Notre Dame's Dark Ages: Can The Irish Return To Glory?

Days are already long and dark as fall gives way to winter in South Bend.

The black hole that has become the Notre Dame football program seemingly pulls in all light, from stunning losses to non-BCS opponents to a student videographer's death, the program is in what appears to be a death spiral.

It's been 22 years since Notre Dame claimed college footballs ultimate prize, and at least a decade since the Irish were a fixture at the upper end of the rankings.

Recent years have seen losses to a 2-8 team at home, three of four lost to Navy, and a loss to a mid-level Conference USA team at home. Three of the last four years, the Irish have been home for the holidays.

The program seems to be hitting an all new low. Can the Irish ever recover?

History says that they can.

There have been dark ages at Notre Dame before. There have been dark ages elsewhere as well.

Ohio State went 34 years between 1968 and 2002 without winning a National Championship. The Buckeyes also had to deal with embarrassing moments, stunning losses, a losing streak to their principal rival and a coach losing his mind on the sidelines.

The Buckeyes are perennial title contenders now. Always at the top of the rankings, the Buckeyes seem to reload rather than recruit.

The USC football program's own championship drought lasted 25 years between 1978 and 2003. The Trojans suffered through the 1980's and the first half of the 90's with little to cheer about. The Irish showed no mercy winning 12 straight games and 14 of 15 over that span before USC entered it's latest decade of dominance.

Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas and Alabama all have recorded down periods. They all have recovered.

A look back into Notre Dame's own history will also show evidence that a rise from the lowest depths is definitely possible.

Notre Dame has had championship droughts before.

Although the current 22 year span is the longest, there were 17 dry years between 1949 and 1956, 13 years between Rockne's last in 1930 and Leahey's first in 1943. There were 11 years elapsed between Dan Devine's ring-winning team and Lou Holtz's.

Still, those numbers do nothing to comfort Irish fans. Because it's not just the years, but the losing. We're not just not winning titles, we're not winning games. Period.

With winning comes the expectation to win, and loses are that much harder to take.

And this dark period is certainly quite bleak, but it is not the worst decade of Notre Dame football.

Following what can only be called Notre Dame's Golden Age—a 35-year stretch between 1918 and 1953 that saw Knute Rockne, Elmer Layden, and Frank Leahy roll up a 270-48-20 record (.796) and seven National Titles—the Irish program entered what would have to be it's first Great Depression.

Between 1954 and 1963 Notre Dame and coaches Terry Brennan, Joe Kuharich, and Hugh Devore struggled to a 51-48-0 mark (.515) with nothing resembling a national title.

The juxtaposition between the two periods had to feel at least a deep and as dark as this feels to us.

But then came the Era of Ara.

In 1964 Ara Parsegian arrived and immediately turned the program around. Taking a team that finished 2-8 in 1963 to a 9-1 mark and a mere minute of an undefeated and probable National Championship season.

Over the next 32 years between 1964 and 1996, what became Notre Dame's second Guilded Era, Parsegian, Dan Devine, to a lesser extent Gerry Faust and Lou Holtz coached the Irish to a 278-89-8 record (.741) and four National Titles.

Since 1997, the Irish have fluttered through the second-worst era of football since Rockne paced the sidelines in South Bend.

Coaches Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham, Charlie Weis, and Brian Kelly have given Notre Dame fans little to write home about.

The quartet has recorded a 95-73 mark (.565) with no championships.

But thanks to a sporadic nine or 10-win season, you can't find a length of consistent losing as long as the '54 to '63 stretch. 

It's bad, but not AS bad as the previous dark age.

Is any of that reason to believe that we are near the end of our football purgatory?

Well, no.

But there is reason to hope that it is not only possible, but probable.

Parsegian turned the program on a dime.

Holtz suffered through a bumpy 5-7 campaign before winning a championship in his third year following five years of the Faust Depression. 

Irish faithful must pray that Notre Dame has found the right coach in Brian Kelly, and that his tenure follows the Holtz model.

We must remember that culture is a hard thing to change. It takes more than a shortened recruiting season and some upbeat press conferences.

It will take time.

There are no five-second fixes.

There is also no reason to believe that all of the best days are history.