Brian Kelly is having a disastrous season as Notre Dame’s head football coach. Despite winning 10 games last season and reviving the Fighting Irish program since taking over in late 2009, Kelly has become the most criticized college coach in the country.
In today’s “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately” society, many Notre Dame fans wanted Kelly unemployed even before last Saturday night’s home loss to Stanford that sent the Irish to a 2-5 record. Kelly has generated criticism not only because of his record, but also with his hothead personality—clashing with coaches and finding fault with players.
A football legend with an opposite style is former University of Minnesota quarterback Tony Dungy, the ex-assistant coach with the Gophers and Vikings who became one of the nation’s most revered pro head coaches with the Colts. Now retired from coaching and working as an in-studio NFL TV analyst, Dungy is seeing his name mentioned as a successor to Kelly.
Dungy, 61, took a calm approach to coaching and conducted himself as a patient teacher. He won a Super Bowl coaching the Colts and retired after the 2009 playoffs. In the years since he has focused on not only his TV work, but writing inspirational books and following a spiritual path sharing his faith in God across the country.
Gossip and speculation move fast in the new millennium but don’t count on Dungy moving to South Bend and taking over the Irish. Kelly, whose team entering this season was considered a possibility for the college football playoffs, hasn’t been dismissed yet. He has a contract through 2021 and Notre Dame administrators aren’t likely to be as trigger-happy as fans and media.
Dungy’s name was rumored with the Notre Dame job several years ago and there’s been more than a little talk about him again this fall. Speculation, though, is one thing. Reality is another.
Notre Dame doesn’t have a job opening and sources Sports Headliners talked with don’t see Dungy having an interest even if the opportunity came about. A former Gopher teammate, who asked that his name not be used, said his friend wouldn’t be caught up in the hype of being the Notre Dame coach and leading a storied program whose glory has been compared to baseball’s revered Yankees organization.
The source said Dungy’s values are too grounded to make an ego-driven decision to take on the Fighting Irish job. The expected Dungy reaction to the job, if asked by school officials, would be a respectful no—appreciative of being considered but quickly ready to move on.
“I think it would be really, really shocking if he were to come back and be a college coach again,” said Darrell Thompson, another Minnesota friend. “I think the phase of life that he is in—he is in a phase of giving back. …He gets to do what he wants. Saves lives and do that type of thing.”
Thompson, who played at Minnesota nine years after Dungy, is the Gophers all-time leading rusher and one of many admirers Dungy has in Minnesota. Those who think highly of the Jackson, Michigan native include Joel Maturi who twice approached Dungy about becoming the Gophers head football coach. As Minnesota’s athletic director, Maturi talked to Dungy before hiring Tim Brewster in 2007 and then Jerry Kill in 2010.
Maturi saw Dungy as a transformational coach for the U, a leader who could show the program the next step that “the Gophers have been waiting for, for 50 years.” Dungy said no to Maturi on both occasions but was willing to help with the search.
Willingness to assist didn’t surprise Maturi because he believes Dungy has a “heart for Minnesota.” Dungy was a three-year letter winner as Gophers quarterback from 1974-1976. After a brief playing career in the NFL, he was a part-time assistant coach for head coach Joe Salem and the Gophers in 1980.
That is the extent of Dungy’s college coaching experience. It’s not surprising that when Maturi talked to Dungy, he thought the former Gopher was more interested in NFL coaching. “I think if he were to have gone back into coaching at the college level, I would think Minnesota would be high on his list because he has a great passion for the University and what it did to set him on his career,” Maturi said.
Thompson agrees. “I think he has a tremendous fondness for the school—just from people he still watches and checks, sees what’s going on. But I don’t think it makes sense for him to come back and coach.”
Maturi and Thompson said if Dungy wanted to be a college coach he would be able to recruit successfully, even at a not so easy place to attract top high school players like Minnesota. Dungy not only has the football pedigree, but is well-known for his devotion as a husband, father, and leader of community and church causes as an evangelical Christian.
“He’s got that reputation of being as classy a guy as there is,” Maturi said. “If you read his books, they’re just about being the best that you can be. Good character, good values. I don’t know how any parent wouldn’t want their kid to play for a coach like that, and I don’t know any kid that wouldn’t enjoy that opportunity.
“Let’s face it, he can open doors…and certainly meet with people that some other coaches might not be able to. I think he’d have been a great recruiter. I think he would have been a great (college) coach.”
In the 1980s Thompson was a highly recruited player out of Rochester, Minnesota. He knows what it’s like to be wooed and he could see the impact of Dungy in the living rooms of recruits. The verdict of a father, Thompson said, would often be the following after a Dungy home visit: “I want my son to hang out with Tony Dungy and the people he’s surrounding himself with. Period.”
But Thompson doesn’t see that happening for Notre Dame, Minnesota or any other college football program. “I just think for where he is at (in his life) and the time commitment that it takes, I don’t see he and his family making that sacrifice.” Thompson said.
Notre Dame’s remaining five opponents this season are Miami, Army, Navy, Virginia Tech and USC. The Irish could lose most or all of those games. A winning season looks almost impossible, earning a bowl game invitation seems dicey and Kelly’s return as coach is worthy of speculation. But Tony Dungy in South Bend?
Maybe on a book tour but not in the coach’s box at Notre Dame Stadium.