Is Notre Dame football dead?

A lot of teams nearly beat a lot of teams every year.

Bottom line in both those scenarios is Brian Kelly got out coached. He made dumb decisions to go for it with 3 seconds left in the half against Michigan and the field goal cost him. He got out coached when Dantonio called the fake field goal and beat him with a punter.

I think Brian Kelly will really succeed. I watched him nearly beat BC with a freshman QB and a rag tag group of players at CMU, and I think he can turn the program around.

Having said that, lets not make excuses for how he nearly beat a bunch of teams.

 

That's how I read this post before I put my contacts in this morning and realized I had been having a flashback that was also a flash-forward of sorts.

 

If that's not generalizing I don't know what is. Of course Stanford graduates more football players. But for the most part, the Michigan degree is worthless for the football players, who go to the NFL/CFL/Arena league at a much higher fold than Stanford.

Harbaugh is a great example of this. Is he using his Michigan academic degree? Or his Michigan football degree?

Michigan is no worse than Notre Dame, USC, or other public universities like North Carolina and Virginia. Moreover, just because Stanford doesn't have a general studies major doesn't mean their athletes aren't taking
BS majors.

When Jim Harbaugh was busy sounding off in 2007, here was Stanford's breakdown of majors by football player

Undeclared: 52
Science Technology & Society: 9
Management Science & Engineering: 7
Communications: 7
Sociology: 6
Poly Sci: 5
Public Policy: 4
Engineering: 3
Computer Sci: 2
Philosophy: 2
Intl Relations: 1
English: 1
Classics: 1
Economics: 1



Technology and Society (Stanford General Studies) for 9 players. Look up the requirements. It's general studies under another name. Stanford does it just like everyone else.

 

Yeah, but Notre Dame is still the biggest draw around. They're the only ones who can make it as an independent. They have their own TV contract and don't have to share the money. They've suckered all the Big Ten schools and a few Pac-10 schools to keep on playing them, so they put together a respectable schedule. Hell, even the Western Michigan and Navy games are nationally televised.

They have more fans and sell more merchandise than any other school.

Wins and losses are just icing on the cake. They could have 10 straight losing seasons and still be regarded among the elite.

 

Layman -- you made a good point about the alums wanting a Midwest Ivy. And let's face it, what is better for the long-term financial and academic future of the school -- boosting the profile of its education, or a good football team?

 

Reality? Academic profile (perceived OR real).....and it's not even close. Guessing, of course you already knew that

 

Layman, I have a lot of Catholics around me stunned at how hard it is to get in ND these days. Word is the only way to get to the top of the pile is to declare you're ROTC.

 

Five of 12 games against teams from non-AQ conferences. Let's be honest, most teams would kill to play the type of schedule as ND does these days, with seven or eight home games, two or three games against service academies every year, Big-10 bopttom-feeder rival Purdue, a a neutral-site game, and only three true road games.

 

Oh......there's LOTS of ways to the top of the pile. ROTC (ND doesn't need to pony up any financial aid, fills low demand majors, helps in relations w/ Saint Mary's, as it's a co-share program) is one good way. Being Catholic, however.....isn't.

 

God knows I don't want to sound like an ND apologist, but Notre Dame is scheduling pretty much the way it should these days. Maybe one Tulsa or W Mich, not both.
And one of those non-AQ teams is Utah.

Most powerhouses (Ohio St, Texas, Bama) will play three nonconference games it has absolutely no chance of losing. Duke is no better than most Sun Belt teams and some I-AAs.

Texas plays only three true road games this season (Rice at Reliant doesn't count).

Ohio State won't play a nonconference road game this season.

And every conference, even the vaunted SEC, is going to have a couple of weak spots. If you play in the SEC East, you always have that Vandy gimme. And for years Kentucky was a pushover. Now Wildcats are bit better than that. In the West, Mississippi State is usually bad. Ole Miss comes and goes.

So Bama went into this season, conservatively speaking with four gimme wins (Duke, Ga St, San Jose State and Miss St at home).

ND came in with, let's say, 5 (Army, Tulsa, C. Michigan, Purdue and Navy). And I think that's probably selling Navy a bit short, but fact is ND should really NEVER lose to Navy.

Purdue is certainly capable of having a decent season. In fact it's track record is not that much different from Ole Miss and much better than Miss State.

For years ND overscheduled, and paid the price. Now Irish are taking the approach that other programs at their level of prestige do. And I don't see anything wrong with that.

 

Ah, I see that U-M is reverting back to kinesiology as a place to hide its football players after my former co-workers at The Ann Arbor News exposed the joke that is "general studies." Before kinesiology, it was LS&A - Literature, Science & Arts - another "all-encompassing" major.

U-M's a great academic school that isn't any different than other sports powers - it has lots of "rocks for jocks" majors.

 

Based on where he was before, I'm sure he's quite good at it.