in our hands. Somebody else is controlling our fate. Our only other objective is to work as hard as we’ve been working and just focus on winning. I haven’t heard a guy actually bring up the things that are going on for a while, because we can’t change the outcome. All we can do is change the outcome of this season.
“After Sept. 5, people are going to forget about the trial. But that hasn’t really been our motivator. After we beat Michigan we’ll feel better about ourselves. That’s the most important thing. If you find yourself behind in a game, a trial isn’t going to motivate you. Being 7-6 and committing ourselves to never, ever allowing that to happen again, that’s what motivates you in the fourth quarter. Not a trial.”
