Hey Dallas Dome Head!!!!!!!!Stating that Bo was a loser as a coach is absolutely stupid as a football fan. College football during Bo's time is different than what it is today and also stating that Michigan in college football is irrelevant is even more ignorant. Bo is one of the all time greatest coaches in college football period and everyone knows that even though he never won a national championship. Come on, I do not care for ND, however, they deserve their props for being an iconic college football program who has finally been made relevant again under Kelly much like Michigan will be under Jim Harbaugh. Bo's overall record as a head coach was 234-65-8. I would hardly call that never winning anything or being a loser. Bo was a losing coach in bowls though with a 5-12 record and that sucked. Bo had a 4-6 record against the Irish which is not a losing record as well. What amazes me the most in the rivalry is how in the hell Kelly managed to lose 4 games to Michigan from 2009-through 2014? This was the Rich Rod/Hoke years which is arguably Michigan's worst football years. Every program has gone through down years INCLUDING Notre Dame. By the way. Holtz cheated his ass off while he was in South Bend!!! Tony Rice was admitted to ND with a 450 SAT score and Chris Zordich and the defense was roided to the core which came out much later. Remember the SI story on that later on or where you even born then? For the record-I like Holtz as he built South Carolina for Spurier's success and he did without Steroids and getting students admitted to the university with non existent test scores which were required.
You don't even mention the academic and money scandals that came at the end of Holtz's time. ND fans MO is to carefully select out what matters, edit out what is inconvenient and then make an argument on their chosen ground. On this board they talk as though they've owned Michigan football for years, where as you point out, they've struggled against the worst UM teams in 50 years and when we were last strong, we kicked them around like they were a second-tier B10 program (in 2006 and 07). I've posted a number of times on Domer football in the past week and I have gotten hardly any direct responses, just these sorts of "Hey, look, squirrel" responses.
ND fans have worked hard to stand atop of the delusional rankings in college football and their interactions on this board this past week have done nothing but buttress my convictions that they are not only more arrogant than UM fans (and yes I think we are), but they inhabit a psychological delusion about their past and future that is anachronistic and selectively biased. They were great in the 20s, 40s, and 60s to early 70s, a past any college fan would be proud of (just like we're proud of our days of past glory in from 1900 thru the 40s). They've had great coaches like Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian, and Devine (I don't include a cheater like Holtz just like I won't include Steve Fisher in our hall of bball greats). However, until 2012, besides a few years under Probation Holtz, cheating away, they have been at the margins for a generation or more of college football. The game has changed greatly since they were last big-time, national players in the late 80s and is moving precipitously toward a conference championship-based playoff model that will leave ND at the margins, pleading with other big-time, national conferences and schools about how they should have special dispensations to get into the playoffs. Meanwhile their fanbase has not changed and does not demand that ND move out of the glory days of the 60s and the fantasy that they are a national program and all the rest of us are mere regional pikers (btw there are probably 10-12 truly national, recognized everywhere programs) and get into a conference and earn their way into the playoffs through the hard, sweat and blood of a conference championship run. I wonder and somewhat suspect that in their heart of hearts ND may wonder if they could cut in such a setting, so they continue on. Perhaps they don't want to duplicate the conference championship futility they've experienced in Big East basketball and probably will experience in the ACC? Did they ever win a regular season conference championship in this other, major men's sport (besides the last year's conference tournament championship)? Anecdotal, but perhaps telling evidence of my theory.
My suggestion and probably my practice from here on is going to be to ignore the posts of ND fans. It's essentially the same thing for the last 15+ years of interacting with them on our board, obfuscating facts, resorting to taunts when cornered in an argument, etc. For me, having an ND fan claim that Bo never won anything is about as revealing a statement of someone's ignorance of football that a fan could make.
And oh, Bo was right...