Dear Prudence

Won't You Come Out To...Do Something!

November 20, 2004

Dr. Kevin White
Athletic Director
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

Dear Dr. White:

We’re all acquainted with the tradition of giving inadequate head coaches five years on their contracts to hang themselves and burn down the Notre Dame football program, but that is an arbitrary and dangerous policy – especially as Notre Dame flirts with two decades of irrelevance. It’s over with Coach Willingham. He’s a stand-up guy who wanted success, but it’s not happening. It’s not going to happen. He simply isn’t up to it, despite his and your best intentions.

Now, It’s only a matter of time before Notre Dame is looking for a new head coach to turn this dying program around. You know it. I know it. More than 90% of South Bend Tribune readers know it. More than 80,000 fans sitting in Notre Dame Stadium know it. He’s too proud to admit it, but Coach Willingham probably knows it, too. Let’s not ignore the 500 lb. gorilla sitting in the middle of the room. The athletic department can move to solve this problem now, or simply watch the decay continue for a couple more years. We’ll end up in the same coaching search either way.

Coach Willingham’s career record hovered just above .500 before he came to Notre Dame, and it remains there now. That’s what he brings. We should not be surprised or disappointed. You hired him, and he brought what he is to the job: inconsistency and mediocrity. You took a shot with him after O’Leary lied, and he could not rise to the task. Now, will the ND athletic department’s Nero play his fiddle while the program burns?

Only two questions remain: Will you be remembered as the man who handled the hiring or firing of three head coaches and dropped the ball? Or, will you be remembered as the athletic director who recognized that the program was dying and who acted on his responsibilities in time to send a message that mediocrity will not be tolerated at Notre Dame?

With respect,
John Scott Lewinski