"Bread & Circus" At Oregon State
UHND.com - Ronny P. Kaye

     Let's begin by giving Dennis Erickson credit for displaying a shred of class the Monday before last. He could have won that game 72-3 if he'd wanted, but he wisely (and perhaps uncharacteristically) called off the hounds after Notre Dame's spirit had been broken in the 3rd quarter. Perhaps Coach Erickson's NFL experience has taught him that excessive reaction to good fortune has a way of offending the football gods. I'm not saying I approve of Erickson's methods, but ask yourself how merciful Jimmy Johnson or any of a dozen other coaches would have been in that circumstance. 

    That said, we fans have to wonder whether the Irish coaching staff or players watched any tape at all of OSU or prepared for that game with any dedication to the notion of competing. You could tell by the way the captains walked out for the coin toss this was going to be one of those nightmares.   Nevertheless, the Irish did compete throughout the 1st half, and were still fighting until a fluke bounce off a fumbled punt shattered their faith. Yes, it's a major gut ache to watch our Irish take beatings like this, but if you're of my generation you've seen worse--the 40-6 drubbing from Nebraska in the 1973 Orange Bowl and the 55-24 grotesquerie at USC in 1974 are most vivid in my memory.

     And Notre Dame survived and thrived after those disasters, as they did after the Miami calamity in 1985, and as they will after this latest debacle.

     The question is, how quickly and in what manner will Notre Dame recover? 

    I'd guess that 99% of Notre Dame fans feel as I do, that Notre Dame must compete to win national championships every year, but not on the same terms as a Nebraska or a Florida State or this recent Oregon State outfit. Contrary to myth, Notre Dame has not always been a paragon of fair play, as investigation into the ways and means of Messrs. Rockne and Leahy will inform you. But at least since the 1950s Notre Dame has done its business in noble fashion--they are, after all, the New York Yankees of college football--adapting to circumstances as necessary. Their championships are legitimate, won by actual college students playing football.

     However.

     The lack of mental and physical preparation for the Fiesta Bowl, and the total dismantling of a solid Irish team by hoodlums wearing orange-and-black uniforms, demonstrates the need for a reconfiguring of the talent base. Notre Dame's team as currently assembled cannot compete against teams with 20% graduation rates for the simple reason that those programs are putting not conventional athlete-students on the field but apprentice professionals. Football is by nature a territorial war among barbarians, and in a match-up between barbarians and gentlemen, the former are going to win.

     No one is suggesting that Notre Dame recruit 25 jucos the way Coach Erickson has done at Oregon State. None of us would support that kind of Irish team. But in the days of the immortal coaches at Notre Dame, intelligent and ferocious players have been brought in who not only matched their opponents' orneriness but were smarter and of better character than their foes. Three names that always come to mind for me are Chris Zorich, Wes Pritchett, and Michael Stonebreaker. Were those nasty fellows unworthy of wearing the blue-and-gold? 

On the 2000 team, Anthony Denman and Rocky Boiman have made a similar impression, as have a few others. Things have improved.

     Still, Notre Dame has reigned supreme for a century not by mimicking the tactics of temporarily successful programs but by perfecting its own methods.  Notre Dame has until recently moved away from its traditional recruiting base in the Northeast and Midwest and spent far too much time in Florida and Texas. The traditional Notre Dame champion comes from Pennsylvania, not Florida.  (The traditional Florida star has a brief career of sound and fury and then is heard no more.) When Notre Dame starts bringing in 80% of its recruits from Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, you'll know the signs are right for a return to the throne.

     Let's end by not remaining too glum over what AD Kevin White accurately described as a "terribly sobering" encounter in the Fiesta Bowl. Notre Dame and its staff got overwhelmed by hard-nosed, cold-blooded professionals who examined their opponent, dissected its weaknesses, laid out a blueprint for total victory, and then went out and executed, in more ways than one. The ocean of orange-clad yahoos in Tempe, who have never met nor ever will meet personally the mercenaries "representing" their university on that field, rejoiced in Oregon State's biggest football win ever. It was their night to strut with kings.

     For Notre Dame, it was their 12th bowl game of the year, and that made our weary gladiators the ideal designated sacrifice to appease Oregon State's breathless, bloodthirsty, bread-and-circus crowd.

     Play like a champion today.

Ronny P Kaye
kayesell@aol.com
    
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