Notre Dame Football: Learn from the Best

In a time when accountability has faded and there aren't enough fingers to point the blame, head coaches are the ones who take the heat. Not the 22 players on the field, not the six guys on the court, not the five skaters on the ice, not the nine guys on the diamond. "Of course it was not Muhammad Ali's fault when he lost to Frazier, his trainer failed," is the attitude of today's sports fans. 

The heat could not be any hotter than it is for Charlie Weis as Notre Dame comes to the crossroads with yet another head coach. Media outlets across the country say Weis' tenure is through at Notre Dame; the alumni has "had enough" of him and even the student body has given up on their programs leader. AD Jack Swarbrick will most likely spread the word behind closed doors that the head coaching job is up for grabs, and they will begin the process of looking for a new Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator, Defensive Coordinator, etc.

"He wasn't able to get the job done", "Couldn't win the big game", "He's not a head coach", "Had five years and couldn't win a national championship," have all been said countless times. In South Bend, "execution" (of the gameplan) is a forbidden word and every loss is taken as a reflection of Weis' inability as a Head Coach. The latest news stories don't surround the issue of whether or not he will be fired, but around who will replace him. The big names mentioned have been Gruden (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Patterson (TCU), Peterson (Boise State), Kelly (Cinncinati), Stoops (Oklahoma), and Harbaugh (Stanford). 

Before Notre Dame throws their coach to the wolves, as they will at the end of the season, they should take a look at some of the greatest coaches of all time and learn that winning championships is a process; it takes time, and requires patience.

John Wooden is considered to be the greatest Head Coach of all time. His record of having won 10 National Championships in 12 years is well known amongst sports fans. It's not the winning percentage or the conference titles by which the great coaches are judged, but national titles...and nobody has ever been able to duplicate what Wooden accomplished. What most do not realize however, is that it took him 16 years to win his first national title.

Joe Paterno is another candidate for one of the greatest coaches of all time with his impressive career at Penn State. It is well documented that he has the most wins as a coach in college football history. Many don't know that it took him 17 years to win his first national championship even though he previously had three undefeated seasons with the Nittany Lions.

Dean Smith is right up there with Wooden and Paterno as one of college's greatest all-time coaches; and like those two, it took him some time before he won his first National Title for the University of North Carolina. 21 years, to be exact, and 10 years to win an NIT Championship. He didn't win his second NCAA Championship until 11 years after the first.

Those are three of the best college coaches of all time, and while they are known for winning National Titles, and being some of the most winning coaches ever, the road to their destination was much longer than most realize. Are there great coaches who won quicker? Of course; Bear Bryant won his first title in six years, but it wasn't for another 11 that he won his second (with a different school). However, there are many more coaches like the three mentioned above who took over a decade to win their first title.

Some of those guys are basketball coaches which is different, you might say. Well how about Bobby Bowden who is neck and neck with Joe Paterno for the most winning coach in college football? It took him 18 years to win his first national championship at Florida State.

In the end our mothers were right when they said "good things come in time" and "Rome wasn't built in a day." To be successful in life, and in sports, you have to be patient, take your time and do things the right way, not the easy way. The easy thing for Notre Dame would be to listen to the alumni, the fans, and the student body and send Weis packing. As they most likely will do, because in today's climate it's "what have you done for me lately." 

For all the student athletes that were a part of Wooden's, Smith's, Paterno's, and Bowden's first national championship teams, thank god that your school had the vision and the patience to let your coaches develop the program without the AD having a stopwatch at hand.

It might not be fair to compare Weis, or anyone else for that matter, to these coaches, but the message remains. Notre Dame, practice what you preach! If you want your students to follow the ways of God, conduct themselves with class and character and do the right thing when times are tough, then you yourself should do the same. Don't take it from me, take it from the best college coaches of all time.