Gerry DiNardo was a GREAT player at the University of Notre Dame, helping the Irish win the 1973 National Championship. The University opened up lots of doors for him, and after his playing career, DiNardo was given the opportunity to coach football, eventually becoming the offensive coordinator at Colorado under Bill McCartney, where the Buffaloes won a National Championship.
Then DiNardo was put in charge of a program.
He failed at Vanderbilt (never went to a bowl game). Despite this, he got hired by LSU. He failed at LSU, getting fired after 5 seasons, taking a good team and turning them into a rebuilding project for Nick Saban. He got hired by the XFL, going a pitiful 2-8, worst in the league, before the league folded after 1 season. Indiana University, desperate for a middling to decent head coach of a floundering program, hired DiNardo. He failed at IU, never winning more than 3 games in a season. With no self-respecting school wanting to go near him as a coach, he became a sportscaster.
Now, he's failed at that, too.
An education at the University of Notre Dame can only take you so far. After leaving the University, it is up to the individual to be a "Notre Dame man" (or woman). DiNardo lost focus of this, and as a result he has shamed himself and the University which gave him the opportunities that he has so selfishly squandered.
In the South Bend Tribune, DiNardo (who is calling the Sugar Bowl for ESPN radio - as of now) lashed out at the University, spouting the company line over at ESPN - Notre Dame has sold its soul for football glory, they don't play a difficult schedule (you've heard it a million times - "They won the Commander-in-Chiaf's trophy, but have no signature wins."), they disgraced their image by extending Coach Weis' contract less than a year into his tenure, they were wrong to fire Davie and Willingham. In fact, his criticisms were so unlike those of Mark May, I'm beginning to think that ESPN is a cancer that literally eats people alive as soon as they become associated with the franchise.
Even loyal Notre Dame men such as Mike Golic and Lou Holtz occasionally get sucked down into the quagmire of ESPN, although both consistently try to rise above it and represent the University. Apparently, DiNardo has not even attempted to struggle against his descent into ESPN (aka Hell). Much like Lee Corso and Bob Davie, he is shamelessly trying to leverage his failed coaching career, touting himself as an "expert" analyst. Hell, I know more about college football than all three of those boobs combined, and I still wouldn't purport to claim "expert" status.
DiNardo owes his University more than this. He should issue a public apology on ESPN Sportscenter, resign from calling the Sugar Bowl, and come crawling back to the University and beg at Coach Weis, Kevin White, and Father Jenkins' feet for forgiveness. Then he should commit seppuku.
What a disgrace.
2 comments:
Good Grief.
I think you are being a tad too tough on him. Dianrdo was SEC Coach of the year at one time. Vanderbilt didn't go to a BOwl but that will alwyas be tought for them.
As to his tenure at LSU he did bring back the program to a certain extent. He showed what LSU could do. I was not too thrilled about the way his firing came about but he was a good man.
Failures are ones that never ty. Coach Dinardo tried and had influence on countless people , players and non. Failure is not a word I would associate with him. I am proud he was our coach at LSU.
Finally, he has a job to do. HE says negative things about LSU too at times. He must giove his honest assessement. I guess no one from Notre Dame can be in the sport's media since there appears to be some "loyalty test". But I don't think that would be productive for Notre Dame would it?
I seem to have hit a nerve with the LSU crowd.
I don't feel that Notre Dame alums have to pass a "loyalty" test. If I did, then Mike Golic would be on my $#!# list.
I just feel that if he wants to be a journalist, he should be a journalist, not a two-bit hack that spouts off at the mouth based on nothing but hearsay and rumor. If he was giving "an honest assessement (sic)" he would have based his comments on something substantive, instead he based them on what he heard Mark May say during the last College Gameday Final.
Further, the recent coaches at Rutgers, Vanderbilt, and other tradionally underachieving schools have shown that you can be successful and go to bowl games with those schools. To give DiNardo a pass for failing to do so is ridiculous.
And I don't care how much you love him down there in the bayou, he failed at LSU. He did not win a championship, and did not even come close; the program took a step backward under him. His early success at LSU was a Willingham-esque smokescreen.
I have no opinion as to DiNardo as a person. In fact, I'm sure he's a great guy. But he hasn't succeeded at anything he's done since he left Colorado, and nothing either of you has said has convinced me otherwise.
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