A repost on Corrigan's view of the hiring

by Domer99, John Wesley Powell's Expedition Island, Friday, March 23, 2012, 09:09 (4409 days ago) @ Bill

Notre Dame football: Corrigan's preparation led to Holtz hire
Originally printed at http://www.wsbt.com/sports/78108732.html

SOUTH BEND - Gene Corrigan really did have a list in his desk drawer that he massaged and updated from time to time until there came an occasion to use it.
It not only made it easier for him to spot greatness, but to land it.
"But you have to remember, things were different then," said the former Notre Dame athletic director, who inherited Gerry Faust (30-26-1) as his head football coach and eventually replaced him with Lou Holtz (100-30-2).

"Gerry was in the last year of a five-year deal. We knew by midseason (of 1985) that it probably wasn't going to work out. So we had a lot of time to do what we wanted to do. It's a lot harder for Jack Swarbrick."
"It" is hiring a successor for Charlie Weis, the fifth-year head coach who still hasn't parted ways officially with the university, though that could happen as early as Monday.

Swarbrick, ND's second-year athletic director, and Weis were slated to meet Sunday on a scheduled day off for the Irish coaches and players.

Weis, who normally works on his off days, did not go into his office at the Guglielmino Athletics Complex, Sunday after the traveling party landed in South Bend at 6:30 a.m. (EST). The Irish flew back from the West Coast shortly after the conclusion of their 45-38 loss to Stanford at Palo Alto, Calif.
For Corrigan, the decision-making loop to find Faust's successor was a small one. He reported directly to then-university president Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh and vice president Rev. Edmund P. Joyce. And he enlisted a consultant named Ara Parseghian.

"That's a nice search committee, isn't it?" Corrigan said of Parseghian, ND's iconic coach from 1964-74 who added two national championships to the school's trophy case.

"It was great having a guy who knows what it takes to get the job done. And Father Joyce was nice enough to let me do that. There were five people who Ara and I talked about. I don't know which one of us said it, but one of us said, "˜We need to wake up the echoes.' "

When asked if that's what Swarbrick needs to do after 13 post-Holtz seasons of mostly mediocre records, Corrigan said, "I think they will hit a home run.
"Again, I was lucky. The guy (Holtz) was there. We were friends. Our (son) Tim and Skip (Holtz's son) went to school together. And I knew Lou wanted the job.
"There were some things that could have gotten in between us. I think he actually got offered (another) job right about the same time he was coming to Notre Dame. I was so fortunate. And Lou knew he wasn't going to make a lot of money. In fact, he took a big bite to come here.

"I'm sure they're going to look at everything as they go about this, because it's a tough one."

Holtz's résumé wasn't without blotches, at least on the surface. He was coming off a 6-5 season at Minnesota, one that landed the Gophers in the less-than-coveted Independence Bowl, but in reality he rescued that program from oblivion.
And Holtz had been forced out at Arkansas two years before ND hired him.
"That didn't scare me at all," Corrigan said. "Ara and I went through the five names, and when we got done, we looked at each other and both said, "˜He's the one.' "

Parseghian, himself, was "the one" when ND went coach shopping after the 1963 season, though his own résumé was pocked by an 0-9 season in 1957 at Northwestern. And his bottom line was just one game over .500 in his eight years at that school.

The numbers lied, though, and Hesburgh knew it.

Parseghian, who had been wildly successful at Miami of Ohio before landing at Northwestern, beat the Irish four times in four tries while at Northwestern. And he used the 0-9 experience as a turning point.

"He analyzed everything from the top down," said Tom Pagna, an offensive assistant who came from Northwestern to ND with Parseghian and stayed for the entire 11-year run in South Bend.

"Two of the biggest things he did were that he got more involved in recruiting. And he analyzed every breakdown and went about fixing it. The No. 1 problem, for example, was missed tackles.

"Just practicing tackling in practice wasn't enough to fix it. The reason they were missing so many tackles then - and you see it today - is that the defensive players often don't bring their bodies under control. They're so eager to make the tackle, one little head fake or hip fake or misstep, and the guy is by you."

So Parseghian incorporated a drill that addressed that. In fact, he overhauled the Wildcats' drills completely, so that every one simulated a situation in the game.

"He was a visionary," Pagna said.

But he wasn't afraid to listen to ideas from his assistants.

"He wasn't afraid to try anything," Pagna said. "If you had an idea, he would do one of three things: Accept it and give you credit. If it didn't hold up, he'd simply throw it out. But most of the time, he would take the original idea, remold it and make it even better.

"That was one of the things Father Hesburgh saw when he was looking for greatness. I think some of the other things that he saw that held up in reality is the fact Ara was a great teacher and a great communicator.

"Ara was also a leader. He had been in the Navy and had men under him. He understood that defense was the most important thing in football. And he knew both sides of the ball very well. It's rare to find all those qualities in one person.

"Now Father Joyce wanted Dan Devine (who eventually succeeded Parseghian) and had a previous commitment to him, but Father Hesburgh said "˜This is the guy I want.' And that was that."

Before each of those hirings, there was a deluge of sentiment in the media that perhaps the ND job simply wasn't attractive anymore and that maybe the academic bar was too high, the schedule too ambitious and the values of the school out of step with a changing college football landscape.

"Someone said that very thing to me not long ago," Corrigan said. They said, "˜I don't think it's a good job anymore.' I said, "˜Tell me why.'

"He went on to say that they have done this or accomplished that. But the reality is this: Here's a school that has every game on prime television. They play coast to coast, recruit coast to coast. They graduate their kids. They have a history of winning. They have a great school. They have one of the great stadiums in the history of football.

"So what's the problem? I don't know why Charlie didn't make it. I don't know Charlie at all, but I'm sure Charlie would like to stay, because I think he believes he could win there. Someone eventually will."