Are The Irish Overlooking The D In Dantonio?

It was defense – or lack thereof – that did in Charlie Weis. It will take someone well versed in that less-appreciated aspect of college football to return Notre Dame to its winning tradition.

We’ve heard no end of potential suitors to replace Weis: Stoops, Meyer, Kelly and whoever else is winning big at the moment. Great offensive coaches all.

But the Irish already had a great offense, ranked statistically tenth in the nation. There was nothing wrong with their offensive coaching or recruiting.

Had Weis’s defensive backfield stopped Tate Forcier in the last few seconds, had the defensive line dug in to halt Navy’s predictable rushing game, and had the same squad put the onus on Dion Lewis’s running game, the Irish would have finished 9-3 and Charlie would still have a job.

Come to think of it, had the Notre Dame defense stopped just half of the Connecticut rushing duo of Jordan Todman and Andre Dixon, the Irish would be 10-2 and still in line for a BCS bowl.

To paraphrase Bill Clinton’s campaign slogan: “It’s the defense, stupid!”

Which brings me to suggest Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio as the South Bend Solution.

First off, Dantonio’s legacy is a balanced attack and a strong defense. No, he’s not a Jim Tressel conservative. His Spartans’ passing offense ranks first in the Big Ten this season, which may not be saying much.

But those who savor a Charlie Weis look-alike need to remember that the passing game only gets you so far. After all, the 6-6 Irish rank fifth nationally in passing yardage. Only one of the top BCS teams – Cincinnati - falls into the top ten passing ranks with Notre Dame.

  Passing is not necessarily the forte of national championship teams.

Dantonio’s defensive squads at MSU haven’t quite lived up to his feats at Ohio State in 2002 and 2003, when he was Jim Tressel’s defensive coordinator. His squads were one of the reasons the Bucks won the national championship in 2002, and ended up ranked fourth in 2003.

He has been criticized for the Spartans’ mediocre record this season. But his bright spots have included seeing junior linebacker Greg Jones, second in the FBS with 141 tackles, named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

And given the recruiting advantage of being head coach at ND, he would have the potential to develop a splendid defense to take a load off those storied Irish offensive squads.

There is a more compelling reason for the Irish to consider Dantonio. Somewhere gathering dust in the back of the athletic director’s safe is a paradigm, a yardstick that this superb program misplaced many years ago.

It should be used to measure candidates against the coach who best exemplifies Notre Dame’s success in the modern era – Ara Parseghian.

The comparisons between the two men are easy to find. Ara is Ohio-born. So is Mark. Both coached Ohio teams, Ara at Miami University and Mark at Cincinnati. Both are versed in Big Ten coaching, but not necessarily big winners there.

Parseghian came to Notre Dame with a 36-35-1 record after 8 years at Northwestern. While there he beat the Irish four times. Dantonio is 22-16 at Michigan State in three years. He handily beat the Irish two times and lost this year’s match up in a squeaker that could have gone either way.

Dantonio has beaten Michigan two out of three. He has vanquished Purdue three straight times. And why is that important to Notre Dame? Because those two Big Ten teams and MSU are 25 percent of the Irish ongoing football schedule.

Both Parseghian and Dantonio picked up pointers from men who understood the importance of balanced offenses and strong defenses- Ara under Woody Hayes and Dantonio under Earl Bruce and Jim Tressel.

Neither man graduated from Notre Dame, although Parseghian, a Miami University grad, was named an honorary ND alumnus at the end of his career there. Dantonio graduated from the University of South Carolina, and returned to Ohio to coach.

You say Mark is too old at age 53 to start with another team? A fine ND coach named Lou Holtz, who won a national championship there, was 49 in 1986 when he arrived in South Bend.

You say he’s too expensive? Considering what Notre Dame will pay to buy out Weis, any compensation required by Michigan State for Dantonio’s piddling annual $1.8 million in overall compensation and paltry $2 million longevity bonus would be a drop in the bucket.

Religion? Ara was a Presbyterian when he began his career at Notre Dame. Dantonio is an unabashed Catholic who sees his career as a ministry.  He’s a religious man whose focus is on the welfare of his players and assistant coaches.

Are there other coaches out there who can provide the missing D in Notre Dame’s game plan? Could be. But how do they measure up against the Ara Paradigm?