Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly knows the importance of staying on message and he has been consistent all spring.
There were some dark days at Notre Dame and Alabama, dark years really, during which two of college football's proudest programs flailed and foundered.
At a time when college football was generally considered the domain of eastern blue bloods, Notre Dame and Alabama were upstart teams that gave blue collar fans a chance to tweak the elite.
Skip Holtz wasn't without a head coaching job for long.
Skip Holtz has been fired as South Florida's football coach following the worst season in the program's 16-year history, a person familiar with the decision said Sunday.
Skip Holtz was fired as South Florida's football coach after two straight losing seasons in which the program fell back instead of progressed.
Skip Holtz has been fired as South Florida's football coach following the worst season in the program's 16-year history, a person familiar with the decision said Sunday.
The third year of a head coach's tenure is a Notre Dame bellwether.
Brian Kelly appears to be the coach with all the right answers.
Brian Kelly appears to be the coach with all the right answers.
That sound emanating from South Bend this week isn't the echoes of past greatness waking up. It's the knees of everyone with a stake in Notre Dame football knocking together. It's been a long time since they had anything to be nervous about.
No, the exultations aren't entirely correct after Notre Dame's 30-13 defeat of Oklahoma on Saturday.
The old saying goes that the third time's the charm. At Notre Dame, historically the third time's been the national championship. Or else.
The Catholics vs. Convicts T-shirts, they're likely faded now. No one expects a reprise of the so-called "tussle in the tunnel" this time around. And any sense of venomous back-and-forth dialogue simply has been nonexistent this week.
Notre Dame is coming to the Atlantic Coast Conference -- and they're bringing two of the Four Horsemen with them.
"He said, `Aww, Coach, I'll be the guy that goes down as the guy that couldn't beat Notre Dame,'" Holtz said. "He wanted to beat Notre Dame so bad and he could never do it."
coach Lou Holtz said that always stuck with Bryant, recounting a conversation he had with the late Hall of Fame coach when Bryant retired.
