Holtz had won the national championship for ‘em for the 1988 season, and that’s the thanks he got from the administration a few years later: No, Lou, you can’t have one of the five best receivers in football history.
More recently, the aptly-named Brian Kelly had a strong 12-year run at Notre Dame. He flipped to LSU after an 11-1 regular season in 2021, accepting a $9 million annual salary that tripled what he was making in South Bend.
Assistant Marcus Freeman was promoted. He turned 36 on Jan. 10, nine days after coaching in a 37-35 loss to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl. He lost a 2022 season opener to Ohio State, and then to Marshall, 26-21, in Freeman’s first home game.
It was early. He was given benediction for that one. Repeating that two years later against Northern Illinois, with three projected NFL first-rounders and another in the second, and with solid NIL funding … yes, there are concerns among the faithful.
Keith Arnold is a 1998 graduate of Cretin-Derham Hall. He went to Notre Dame, walked on in baseball for a couple of years, and developed an Irish football addiction. He’s done well in the financial world, spent a while learning the movie business, and has produced films with Pierce Brosnan (”The November Man,” remember that one?) and now with Harry Connick Jr. (with the surprise Netflix hit, “Find Me Falling”).
Arnold, who spent nine years writing “Inside the Irish” for NBC Sports, the home of Irish home games, had some things to say following the tragedy.