Despite Win, Fighting Irish Still Lost

Last week saw a particularly silly controversy (by college football standards) when former Irish great running back and current radio announcer Allen Pinkett said that what teams really needed to be successful was "a couple of criminals." He postulated those criminal types gave the team an edge that intimidated opponents and that a team "full of choirboys" wouldn't win many games.

Pretty much everybody acknowledged the stupidity of Pinkett's comments, and he was not allowed to broadcast Notre Dame's 50-10 laugher over Navy in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday. But what made these comments resonate more than they might have was the fact they came from a Notre Dame guy talking about Notre Dame. And when the Notre Dame name gets involved, people tend to go a little over the top.

For those who might not remember it, Notre Dame used to mean something. It was a higher state of intercollegiate being. They didn't just win — they did it the right way. High academic standards, national recruiting reach, only the best of the best. Rudy.

But it's been a while since those Irish glory years. The last bastion of Notre Dame greatness came under Lou Holtz in the early 1990s. The 1993 team finished 11-1 with a two-point home loss to Boston College costing them a shot at the national championship. (Great game if you can ever catch it on ESPN Classic, by the way.)

Since that 1993 season, the Irish have managed double-digits just twice, once in Tyrone Willingham's first season, the other in Charlie Weiss' second.

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