Devine was an excellent big-game coach and his teams were most notable for their defenses. He won at Missouri. He won at Arizona State. Not exactly powerhouses, but he made them into good programs. His sins were that he was a little weird and, worst of all, he wasn't Ara. Then ND hired a buffoon to replace him and I think a few ND fans with some sense about them realized how good Devine really was and what a bad coach really looked like. In the case of Gerry, that looked like a single-wing high school offense and running up and down the sidelines telling the players to say Hail Marys. Given the players Devine had assembled, which Doofus squandered, I don't doubt Devine would've had ND playing for a title again in 1981 or 1982.