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Should Notre Dame wait for Swarbrick's replacement to review football coach job status? Fr. Malloy involved successor Fr. Jenkins in Willingham decision
Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update, Nov. 27, 2009
Reportedly one deciding factor in Notre Dame letting go former Football Head Coach Tyrone "Ty" Willingham was what, at the time, had come across as an institutional policy, that a senior administrator on his way out, making a major decision about a football coach, should involve his successor in the decision.
In that case, it was Father Edward "Monk" Malloy including Father John Jenkins among the reported five people voting on the matter. The idea was, if a senior administrator was making a decision with a major impact carrying on past the end of his tenure into that of his successor, the successor should be involved.
And reportedly Father Jenkins' involvement helped tipped the balance on the Willingham firing, in turn bringing about the Weis hiring.
Will the same institutional standard be applied if Notre Dame Athletic Director John B. "Jack" Swarbrick is himself leaving Notre Dame, such as to take his reported dream job at the NCAA?
The NCAA is based in Indianapolis, Swarbrick's ongoing home town, in part because of Swarbrick lobbying for the NCAA to move there.
In a recent interview with a New York Times blog, Swarbrick seemed to admit that he has not even moved his family to South Bend, and has been commuting from his previous home in Indianapolis.
The NCAA, for its part, has only named an "interim" president since the sad passing of former Myles Brand after a long illness. Swarbrick reportedly was not simply a candidate, but the runner-up for the position when Brand was selected.
Ironically, one of Brand's most high-profile moves was to fire Bobby Knight when Brand was president of Indiana University. And now, with Swarbrick as a first-time Athletic Director at Notre Dame, Swarbrick is in a position, or so he claims, to fire the Head Football Coach at Notre Dame with half-a-decade left on the coach's contract.
But, regardless of the potential for "power-of-the-administrators" resume bounce and media bounce, energizing Swarbrick's NCAA credentials, would not Notre Dame act most prudently by waiting for Swarbrick's successor before moving forward on decisionmaking regarding Coach Weis?
Or should the school at least involve a possible interim Swarbrick successor, such as one of the long-time Assistant Athletic Directors?
Ironically, anti-Weis media frenzy was fueled further by Swarbrick himself. Swarbrick raised the prospect late last year that Weis might have been fired if not for Swarbrick deciding otherwise. And this year, especially after the Navy loss, as incredible as it may seem with big games still to be played, Swarbrick was reported as indicating that he was reviewing the program and would make a decision after the regular season.
Indiana influences
Notre Dame now has had two Athletic Directors in a row from Indiana, although Kevin White already had become more national in his scope by involving himself with the PAC-10 (and now is with an ACC school.)
Swarbrick is such a die-hard Indianapolis native, when attending Stanford Law School, Swarbrick reportedly came back to be a summer clerk for his future Indianapolis law firm, and even took a year off from law school to be a year-long clerk, back in Indianapolis.
And the NCAA could well be on course to hire two straight presidents from Indiana, both of whom involved themselves the firing of high-profile head coach's at Indiana colleges. With Brand firing Bobby Knight, it was the individual being fired who was one of the biggest figures in his sport. With Swarbrick implicitly threatening to fire Charlie Weis, while Weis is high-profile himself, one of the most successful coaches in the NFL, the position he is in, Notre Dame Head Football Coach, as a position, is probably the biggest coaching position in all of college sports.
On acting rashly, and involving lame-duck administrators
Notre Dame has seen the price of acting rashly, firing a coach at the last minute and then try to fill the position in short order. That is what they experienced when replacing Bob Davie with George O'Leary, and that is what they started doing when firing Ty Willingham without a replacement. Weis rescued them by agreeing to take on the biggest rebuilding job in the program's history, after Weis himself won three Super Bowls in four years as the senior offensive coach on an NFL team that had a defensive coach in the head coaching position.
Does Notre Dame really want to not only act rashly, but place the matter in the hands of someone who has not even bothered to join the Notre Dame community by obtaining normal housing in the area?
(As an aside, will Notre Dame, or Swarbrick, come forward in honesty and disclose the kinds of lodgings Swarbrick actually is using while in Notre Dame, Indiana? Is he driving back every night?)
For his part, Weis not only lives in the Notre Dame area, he even is giving back to the community by having Hannah and Friends build a small community for the disabled. Meanwhile, nearly every major bullet point on Swarbrick's resume is attributable to Swarbrick being a booster for the city of Indianapolis.
To put this into geographic perspective, Swarbrick's house is actually closer to the University of Louisville and the University of Cincinnati than it is to Notre Dame. According to Yahoo Maps, it might even be a comparable driving time to The Ohio State University from his house.
If Swarbrick's acceptance of his AD job is so tentative, and so long-distance, do Irish fans deserve to understand whether they can rely on Swarbrick to be around for the opening kick-off in the fall?
If there is a possibility that Swarbrick is just an interim AD, keeping the seat warm while the NCAA in turn keeps a seat warm for Swarbrick, past Notre Dame policy exemplified by the Willingham firing would suggest Swarbrick's successor should be involved. Past precedent would suggest the successor add his voice, or her voice and wise counsel, to the seismic shift that is the ending and beginning of two football coaching eras at the nation's most storied program.
And let's face it, Notre Dame Football is not just the most storied program in college football. With the NFL not becoming as big as it is until several decades ago, Notre Dame Football helped pioneer, and be the mainstay of, football itself.
That tradition deserves great care, and it deserves a full commitment, and a full personal presence, by all involved.
Keywords: Notre Dame Football, Charlie Weis, Jack Swarbrick, Weis Job Status, Hiring and Firing
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