Connor,

Great article about the Irish, and I wish more Irish fans/supporters would read it, and GIVE IT SOME THOUGHT. People are so anxious to point the blame at one person, and I believe that is wrong. Of course, few if any of them have ever been the coach of any university or college football team, but they have all of the answers. Amazing is it not?

Connor, just want to say, though I may argue and gripe alot in the comments section of your articles, I really appreciate reading the articles, the food for thought, and the conscientious way you approach topics. Keep up the good work, and keep the faith!-in your Cubbies and Irish.
Though I am a White Sox fan, I secretly wish the Cubs well.

Connor,

You have a lot of writing talent, i'm very impressed with your work. You almost make Notre Dame sound like an appealing team! Just get them to lose that attitude...

Your potential is obvious, and if you'd like to get in touch with me we can talk about a future contract. Say, involving una casa ideal cerca de la playa, con cielos calor.

Forever young,

Your #1 fan

Question to ask the fans:

Would you rather be in Ohio State's situation or Notre Dame's situation. Winning and scandalous or Barely losing (while putting up big numbers) and prestigous.

If fans haven't noticed teams are getting better. 10 years ago Utah wouldn't have had a chance against USC's second string. Be happy that we aren't playing as bad as the 3-9 team. I think we are going to find less and less dynasties, futher fueling the need for a playoff.

Good articles keep it up.

Hey connor ND said they will allow 21 recruits in this class if you had to predict the most likely candidates for those seven who would they be?

Hey man I wrote an article about the Top 10 Pro Athletes Who Would Make Good UFC Fighters. Would love to hear what you think man. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/817080-10-pro-athletes-that-would-make-good-ufc-fighters

A MESSAGE TO MY NOTRE DAME FRIENDS:

I need some help. I need to get closure on the Declan Sullilvan tragedy that occurred Oct, 28, 2010.

I’m not a ND fan and was pretty upset about the way Brian Kelly left Cincinnati so when the Sullivan tragedy occurred, I probably said to myself “wouldn’t it be great if Kelly got fired.”

I’m not going to argue about whether he had the right to leave UC but I just didn’t like it.

As time went on I realized it was wrong to assign guilt in the collapse of the tower without knowing the facts---and I certainly didn’t know them.

I also realized it would be a terrible burden, and a tragedy of its own for someone to have to carry around the guilt if they were indeed responsible in any degree for Sullivan’s death.

It was wrong to even suggest that anyone involved (president, AD, coach, video crew, etc,) could be the slightest bit responsible without knowing the facts.

On the other hand I feel that there are still questions to be answered;

I want to know if this was an avoidable incident. I want to know how it happened.

I’ve read quite a lot about this and I’m still looking for closure.

As the season approaches I want to know if Notre Dame has sufficiently addresses this or whether they still have to take more responsibility.

I’m a Rutgers fan. If this occurred at Rutgers on a extremely windy day where everyone else in the Northeast cancelled outdoor practice I’d want to know every little detail I could.

I know that no one knows every little detail about the Sullivan death but I’d like to know whether or not you are satisfied with the way ND has explained what happened on Oct 28, 2010.

I want to know the way you saw it happening.

Thank you,
Jeff Kalafa

hey Connor do you have any idea when Jarron Jones will commit because his facebook wall leads me to believe he's Irish all the way.

Troy Hinds commited to BYU

A little perspective on Frank Leahy by Lou Somogyi that I think goes back to our top ND coaches debate:

2. I wrote about this a couple of years ago when Sporting News failed to mention Leahy among its 50 greatest coaches of all time. Here is an excerpt:

This isn’t a rant against SN, but rather a continuation of a mystery that continues to baffle me: Why is Leahy — such an easy, obvious choice — repeatedly overlooked in these type of surveys?

* He coached the same number of years as Rockne (13) and their records were almost identical. Rockne was 105-12-5 (.881) with three national titles, while Leahy was 107-13-9 (.864) with four national titles. They are 1-2 on the major college football all-time chart for winning percentage.

“Leahy is the greatest coach since World War II,” said Beano Cook, the “Pope of College
Football” for ESPN. “And you can make a case for him over Rockne as well, because Rockne didn’t have to chase ghosts. Leahy had to chase Rockne’s ghost — and he did just as well, if not better.”

* In his 13 seasons (two at Boston College and 11 at Notre Dame), Leahy finished unbeaten seven times. Think about how difficult that is to achieve. For example, Bear Bryant, No. 3 on this list and No. 1 among college football coaches, had three unbeaten seasons in his 25 years at Alabama (1958-82). Bobby Bowden (No. 24), who had an NCAA record 14 straight top 4 finishes from 1987-2000, had one unbeaten season during that time.

* Leahy had a 23-6-3 record against teams that finished in the final top 10 (13-6-3) or final top 20 (10-0). That .765 winning percentage is by far the greatest among any college football coach on Sporting News’ top 50 list. Leahy’s nearest rival from the list is Oklahoma’s Bud Wilkinson with a .618 percentage (20-12-2). Leahy defeated Wilkinson’s Sooners both times they met. Others on this list such as Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and even Parseghian finished under .500.

* No school ever played a more difficult schedule than Leahy’s 1943 Irish. They confronted the teams that finished 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11 and 13. Guess what — they still won the national title!

* Leahy’s four national titles are eclipsed only by Bryant’s six. However, Bryant is credited with national titles in 1964 and 1973. In both cases, Alabama lost its bowl game (to Texas in 1964 and Notre Dame in 1973). But because there was no voting by either the AP or UPI in 1964 after bowls, or by the UPI in 1973, they’re still counted as national title seasons.

* Leahy led Boston College to an 11-0 record in 1940, capped with a Sugar Bowl win versus 10-0 Tennessee and its Hall of Fame head coach, R.R. Neyland. Try going unbeaten at BC. No one has done it since then.

Prior to becoming a head coach at Boston College, Leahy was the line coach for Fordham’s legendary “Seven Blocks of Granite,” which included Lombardi, who would later embrace Leahy’s painstaking deal to fundamentals.

I keep racking my head trying to find an answer for why Leahy repeatedly is omitted and overshadowed.

During a CBS countdown several years ago of college football’s 10 greatest coaches of all time, Leahy wasn’t even mentioned. Three years ago when Notre Dame students unveiled “The Shirt” for a new football season, Charlie Weis was featured with his image next to school icons Rockne, Parseghian, Lou Holtz — with Leahy a conspicuous omission again.

Rockne was inducted posthumously into the College Football Hall of Fame in its inaugural year (1951). Parseghian and Dan Devine were both inducted within six years of coaching their final games. Holtz was inducted four years after his final game.

It took an unbelievable 17 years before Leahy received the same honor.

Why is this man repeatedly slighted?

My first thought is he coached only 13 years. Yet, Lombardi coached merely nine years at Green Bay (plus one with the Washington Redskins after taking a year off), and he’s No. 2 on this list.

My next thought was I often compared Leahy to Phil Jackson in that people thought Leahy always had all the talent — yet Jackson is No. 4 on the list. Plus, according to Cook, “almost all teams had a lot of material with everyone coming back from the war.”

I also wondered whether Leahy getting criticized for using fake injuries in the 1953 Iowa game tainted his reputation. But Wooden was No. 1 even though booster Sam Gilbert often is mentioned with illegally aiding UCLA’s recruiting. Again, this is in no way slighting people on the list, but rather trying to find a link as to what it is that makes Leahy so overlooked

Then I thought, “Well, with Rockne and Parseghian already on the list, they didn’t think it would be politically correct to have three Notre Dame coaches on it.” Yet the New York Yankees featured three managers (Casey Stengel, Joe McCarthy and Joe Torre). The Yankees and Notre Dame are America’s two most famous, and polarizing, sports teams.

Try as I did, I couldn’t find one legitimate, consistent reason to omit Leahy.

God rest his soul … but how does Schembechler make it with zero national titles in 21 years at a tradition-rich program, never mind a 4-11 record in the bowls he coached? Is that better than what Leahy achieved? It doesn’t even compare with Parseghian, Devine and Holtz, never mind Leahy.

I have postulated two main reasons why Leahy is probably so overlooked.

One is the way he exited. Rockne’s legend was elevated because of the way he tragically perished in a plane crash at age 43. Conversely, Leahy left unceremoniously on Jan. 31, 1954. The intimation is he was forced out with two years left on his contract and was no longer wanted while Notre Dame attempted to elevate its academic reputation under new president Rev. Theodore Hesburgh.

Second is what I refer to as “middle-child syndrome.” Rockne was the first, while Parseghian and Holtz revived the program after extremely lean cycles. Meanwhile, Leahy was still not yet a decade removed from Rockne’s tragic death, and predecessor Elmer Layden won 77 percent of his games at Notre Dame. He was neither the “first” like Rockne or the “saviors” such as Parseghian and Holtz.

The “middle man” often gets lost — sort of like unheralded quarterback Kevin McDougal was in between Golden Boy recruits Rick Mirer and Ron Powlus.

Think Jan Brady. Rockne was “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,” while Parseghian and Holtz were the latest and greatest whose prosperity occurred in the age of television. Meanwhile, Leahy was too good for his own good during his era.

But that’s no reason for him to be consistently ignored on these type of lists. Every time he is omitted, we will make a point of noting his achievements.

Maybe, just maybe, others might too some day.