How many national titles would George O'Leary have won at ND?

How many national championships would GOL have at ND by now?

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coit

coit

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Poll incoming.

Who doesn't remember the dark day when our beloved coach GOL was offered his dream job to become the next (of what would be a veritable revolving door) coach of the Notre Dame Fightin' Irish?

He was at the peak of his profession. He had become of of the most respected coaches in all of college football. And was certainly the man most likely to be able to recreate the dynasty established by Lou Holtzsch and destroyed by Bill Lewis, er, Bob Davies.

But oh to dream about what could have been.

So, assuming that GOL didn't have a few little white lies hidden amongst the boilerplate text on his football resume (and really, did any of us even know that coaches had to have resumes?), how many national titles would O'Leary have in his trophy case from 2002 to 2014?

The silver lining of this action is that Notre Dame has become cursed themselves by their action taken against one of our favorite coaches, and have been awash in a sea of mediocrity for the past 15+ years. Even as Kelly brought them through an undefeated season in 2012, the cruel fate of the curse reared its ugly head in that national championship game as the Irish were pounded into the ground by that SEC speed.
 
Went four. Basically would have been Saban/Meyer/Holtz level coach.
 
Not sure if serious, but he would probably still be the head coach at ND right now if he took a little closer look at his resume before sending it. He's a great coach and it was a sad day when he left.
 
He didn't have much booster support. Probably only 2 or 3.
 
Zero. But by the time he retired he'd be talking about the two national titles and the SEC crown he won.
 
If you don't think GOL wouldn't have won at least 1 title by now you are crazy. Kelly was one win away and look at how pathetic he is. His own fan base wants him gone.
 
coit said:
If you don't think GOL wouldn't have won at least 1 title by now you are crazy. Kelly was one win away and look at how pathetic he is. His own fan base wants him gone.
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I say again: Without Friedgen? Absolutely not.
 
The Jacket said:
I say again: Without Friedgen? Absolutely not.
Click to expand...

Who's to say that Friedge wouldn't have joined him there at some point?

If you look at what GOL has accomplished at UCF of all places it is easy to see how good he would've been at ND.
 
coit said:
Who's to say that Friedge wouldn't have joined him there at some point?



If you look at what GOL has accomplished at UCF of all places it is easy to see how good he would've been at ND.
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Friedgen was at Maryland until 2010. By that point, GOL would have already been run out of South Bend. I'm not saying he would have plunged Notre Dame into the depths, but national titles? No ööööing way. Not. Without. Friedgen.

Nobody puts more emphasis on the disruption of the 2001 season by 9/11 than I do when it comes to why that season fell so short of expectations. But even following the Clemson game that year, a coach who could do what you're saying GOL could do would have righted the ship. He didn't. What he did do was lose to Maryland at home (great game, Burns' fault for stepping out, etc. but we had more talent across the board, period - we got outcoached. By who?) and the rest of the season collapsed in on itself.

Four seasons is the most O'Leary would have gotten of maintaining 8-win seasons and that would not have been enough for Friedgen to come around. So unless you know another coordinator O'Leary was likely to bring in that would have equaled having Friedgen calling the plays? Ab. So. Lute. Ly. Not.
 
I think GOL is a great coach and knows how to organize a college program to win. Doing that at UCF and what he accomplished at GT is nothing short of amazing.

Even though...looking back..he took lots of shortcuts in keeping the players eligible that lead to Flunkgate, he is still fondly remembered for his 3IAR-B over the dwags. They HATED his guts and at times, I actually feared for his safety with the morons in that fanbase.

But...the Irish faithful were NOT happy at the hire!! I remember reading the various ND boards after he was lured away and how upset they were and how they simply could not support him and what a mistake that was.

To this day, I believe he was sand-bagged out of the job by some ND boosters that knew of the resume and decided to send those reporters on the trail and get rid of him before he unpacked his moving boxes in the coach's office.

No way a lowly sports reporter could come up with all on his own...they are simply too lazy to do any real digging.

GO JACKETS!!
byteback
 
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