COMMENTARY

By Jim Litke

updated 2:37 a.m. ET Sept. 19, 2004

Dynasties like Notre Dame have to reinvent themselves at some point or disappear.

There’s no getting around it. What made the Fighting Irish special once doesn’t necessarily apply today. The game changes, the players change, and staying near the top means the way you recruit has to change, too.

So let’s be clear upfront: We’re not talking about lowering the academic standards at Notre Dame; except, maybe, as they apply to the smirking, scheming alumni whose Web site — FireTyWillingham.com — has been up and running for almost a year. Along with the 55,000 or so others who stopped by since then, they aren’t smart enough to know Willingham is not just the best man for the job; he might be the only one who can save them from themselves.

There’s going to be another overwrought drama when Michigan visits South Bend this weekend. It’s what happens when the only team in college football with a few million unpaid consultants and its own network TV deal stumbles against Brigham Young in the first game of a schedule filled with deeper, more disabling potholes.

There was a time when Michigan-Notre Dame generated more than enough entertainment between the white lines to worry about what was taking place outside of them. But not anymore. Notre Dame hasn’t held up its part of most bargains for going on a dozen seasons. Based on the evidence so far, this one won’t be any different.

The Fighting Irish still own more national titles than anyone, but the last of the eight was brought home in 1988. They haven’t seriously contended for one since 1993. They still boast more Heisman Trophy winners than anyone, too, but the last was Tim Brown in 1987.

Willingham understood when he signed on two seasons ago that it’s his responsibility to change all that, just as he understood it doesn’t happen in the course of a single game — or a single season, for that matter. Forget the “Gipper” and all those other stories you can read in Fighting Irish football lore.

Even if we pretend it was possible back then, waking up the echoes is a lot tougher trick now. Especially if you want to do it right.

Willingham wasn’t the first choice of the higher-ups in South Bend. That was George O’Leary, who got caught massaging his resume and has since moved on to Central Florida. But you know what they say about “the luck of the Irish”? That’s what happened when the job fell to Willingham.

He is black, neither Irish nor Catholic, but Willingham embraced Notre Dame’s tradition as though he were born to it, instead of a kid who was raised a Baptist in North Carolina and sneaked out of church on fall Sunday mornings to catch the Fighting Irish highlights. He hummed the fight song, read the books about Knute Rockne, walked past the trophies and statues on his way to the football office every day and understood that the job required equal parts perspiration and inspiration, but, above all, winning.

Notre Dame hasn’t done much of that on Willingham’s watch. The miracles that led to an 8-0 start with the players his predecessor, Bob Davie, left behind have all dried up. The Irish have lost 10 of their last 15, some big games by even bigger scores. Worse still, Willingham’s first stab at a recruiting class left everybody unimpressed. The West Coast offense that was supposed to be his entree to the living rooms of all those skilled passers and catchers who left Notre Dame off their recruiting lists years ago looks less impressive still. Small wonder that some people are already panicking.

But that’s how Notre Dame got caught between a rock and the Golden Dome in the first place. It jettisoned Lou Holtz before his time was up and gambled on a successor who wasn’t ready. But Davie and even Gerry Faust — talk about not being ready — got five seasons and Willingham isn’t even two weeks into his third.

And unlike a few of the above, he hasn’t griped about the pressures, the schedule or competing against players who couldn’t get into Notre Dame. He hasn’t complained about anything, in fact, other than meeting his own expectations.

All he deserves is a little more time.

“We’re trying to find players that are a fit for Notre Dame, and we think we’ve found some players that do that,” Willingham said. “I like where we’re at.”

The temptation, of course, is to change something fast, veer off in a different direction. Anybody counting on Willingham to do that has no idea about the man.

MORE FROM MORE NEWS AND OTHER FEATURES

Hansen: Weis facing key questions

Hansen: Weis facing key questions Man who witnessed Rockne plane crash dies Notre Dame ends worst season on high note Opinion: Who knew you could get fired for losing to ND? Forbes: Irish most vaulabe college football program Notre Dame finally wins at home, rips Duke '57 captain says '07 team could learn from his ordeal Quinn loses bet, wears USC jersey for interview Notre Dame upsets UCLA for first win of season Irish drop to 0-5 after defeat to Purdue   Add More news and other features headlines to your news reader: