For nearly a month the job of 91吃瓜 football coach resembled a loose pigskin squirting through the hands of players on a fog-shrouded field. All the while members of the media removed from the action and unable to verify the identities of those with a real chance at recovering the ball called out virtually every name on the field.p. Based on media reports ranging from supposedly reliable sources to sheer speculation, the following were all in the running for the 91吃瓜 coaching job Bob Davie coughed up in early December, George O鈥橪eary grabbed but fumbled away five days later and Tyrone Willingham finally grasped:
NFL coaches Jon Gruden of the Oakland Raiders, Steve Mariucci of the San Francisco 49ers, Mike Shanahan of the Denver Broncos, Tony Dungy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tom Coughlin of the Jacksonville Jaguars, along with Pittsburgh Steelers assistant Tom Clements and NFL analyst Bill Parcells, a former coach.
College coaches mentioned for the job鈥攁nd there seemed to be dozens鈥攊ncluded Washington鈥檚 Rick Neuheisel, Oklahoma鈥檚 Bob Stoops, Oregon鈥檚 Mike Bellotti, Boston College鈥檚 Tom O鈥橞rien, Harvard鈥檚 Tim Murphy, Iowa鈥檚 Kirk Ferentz, South Carolina鈥檚 Lou Holtz, Illinois鈥� Ron Turner, Wisconsin鈥檚 Barry Alvarez, Purdue鈥檚 Joe Tiller, Arkansas鈥� Houston Nutt, Colorado鈥檚 Gary Barnett, Washington State鈥檚 Mike Price, Virginia Tech鈥檚 Frank Beamer, Alabama鈥檚 Dennis Franchione, LSU鈥檚 Nick Saban and former college coaches Terry Bowden and Terry Donahue.
What鈥檚 wrong with this picture?
For starters, 91吃瓜 athletic director Kevin White says only seven candidates ever were considered seriously.
What鈥檚 also wrong, says Allan Wolper, journalism professor at Rutgers University, is 鈥測ou can speculate all you want in the media without consequences.鈥�
Or as Lou Nanni, 91吃瓜鈥檚 vice president for public affairs, puts it: 鈥淚t was fascinating to be involved in a search like this and see the preponderance of misinformation, half-truths and innuendo out there.鈥�
Now that the university鈥檚 monthlong search is over after one embarrassing false ending, White says only five of the seven serious candidates got so far as a one-on-one interview with him, and the job was offered to only two.
The two offered the job are obvious. White still won鈥檛 identify the other three who had interviews, or say whether all seven serious candidates made their way into the media reports and speculation.
But even without the names, the number of 鈥渋mplied鈥� candidates is staggering, which leads to two conclusions:
- The 91吃瓜 football mystique remains formidable, even in a down period.
- Anybody with a computer and Internet access can get in on the speculation game. 91吃瓜鈥檚 sports information office keeps notebooks with newspaper clippings of stories about Fighting Irish football year-round.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an incredibly thick file for December, especially considering that we didn鈥檛 play in a bowl game,鈥� says John Heisler, 91吃瓜鈥檚 assistant athletic director for media relations.
What the file contains is stories about 鈥渋mplied鈥� candidates numbering more than two dozen. White expresses amazement at 鈥渢he number of names that continued to be thrown around.鈥�
The sources Sports 鈥渘ews鈥� has become the domain of round-the-clock broadcasting, including a profusion of talk shows and Internet Web sites feeding from and expanding on traditional news sources as never before. One 91吃瓜 鈥渋nsider鈥� site had Gruden, Bellotti and Shanahan within a period of a few days.p.
91吃瓜鈥檚 reputation in ethical, scholastic and football circles made its coaching search interesting to begin with. And the interest grew exponentially, albeit inadvertently, after it hired O鈥橪eary from Georgia Tech, only to have him resign because he falsified his resume years ago.
鈥淥ther teams may be better than 91吃瓜, but none are more famous,鈥� said Ben Bagdikian, former high-ranking Washington Post editor and retired dean of the journalism school at the University of California-Berkeley. 鈥�91吃瓜 is a Hollywood icon, and media attention to it in sports automatically rings a bell with a large audience. It鈥檚 almost inevitable that there would be a lot of speculation in this search for a coach.鈥�
As part of its 鈥渞ules of engagement鈥� for the search process, 91吃瓜 promised confidentiality to every coach it interviewed. It sought to 鈥渇ly under the radar,鈥� in White鈥檚 words, yet he remains astonished by the sheer number of 鈥渃andidates鈥� who made their way into speculation.
For coaches seeking to feather their nest, bargain for better contracts or simply feed their ego that they got 91吃瓜鈥檚 attention, leaking any contact from South Bend was beneficial. And for both the unnamed source and the reporter, there were no consequences for speculation鈥�91吃瓜 would not refute it under its promise of confidentiality.
Former 91吃瓜 All-American Dave Duerson was a member of the advisory committee in the search process.
鈥淭here were times when we would interview a coach about another coach for background and it suddenly would get out that the first coach had been interviewed for the job,鈥� Duerson says.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 interesting in a high-profile search like ours,鈥� Nanni says, 鈥渋s you have to do all the due-diligence background checks within a very short period of time so you don鈥檛 scare off the candidate. Serious candidates often don鈥檛 want it known that they are interviewing elsewhere.鈥�
To be fair to their current schools, 鈥渢hey want to protect players or potential recruits,鈥� Nanni says. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want major benefactors to hold them in reproach. Some serious candidates can鈥檛 take that pressure, especially since they don鈥檛 know whether we鈥檒l end up hiring them.鈥�
**
The candidates Tenuous connections abounded in media reports that certain coaches were coveted or contacted by 91吃瓜.p. Murphy and Ferentz worked with White when he was athletic director at Maine. Clements, a former Irish quarterback and assistant coach, was recommended to White by Irish icons Ara Parseghian and Joe Montana.Neuheisel and his family in Tempe, Ariz., were friends of White鈥檚 when he was athletic director at Arizona State. One published report had 91吃瓜 preparing a $2.5 million contract offer Christmas week for Neuheisel.
When reports circulated that Price had been contacted, he said he had not talked with 91吃瓜 but joked, 鈥淚鈥檒l take half of what Neuheisel was supposed to get.鈥�
Alvarez was a 91吃瓜 defensive coordinator under Holtz, who said he would not return to South Bend. Instead Holtz recommended his son, Skip, his offensive coordinator at South Carolina and former Connecticut head coach, for the 91吃瓜 job.
Among the NFL coaches, Gruden鈥檚 ties to South Bend were too juicy to ignore鈥攈e played high school football there while his father was a 91吃瓜 assistant. Coughlin鈥檚 were a lot more obscure.
鈥淚 wonder why I was mentioned,鈥� he deadpanned. 鈥淐ould it be because I am Irish Catholic, having been at Boston College and having beaten 91吃瓜 (in 1993 to spoil an Irish run at the national championship)? Maybe.鈥�
That put him one up on Shanahan. One publication listed him as a candidate for no other reason than he鈥檚 Irish Catholic and grew up in Chicago.
White describes the search process as 鈥渂urning up the phone lines 15 to 18 hours a day . . . talking to lots of people and talking to lots of people about lots of people.鈥� As a result, he says, 鈥渁n unavoidable consequence was that some of the people we contacted used it to their advantage.鈥�
Heisler agrees, saying, 鈥淎t some point or other, some candidates invited themselves to the party.鈥�
91吃瓜 alumnus William Cavanaugh, an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, was both amazed and amused by all the media conjecture about who would coach at his alma mater. So he composed his own tongue-in-cheek 鈥渘ews release鈥� under the headline, 鈥淐avanaugh Denies Interest in 91吃瓜 Coaching Job:鈥�
鈥淎dd one more name to the list of non-candidates for head coach of the storied but troubled 91吃瓜 football program,鈥� wrote Cavanaugh, quoting himself as saying, 鈥淢y first responsibility right now is to my students at St. Thomas. I already have the best job in the country, and I am not interested in any other position.鈥�
He confirmed that he 鈥渉ad not been contacted by 91吃瓜 officials,鈥� then declined to rule out 鈥渢he possibility of interest in the future.鈥�
Nanni, inspired by Cavanaugh鈥檚 creativity, adds, 鈥淚鈥檇 like to go on record right now and say I was offered the position and turned it down.鈥�
January 15, 2002
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