Culture of Winning: The Missing Element at Notre Dame

In any sport, after the game is done, the analysis begins. Pundits and fans alike want to break down schemes and strategies, praise great plays, and criticize bad calls.

In a society that demands instant gratification, we are quick to point to failures and demand immediate action to remedy the problems.  We blame referees for blown calls, players for stupid mistakes, and coaches for the inability to create perfection on the playing field.

Our shortsightedness only allows us to see where our team is and where it should be. We lose all ability to see the route that must be taken.

I have been a Notre Dame fan since I started watching college football. I increased my love for the university when I chose to go there five years ago.

For five long years, I worked six days a week in the fall to improve Our Lady's baseball team, and on the seventh day, I rested and watched the fate of my fellow athletes on the gridiron.

I have seen the tremendous decrease in success that marked the end of the Willingham era (a fact that I will not preach on in this article) and the sudden change in fortune that ushered in the Weis regime.  I also was present for the debacle that was 2007.

I, like every other Notre Dame fan, asked myself, how can a team with such tradition struggle so much?  Like every Notre Dame fan and pundit, I pointed to our talent level and youth. I endured through 2007 knowing we were not ready and with the arrival of 2008 awaited the results that a year of seasoning would bring.

We are now six games into the season, and I am left asking, what is it I see?

Is this a team that can compete with top 25 teams and fight for a top-tier bowl? Is it a team that is too young and too inexperienced to succeed in the modern world of college football that demands fifth-year seniors and three-year starters as the core of the team? Is this a team with the talent, but without the leader to lead it to success?

All these are the things I have heard from the media, fan-boards, and fellow Domers as their expectations for the Irish team.

My answer: None of those things.

The 2008 Irish are a compilation of talented youngsters and a few valuable upperclassmen. It is a team built to excel offensively and survive defensively. It is a team that can show glimpses of elite ability without being able to hide its glaring holes.

Most importantly, it is a team lacking one element: a Winning Culture. This is the element that allows programs to become elite, to become one of the best year in and year out. It is an element that is created by moments, sustained by leadership, and guided by coaching.

It is an element that Notre Dame has not possessed in a long time.

I am sure many will agree with what I just said, but few will agree with what I am about to say. To create a culture of winning, the onus falls on the players. No coaches, no media, no fans...just players.

Having just completed my athletic playing career, I can tell you that coaches are overrated (but not unnecessary...big difference). The teams that win are the teams that have become accustomed to winning and accustomed to expecting to win.

Coaches can only serve one purpose in the culture of winning, and that is a caretaker. Coaches can keep the culture alive in the program by adding players that understand winning, getting rid of players who do not buy in, and by nourishing the culture through the tough times.

COACHES CANNOT CREATE THE CULTURE OF WINNING! Players create the culture. Players lead other players to it. The culture must be absorbed and expelled by the players for it truly matter.

What can Notre Dame do then? Persevere. The culture of winning starts with a core group and spreads through the others with victories, hard-fought battles, competition, and the pain of defeat. Each step along the path will attract one or two more players.

Eventually, there will come a moment when more of the team believes than does not.  At this moment, the program can take the next step towards elite status.

When will that happen? No one can say, for the culture of winning is the hardest thing to cultivate in a team and one of the easiest things to destroy.

So, for the rest of this year, I will watch in anticipation as my Irish take the field every Saturday. I will listen to those who cry out for Weis's head and those who want to "Bring Back the Glory," and I will remain silent.

The culture of winning is growing at Notre Dame, and I am ready to watch it bloom.