Defensive coordinators have been up and down the last 30 years, Had Alvarez stayed with Holtz and been promoted to head coach in 97 it could of been a lot different the past 20 years with Notre Dame football success
Bottom line Alvarez would of had a statue at Notre Dame beside Holtz, I think Ric Minter did a great job going 40-8-1 overall during his 4 years
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They should have thrown Barry the kitchen sink. To this day, he is the ONLY guy who could have maintained ND`s competitive fire and probably would have delivered a chip along the way!
It goes back a ways but let's not forget Johnny Ray. His defenses were dominating.
Foge often gets lost in the history of DCs but his career especially in the assistant role is similar to Johnny Ray. While he didn't spend enough time at ND to really evaluate him on that part of his career his major legacy was creating the environment that Barry A stepped into for his two run as DC. FF came in 86 to join Holtz's first staff after being an defensive assistant at Pitt and then head coach being fired after a bad loss to PSU. He was DC for two years and then moved on to an NFL career as a defensive specialist (remember an interview in which he said the NFL pension plan was the reason he left ND). BA was his LB coach in 87 which certainly helped his transition to the next level as knew where the skeletons of the D unit were buried.
It is too bad that ND did not recognize BAs potential at the time Lou was "fired" (in corporate terms his leaving would probably be described as a hostile buyout). Good article that covers his career: http://collegefootballcrazy.com/barry-alvarez-legendary-wisconsin-coach/
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In the Purdue game a lateral bounced off Rocky Blier with Leroy Keys running it over 90 yards for a TD. In the waning moments of the Navy game with the reserves in Navy blocked a punt and ran it in for a TD. As a vaguely remember Alabama had the best points against at 37.
Overall this rating exercise is pointless as is comparing baseball players from the deadball era to modern ones. As a student then my memory of John Ray was a charismatic and highly innovative coach. He "invented" a scheme at John Carroll called the Inside 6 (like the Bear front) gaps were filled like a goal line D making running between the tackles nearly impossible and JCU the "best D" at its level by far. Ara heard him at a coaches conference and hired him "on the spot." At ND in 64 saw the invention of the Notre Dame 4 in Spring practice as all the D coaches (mostly Ara's folk from Northwestern) adapted the Inside 6 to the personnel we had. For three or four years we had an actual "schematic advantage" until teams realized they needed more wideouts to attack it as it relied on a three deep zone. By that time JR moved along as head coach at Kentucky which was a career gamble that failed as K was not prepared to do the things that would make them as competitive on the field as their BB team was on the court. He ended his career in the NFL as the LB coach and D coordinator at Buffalo
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Alvarez getting away is what was the major step in changing the ND legacy. Alvarez is a Rockne type, recreation for the new generation. UW was THE LAUGHING STOCK of the big ten for 25 years.
Alvarez went 6-6 in year 1(91), then dominated. I used to run next to him on engineering campus and ask him when he was headed back to ND back in 02 and he laughed and said, "no way buddy." I was sad and happy at the same time, GO BADGERS but still, GO IRISH i used to say to him. I was born in 83 so i never saw these teams play, and if they did I would have to take the home team and be conflicted the whole time.....LAMBEAU?
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