DAVIE PUTS CLUBS AWAY; NOT CONCERNS
By Joe Tybor
IrishEyes NewsService Writer

NOTRE DAME, Ind. (IE) - With a week to go before the
start of training camp, Bob Davie has put away the
golf sticks, but not his concerns.

For the past couple of weeks, Davie and his coaches
have been in meetings from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.-with time
out for lunch, of course-plotting out the training
schedule, the initial depth chart, the expectations
and the minefields for the upcoming season which gets
underway early for the Irish-August 28 against Kansas
in the Eddie Robinson Classic.

"We've got a heckuva challenge, but all of us also
realize the potential this team has," Davie said when
IrishEyes last talked to him July 23 at the annual
coaches/media golf fest-this year at Juday Creek in
Mishawaka.

"There's a bit of momentum going on right now with
this football team, particularly because how hard our
football players have worked. We're all putting those
golf clubs away, we're not going to see our families a
whole lot, we realize the challenges ahead of all of
us, but we also realize what an exciting time it is as
well.

"We feel good about this football team. We've got a lot
of good, young talented players on this team. Is it
going to be easy? No! but I think we have a chance to
have something special."

--0-

ALL ABOARD: Davie said every one of the scholarship
players attended summer session, which allowed them to
work out, bulk up and sweat under the tutelage of
strength and conditioning guru Mickey Marotti. They've
worked in the steamy hot summer sun seven or eight
hours a week-trying to improve the tangibles and
intangibles: strength, speed, conditioning, mental
toughness, team cohesiveness and unity..

IrishEyes golfed in a fivesome that included
offensive coordinator Kevin Rogers, who donned his
familiar title of quarterbacks coach since the end of
spring sessions-an unsurprising development given his
experience and track record coaching the position.
Rogers said quarterback Jarious Jackson is healed from
the knee injury, looks terrific and has been hanging
out on some weekends with former Rogers' student
Donovan McNabb, who was holding out from the Eagles.

With practice about to unfold, there are several
concerns for Davie and his staff: Forget the green
offensive line for the moment. Davie is always one to
consider the well-being of his players. This year,
there is the concern of early burnout-even before the
season begins.

With the early opener against Kansas and an earlier
than usual practice start, players who have been on
campus since the start of the summer session June 15
won't have any break from the end of summer classes to
the day they are due to report. Upperclassmen are to
sign in on Aug. 5 - a day after the official end of
summer school.

Except for weekends, scholarship team members have
been on campus all summer and won't have any break
until the Christmas break. Davie examined the
possibility of breaking up the monotony of the scenery
by investigating off-campus sites where the Irish
might have their two-a-days. He looked at places like
Anderson College, Indians Wesleyan University in Marion
and Goshen College, but couldn't find the right
combination of factors.

That just means Davie learns his lessons well. It was
only four years ago, that Lou Holtz took his Irish to
Culver Academy to work out in the sauna-like heat and
on a field that was low and soft. The rooms for the
players then were not airconditioned and, led by
Derrick Mayes, many of the players ended up sleeping
on bleachers in the indoor ice rink. Reports by
IrishEyes and others coming out of training camp then
painted a grueling pre-season training session for
the Irish, which had then Northwestern coach Gary
Barnett beaming. He figured the Irish would be fatigued
and ripe for an upset, which of course they were: the
Wildcats won 17-15.

Davie has a long memory.

"I would have liked to get them away from campus, but
only if we found a facility that I felt good about.
All those places ( he looked into) were nice places,
but with each one there was something that kept me from
doing it-either no air conditioning in the dormitory or
the practice field was not exactly what I thought
comfortable putting our kids on.

"With each one, there was some little glitch and, in
the end, I just didn't think it was worth it, to risk
it just for the idea of getting them away."

Davie will still try to break the monotony of training
camp on campus. Instead of holding two-a -day sessions
on the regular practice fields, Davie will utilize the
recreational fields on campus. One of his plans is to
use the rec field behind Welsh Hall adjacent to the
ninth fairway on the old golf course for practice
sessions up until game week of Kansas.

"I think it's something that could be pretty neat,"
Davie said. "There are beautiful fields-just to have
more of a training camp atmosphere and a different
atmosphere.

"You don't want to make too big a deal out of it. The
bottom line is we're starting a little bit earlier, we
have a 12th game and we're not going to get carried
away. That's reality. The kids don't get a chance to
get home. We're not going to make a big issue out of
it, but I would like to do something just a little bit
different because those kids have conditioned all
summer on those practice fields -just to get away from
it and to change the routine a little bit."

--0-

NO MAS: Davie doesn't want to get into a feuding match
with Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, who bristled earlier
this summer that the Irish were playing Kansas a week
before what had been both teams scheduled opener at Ann
Arbor. Michigan officials have groused that there was
a gentleman's agreement to mean that when Michigan and
Notre Dame played, it would be the first game of the
season for both teams.

There's no question that the opener against Kansas
helps out the Irish. It's a team they should handle,
and the experience will give their new offensive line a
little more time to get used to each other under game
conditions.

"I never talked to Lloyd (Carr) about it, but honestly
you've got to do what you got to do for your program,"
Davie said. "It's tough enough coaching one team and
worrying about the issues with your team. I think you
do what's best for your program, and everybody is going
to put a lot of thought into every decision they make,
particularly involving a 12th game."

Davie said he never heard anything about a gentleman's
agreement between Michigan and Notre Dame.

Davie sought the 12th game, he said, primarily because
it gives his team a chance to play at home with an
inexperienced offensive line rather than open on the
road with two tough opponents in the Wolverines and
Purdue.

"Having that opening game in your stadium with that
young offensive line, I think that's it (the reason for
the early opener) really. With the mechanics involved
in the game, and the checks at the line of scrimmage
and trying to get kids' feet on the ground. I think
it's simply playing a home game (that's the big
advantage). Playing at Michigan and playing at Purdue-
that's a chore-for anybody in the country-any team in
this country with veteran players coming back."

Davie denied trying to dodge Indiana as an opponent in
the Eddie Robinson Classic,but he realizes he dodged a
bullet in not having to face the potent Hoosier option
offense. Navy, which the Irish don't meet until Oct.
30, is the only option team on the Irish schedule this
year.

"That wasn't something that I particularly wanted to
do because of the style of their quarterback and the
option facets of their game," Davie said of Indiana.
"Look at our early schedule-Kansas, Michigan, Purdue,
Michigan State, Oklahoma, Arizona State-you just keep
going with it. You're looking at a lot of passing teams
and you're looking at no option. So to take a certain
part of your training camp and devote it to the option
doesn't really help us for the season."

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ALL HANDS READY: Davie gives a clean bill of health to
his team a week before the start of workouts, and he
also got some good news. Kicker Jim Sanson and
defensive back Brock Williams, who were both involved
in alcohol-related incidents this summer, got the go-
ahead from Notre Dame officials to stay on the team.
They both face probation and community service, but
Davie is glad both will be back.

"The university is the decision-maker as to whether the
kid will be eligible to play or not eligible," Davie
noted. "I felt good about it-a lot of thought went into
it, a lot of discussion went into it. I'm glad for
both those kids and I think both those kids deserve to
play for our football team in the fall."

Davie said someone like Sanson can be "a great message-
sender" about the abuse of alcohol.

"He has a message that not only can be beneficial to
our footballt team, but I think to our people on
campus and people in this community. He's a good
person to give that message. I feel confident that he
deserves to be on our football team and be able to
play his senior year. So, to me, there is closure on it.

"Now, as we all know, you usually get a second chance,
but you don't get a third chance and Jim understands
that as well."

--0-

ADIEU: The word is that offensive lineman Jeff Roehl,
who had potential to become a two-year starter, has
decided to leave Notre Dame and will probably end up at
Northwestern. Roehl was a USA Today honorable mention
All-American and worked with the No. 2 unit at right
guard through the first half of spring drills. He
left the team team before the second-to-last spring
scrimmage. Word is that Roehl had a difficult freshman
year adjusting to the fact that his girlfriend was
denied admission to Notre Dame.
Roehl attended Sandburg High School in Orland Park,
Ill., a suburb of Chicago, and the same school where
former Irish practice QB Zak Kustok played his senior
year. Kustok left Notre Dame during last season and
enrolled at Northwestern when the QB field got too
crowded with Jackson and Arnaz Battle. IrishEyes
hears that Northwestern officials are trying to get
Kustok NCAA eligibility so that he might participate
this season.

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FORE-GONE: Even with Kevin Rogers' deteriorating
arthritic hip--which he hopes to replace with an
artificial replacement after this upcoming season-and
the mopey swing of Joe Tybor of IrishEyes, the
IrishEyes fivesome which also included assistant
sports information director Mike Enright and Irish beat
writer Roman Modrowski for the Chicago Sun-Times came
in a respectable second in the scramble tournament with
Irish coaches and media last week. Dean Huppert,
sports director for WSJV-Fox TV in Elkhart was the big
hitter for us boys and led the way. The IrishEyes
fivesome started out sizzling, birdied the first three
holes and didn't have a bogey all day. Still, we
couldn't manage a big putt, wasted several birdie and
two eagle opportunities to finish four under in the
scramble tournament.. For the second year in a row,
IrishEyes beat out the team of receivers coach Urban
Meyer, perhaps the most intensely competitive golfer
we've seen since Lou Holtz himself.

The golf season wasn't a total loss for Meyer. Earlier
in the summer, Meyer scored a hole-in-one on the 190-
yard 12th hole of the Knollwood West Course. It's not
a fish story either. He did it with Davie and defensive
coordinator Greg Mattison watching.

By the way, the new ND golf course,designed by Ben
Crenshaw, won't be ready for the public until next
year. It's supposed to be a beaut! It will get some
soft play this fall from the heavy-hitters-financial
contributors and the like.
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POOCH PUNTS: Is the NCAA decision on Kim Dunbar and
Notre Dame imminent? Everyone thought the hammer would
fall by the end of July. Who knows when, now? . .Shane
Walton, the 5-11, 185-pound soccer star-turned
defensive back, impressed the Irish coaching staff so
much during spring drills that he received a
scholarship and will devote fulltime to football this
fall. Freshmen due in Aug. 2; first practice Aug. 3.