Hiring Head Coaches has been ND’s Achilles heel.
it‘s difficult to understand how ND could make so many bad choices.
Brennan, Kuharich, Devore, Faust, Davie, Willingham, Weiss*
I would “guess” and it’s only a guess, that the AD, VP and President caucus with the ultimate decision with the President, unless he cedes it to the VP or AD.
Historically I don’t understand how you can make so many bad decisions and worse yet, how do you not learn from your bad decisions ?
I’ll be forever puzzled !
There's, of course, a common thread to all of this, though, like you say, it's DIFFICULT to pinpoint.
But I'd venture that it's rooted in the fact that ND's relationship to its football team has always been CONDITIONAL. Whereas in places like Bama, LSU, OSU, etc. it's UNCONDITIONAL AND ALL IN, even during more fallow periods.
At most other universities, there is no MATERIAL GAP between the educational mission and the sporting missiion. At ND, sports are clearly SUBORDINATE as a matter of PRINCIPLE. Which makes it easier to grow complacent when they appear to be SUCCEEDING ON AUTOPILOT.
I get the feeling ND just doesn't WANT to INTERVENE. Doesn't want to be SEEN as being TOO CONCERNED.
Only when the S truly HTF does ND wake up and go into DAMAGE CONTROL. Which as one poster put it, is always a LITTLE TOO LATE.
But that may change if ND intends to KEEP PACE. The more the game becomes MONETIZED, the quicker college coaches will GET THE HOOK.
Still, my fear with Freeman -- assuming he screws up -- is that ND will give him more than ONE CHANCE to turn HALF A LOAF into a FULL ONE.
They did that with both Faust and Davie, and pretty soon, A MISERABLE FIVE YEARS HAD PASSED.