Dec. 2, 2001
Audio:
Statement
Q&A
BOB DAVIE: I don’t know that any of us prepare for this. You go through your coaching career and know that this kind of thing can happen, and wonder how you are going to react.
When I first walked in here, I can’t help but think back to five years ago, and I think back to — I must first say this, my children. I am so proud of how they have turned out. Audra was in seventh grade when I first became head coach and she is now a beautiful young lady, a senior in high school ready to go on to college. Clay is in the third grade and he’s now in the eighth grade. I kid him all the time, he’s still a work in progress, but one heck of a kid. And my wife, Joanne. And I certainly don’t know what the next chapter in my life is, but I know it will be better than the last because of the kind of family I have. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.
I think I have to stand up here and I have to thank some people. First of all I’d like to thank Michael Wadsworth and Father Bill Beauchamp for giving me the opportunity to be the head football coach at Notre Dame. There’s been a lot of things that have happened in the last five years, some of them good, some of them bad, all of it has been well documented. But I am so fortunate, so fortunate to have had the opportunity, I understand that may be difficult for some of you to understand. One thing I’m not is a phoney. It is hard for me to hide my disappointment that I won’t be back as the head football coach of Notre Dame.
But with that said, I accept the decision. I’ve talked to our football team every single day, it’s not the bad things that happen to you that’s important, it’s how you handle them. And I am in no way bitter. No way will I have a chip on my shoulder as I leave Notre Dame. I am not the least bit embarrassed. In fact, I’ll walk out of here with my head held high and am really proud of what we have done.
I am the first one to stand up here and say, we may not have won as many games as what would be expected. This morning when Kevin White fired me, I asked him why and he said we lost credibility. Certainly, that’s his prerogative.
When I think about credibility of this football team, and these young men that I was on that sidelines with and when I think of that locker room with last night, I guess everybody has their own definition of credibility. If my son played and grows up to be anything like those 70 kids we took down there to Purdue last night, I will have considered myself a success.
I’d like to thank our coaching staff. I think back to five years ago, Greg Mattison, comes down here from the University of Michigan to Notre Dame, put his heart and soul into this program. Kirk Doll, eight years ago, put his heart and soul into this program. Desmond Robinson has been here for a long time. Certainly, we have coaches that have been here a lesser amount of time, but all of them put their heart and soul in it.
A lot of unique are things about Notre Dame. Tremendous place. But the single best thing about Notre Dame are these football players, and I want to ask you to do me the one favor: Don’t ever take these players for granted. And I understand that a lot of you that have been here following Notre Dame football have not had the opportunity to be at other places, so you don’t have a lot to compare it to. Trust me when I tell you: These are unique, unique young people in this program and I could not be more proud of the players we have brought into this program, of the way they represented themselves.
It’s been well documented statistically what they have done in the classroom. I think everyone will agree that they have been outstanding citizens.
I said it last night and I’ll say it again: This is my favorite team. This is my favorite team. I could not be more proud that they won that last football game last night. In the big picture of things, that’s probably not real significant. There won’t be any questions about last night’s game today at this press conference, but to me, that is a huge, huge indicator of the type of chemistry this football team has had, the type of people we have in this program. And to me, that’s the big picture. You’ll get the X’s and O’s solved. You’re going to win some and you’re going to lose some.
But the big, big picture in all of this and to me, the most important thing is what the true character of what someone is. And for that reason, I will walk out of here with my head held high and I will be extremely proud of what we have accomplished here.
So I’m going to keep this short. I’m sure all of you have some questions, and I would be more than happy to take some right now.
Q. Whoever replaces you, what kind of advice would you want give them?
BOB DAVIE: Enjoy it. Enjoy it. And I think above all, have tremendous confidence in yourself. Don’t expect everybody to like you. Go with what’s in your heart, and I would tell him that I support him 100%. We have some good players coming back. I’m not going to stand up here and list all the All-Americans and all of the things we have in place. It’s a difficult job. There’s a lot of challenges.
I met with our football team today at 1:30. I told them to do me one favor, and that’s win. They are with Mickey Marotti (strength coordinator) right now in the weight room, have several week’s advantage on those teams that are in the bowl games. We have finals coming up here next week, take care of your academics. I don’t want one player leaving this program, period, because a part of me and a part of this staff will always be on that field with these guys, and they can do me one final favor and that’s go out next year and have one heck of a year. So I’m going to totally support whoever comes in here because I have a lot invested in this football team.
Q. Two questions. One, how do you come to terms with the apparently differing definitions of credibility, and two, was there any explanation offered to you as far as what has happened between last December and now?
BOB DAVIE: The only thing that Kevin and I talked about, when I asked him why I was fired, he said we lost credibility, and that was the extent of that. As far as your other question —
Q. About the difference in the definition of credibility?
BOB DAVIE: Well, I didn’t spend a lot of time talking about that. It’s pretty obvious the decision had already been made. It was quite obvious that it was the first thing that was communicated to me.
So, you know, really it was on to the next thing. I don’t think it did either one of us much good to sit there and talk about how we define different things. As I mentioned, in the big picture of things right now, there’s a tremendous foundation, because of the character I saw and those things to get in place take an awful lot of time and a lot of people should be congratulated for those things that are very important to me that are in place. But most of all, the players.
Q. They said on ABC, the telecast, the announcement respectively was that your name had already been associated the Kansas job — how that could happen?
BOB DAVIE: I really don’t know. I think that’s all part of that, part of the nature of this. We are in a highly visible place. We are in a highly visible place. So I can’t ration where that would come from, no.
Q. How did you know it was quite obvious that was the decision?
BOB DAVIE: Well, when I walked in, he had a sheet of paper and he said, that he had recommended to Father Malloy and that Father Malloy had agreed with him and that was the first statement. The next statement was just an order of sequence of just how thing were going to go today.
Q. You felt comfortable with the process — especially in light of your comments regarding the integrity of Notre Dame, did it surprise you more?
BOB DAVIE: I think as Kevin mentioned — I saw a clip of Kevin’s press conference — I think both of us last year when we agreed in December that we would move forward after a year of evaluation by Kevin, I think both of us probably felt that this was a long-term situation. Obviously, a lot of things have transpired since then: The bowl game, we went to Lincoln, Nebraska.
So I think both of us were well intentioned at that time. Am I disappointed, sure I’m disappointed. A lot of years of my life have gone into this program. Do I accept the difficulty of Kevin White job and the decision Kevin White had to make? Certainly I appreciate that.
The bottom line, I want to do whatever gives this football team the best chance to win next year. If Notre Dame thinks that they can hire someone that can come in here and do a better job of winning games than I can, that’s certainly their prerogative to do that. I accept that and I wish them well.
Q. Do you feel a sense of betrayal from Notre Dame, that something like this would happen at Notre Dame?
BOB DAVIE: No. You know, I understand what this profession is. Being in a place that is as visible as this, a place where football is so important, that’s part of it.
Q. You talked about — you’ve lost 25 games, where did you think the line should be drawn?
BOB DAVIE: Well, I think there’s balance. I think you hear the word “balance” here at the University of Notre Dame.
I’m very proud of the things we did and how we did it. I felt like since I have taken this job that I have done things completely the way I was asked to do it, whether it was dealing with academics, whether it was retention of players, all of those issues we talked about before.
So, certainly I understand there’s a balancing act between that. I think back to what Ara (Parseghian) told me when I first took the job, he said, “There are a lot of things to worry about, but worry about one thing, and that’s winning.”
Q. You’re young and you’re going to coach again, but how do you feel as you try to move forward with your life and your career?
BOB DAVIE: Well, I think maybe as a defense mechanism or maybe just because I love football, by just immersing myself in the X’s and O’s and immerse myself over there at that stadium every day in the game plan and trying to win games. I think last week somebody asked the question, “What do you do when the season is over?” I don’t know. I obviously won’t be preparing for another game.
So, you know that part of it is — maybe it is a defense mechanism, but I have just been totally involved day-to-day. One thing I have the advantage of it, I was thinking, since I left the house Friday at eleven o’clock to go to the stadium and to get ready for the Purdue game, to get out to West Lafayette, I think that’s what’s so difficult on your families. I’m going at eleven o’clock, watch a tape of the game, I’m going to be around the players, I’m going to meet with the players Friday night at the senior tribute, I’ll going to be in the locker room, the sidelines, I’m going to feel all of that passion. Your families don’t get a chance to feel that. All they do is kind of, you know be around the outside forces, and that is a difficult thing. So what I want to do right now is just get back around my family a little bit, take care of those people that truly love me, people that I truly love.
Q How have Audra and Clay handled this?
BOB DAVIE: Well, you know, I’m disappointed that my daughter’s senior year didn’t go better. She’s been an unbelievable, unbelievably strong lady. She’s incredible and I hope that her senior year would have gone better, but maybe that’s selfish on my part.
I think both of them have done a great job of handling this. I’ve never been one to have a big ego, so the fact that I’m no longer the head coach of Notre Dame, I mean, that’s disappointing, but as I mentioned the other day, I’m going to be happy. I never was a Madison Avenue guy, and I never will be a Madison Avenue guy, but I love football.
Q Do you expect to be coaching again?
BOB DAVIE: It’s too early for me to speculate about anything like that, obviously. But, I mean, let’s face it, I’m a football coach, and I certainly think that I’ve got a lot to offer, and I’m not up here trying to interview for a job right now, trust me. I don’t want to get into that spiel right there. But I think I have a few more games left in me.
Q. What did you say to your players? How did they react?
BOB DAVIE: Well, I told the players — I apologized. I apologized that they had to go through this, this year. Because to be quite honest, after the Texas A&M game, it really has been a feeding frenzy, and at some point the culmination of that does affect performance, no matter how much pride we take in isolating them from that or how much pride I take in being isolated from that myself. So I apologized to them. I felt they deserved better.
Then I told them just what I told you: Win. Don’t transfer. Get in the weight room. Hit the academics. Because I’m going to watch you next year and I’m going to tape every one of those games and I want to see you win.
Q. What was the players’ reaction when you talked to them?
BOB DAVIE: Well, I think Grant (Irons) is over here, so Grant could probably answer that in a few minutes. Q. What would you say the best thing that happened over the last five years was? BOB DAVIE: I think the thing I’m most proud of, I think your football team takes on your personality. And if you look at our football team, it’s a football team that never, ever, ever gave up.
Let’s think about since the Texas A&M game. Every game we played came right down to the end. And we struggled offensively, could not get points easily, but we hung in there every second of the way. And probably last night, Clifford Jefferson intercepting that ball on the last play of the game probably said it all. There’s a guy that’s been beaten up. I mean, over the years, almost beaten up as bad as I am, and steps up and makes a play. It just felt good winning that last game and that was probably one of my greatest moments, the kid still competing at the end of that game the way they did because if you did not have strong leadership and you did not have strong character, there’s no way those kids will finish like they did.
Q. Kevin said the academic admission standards don’t stand in the way of winning National Championships, do you agree with that?
BOB DAVIE: Oh, I think you can recruit really good players. There are some guys here right now that are really good players.
Now, the reality of it is there’s some other players that we are playing against, that for whatever reason, we could not recruit them at Notre Dame. You know, you can point at all to the statistics you want, but all I know is the bottom line is, there’s some good football players out there that we could not and did not recruit. So I think that’s the reality of that situation. I’m sure whoever comes in here will realize that. I don’t think anyone can work harder at recruiting than this staff did, in trying to bring good people to represent this university, of people to graduate from this University, and also in the way admissions wants to do it.
I said of the program when I first became head coach, not only would admissions interview them, but I had faculty members in there — you can see the retention rate now that has been successful. So, certainly, it’s going to be a lot different than about ten of those teams you are playing, as far as who you can and who you cannot recruit.
Q. Did you and Kevin talk about this possibility during the season? And did you wish he had made a statement supporting you?
BOB DAVIE: Well, after the Texas A&M game on Sunday, we had struggled badly. Everyone saw that. Kevin and I met, and Kevin said that we would stay the course until the open date and at that time he would make a decision on whether or not we would continue or we would sever our relationship.
The next day — Monday — he decided we would finish out the season and would be evaluated at the end of the season. So from the Texas A&M game on, obviously I knew what the hurdle would be for this football team and its coaching staff.
But we came back and we won three straight games, and I really felt like we were a team that was improving, that we were getting better. We had a freshman quarterback and I had a lot of hope the people that we had could win the rest of our games. Then playing Boston College on the road and losing, Tennessee at home, lost there at the end, and you know what happened at Stanford. So that’s kind of the chronology of how that went.
At no time did I ask Kevin to make any statement. That’s Kevin’s responsibility as the athletic director and certainly Kevin’s opinion. He’s got the responsibility to handle that situation how he sees what’s best for Notre Dame and best for this football team and best for this coaching staff. I told him then that I respected his decision.
Q. How much more difficult will it be for whatever coach comes in here, for that person to win ?
BOB DAVIE: No question about it. We won nine games two years out of the five. I think the difficulty is sustaining that year after year with the schedule that you play. Particularly the early season schedule is difficult. If you look in two of those years, we won nine games. We lost some games early. We started 2-2 in both of those years, because of solidarity, different reasons, we were able to rebound from those early-season troubles and win.
I think what’s difficult is the schedule, particularly early in the season. Next year this football team opens up against Maryland in the Kickoff Classic. Next year is a year that you can play 12 football games. Most teams would choose to play 7 at home and 5 on the road. Notre Dame is 6-6, playing in the Kickoff Classic.
So I think it’s a challenge. It’s a challenge. I’m not going to stand up here — and human nature, sometimes you can say, “Boy, we’ve got a bunch of players coming back, there’s a bunch of great players, things are in place, this team is going to automatically win.” There’s a lot of challenges.
But I will say that I think you have a good young quarterback. I think you have a couple of good, young tailbacks. But with the schedule, it’s going to be a challenge. I think most coaches throughout the country would understand that.
Q. Assuming your next job is a head coaching job, is there anything that you would do differently after your experience in five years as a head coach here?
BOB DAVIE: No. I think that, obviously, I’m a better football coach right now than I was five years ago when I first took this job. If I had it to do over again, I would totally, totally be immersed in the X’s and O’s from day one, period. I would probably spend more time with the offense — not because I don’t have tremendous confidence in what Kevin Rogers did. I think Kevin Rogers and our offensive staff does a tremendous job. I just think from a confidence standpoint, it would do the offense good if the head coach was involved with them more, and that’s very difficult. There’s not many, if any, head coaches in this country that are equally involved in offense and defense.
I guess what I would say, I would be involved in every situation of every X and O, and I may call every play on offense and defense because that’s what I love to do.
Q. You mentioned before that your priority right now is just to spend some time with your family and you don’t know what the future holds. Is it your plan to be coaching somewhere next year, and particular, as a head coach, to get back into it as soon as possible?
BOB DAVIE: I can’t answer that. You know, I spent every second, coming down to that last play last night against Purdue, scratching and clawing to win a game. It’s too early to say anything like that. Obviously, I want to be a head football coach again, and first of all, I’m going to do what’s right for my family, and my family has been making a great sacrifice. It’s been the greatest experience of their lives and they were better off for it.
Before I leave, I just want to thank all of you guys in the media. I know all of you have a responsibility. I understand what comes with that responsibility, and I hope you have respect for me from the way I’ve handled myself. If I can ever do anything for any of you, let me know.
I’m going to go home to a new swimming pool (laughs) and may not ever get to swim in it. But I thank all of you very much.
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