The Confidential

The ACC School Mount Rushmores: Notre Dame FINAL

This one was so very hard.  Notre Dame has enough names to fill out several Mount Rushmores.  One for coaches, one for quarterbacks, one for running backs, one for other football players, one for basketball, etc.  And when comparing players to coaches, the players had such fleeting careers.  Guys like Gipper, Montana, and Brown only played for four years maximum.  The coaches get to stay for a lot longer, leaving a deeper mark on programs.  And that is definitely true with Notre Dame.

We left it up to the fans to help and help they did–here and elsewhere.  And for Notre Dame, we are going to add coaches Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz.  Want to know what a mark Parseghian left on the sporting world?  His first name is often an answer to a crossword puzzle clue.  How many mothers and grandmothers would not know what goalposts are, but know his name.  But in all seriousness… his record was outstanding… 95-17-4.  Two national titles, seven years apart.  In the 10 years before Parseghian, Notre Dame was 51-48.  In the year before he took over, Notre Dame was 2-7.  Parseghian restored Notre Dame football at a time of need.

Lou Holtz?  For all the advantages Notre Dame has, Lou Holtz took over a program that was 30-26-1 in the five preceding years.  He went 100-35-2, including a national championship.  Only Rockne has won more games for the Fighting Irish.  By comparison, in the 5 years before Lou and the 13 years after him, Notre Dame’s record has been 121-94, only slightly above .500.  Holtz’s accomplishments stand apart from his contemporaries.

So, with all due respect to the other great players and coaches, the final Notre Dame Mount Rushmore is: Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, and Lou Holtz.

Other Mount Rushmores:

• ACC Football Coaches
• ACC Basketball Coaches

1. Maryland Preliminary   Maryland Final
2. Boston College    Boston College Final
3. Wake Forest   Wake Forest Final
4. Miami   Miami Final
5. Virginia Tech   Virginia Tech Final
6. Syracuse   Syracuse Final
7. Virginia   Virginia Final
8. Pittsburgh  Pittsburgh Final
9. North Carolina State  North Carolina State Final
10. Clemson   Clemson Final
11. Georgia Tech  Georgia Tech Final
    
12. Louisville  Lousiville Final
    
13. Notre Dame
14. Duke
15. North Carolina
16. Florida State

For more on the Notre Dame decisions, see the original discussion…

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The ACC School Mount Rushmores: Notre Dame

The Confidential has been having some fun with league-wide coaches Mount Rushmores.  Football and Basketball, plus polls for each of football and basketball to share your thoughts.  In fact, it was so sufficiently fun and controversial that we are going to do school-wide Mount Rushmores now.  And we will only put three people on the list, leaving you–our readers–to comment as to who should be the fourth.  We will not do polls anymore.  For today, let’s go with a school that is in the ACC, not in the ACC, or partially in the ACC (depending on how you feel about it): Notre Dame.

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