Three Guys in a Basement

As everyone in America almost certainly now knows (Charlie’s firing was even the NYTimes top story for a while this afternoon), Charlie is packing up the office today.  I feel bad for the big guy, as I think he was a hard worker and showed that ND could still recruit with the best programs in the country, but he was never more than a very good to great offensive coordinator.  Already, my #1 hope, Bob Stoops, appears to have pulled his name out.  I’m hoping that he is playing coy, but it did seem like a better denial than others he has stated previously.  Plus, he doesn’t seem like the Nick Saban type where you really can’t trust a denial, like Saban at Miami a few years back.

So, here are a few of my thoughts:

1.  I want a proven winner:  This gives us Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, Brian Kelly (who for whatever you want to say about him, he has won at every stop), Gary Patterson and countless others.  It gives also gives us pro coaches like Gruden, Shanahan or Cowher.  It’s important to me, at least, that they have won at a big program with big expectations.  For me, that eliminates Kelly.  I know that I thus have a huge and possibly unrealistic ideal, but most ideals are hard to reach.

2.  I want a college coach:  While Gruden can win and he does seem to be the type of coach who can motivate, I want proof.  These are college kids who need to be motivated.  Weis is a great Xs and Os guy.  That doesn’t make someone a great college coach because motivation is half the battle.  Holtz was a great motivator.  Rockne was a legendary motivator.  Pete Carroll, for everything that I hate about him, actually seems to be the type of guy who the players feed off of.  CW was not that guy.  I feel that more college guys are that guy, and I don’t trust a pro coach to be that guy.  So, give me a college coach.

3.  I want a defensive coach:  Offense wasn’t really our problem.  Sure, it would be fun to see Kelly hang 50 on teams.  But I’m scared that he’d give up 40.  At some point, a team needs to play defense.  That is something that Patterson at TCU does.  I like that.  Stoops really does it well.  He just shut out OSU who had a high flying offense.  ND makes other teams offenses look good… we could use some of that coaching acumen here in South Bend.

Alright… I really want Bob Stoops.  After he truly turns us down, then I will move on from that.  I just can’t do it.  He didn’t actually say that he will not come to Notre Dame.  So we will see.  Maybe he could talk JC into staying for Year 4, to refute Walters’s article about him from yesterday?  In fact, here is my eternal optimist coming out: A Stoops hire = ND national championship by 2012.

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