As one of the elder statesmen in the Notre Dame blogosphere, Lou Somogyi of BlueandGold.com always offers interesting insight when dissecting Notre Dame football.
Lou spoke with former Notre Dame star Chris Zorich on the state of Notre Dame football. But with his typical flair, Somogyi also reached back into his treasure chest of knowledge and mentioned Zorich’s high schoo coachl, John Potocki, calling Zorich someone that was “different” before he even enrolled.
Here are a few choice nuggets that Somogyi got out of Zorich:
On the biggest change he’s seen in college football over the years:
Zorich: You can’t yell at a kid anymore, it seems, otherwise you get sued. You can’t grab a kid’s facemask, and if you stick a finger in his chest you get fired. Whoever started all these new rules about coaching football is probably the same person who said every kid in little league should be awarded a trophy for participation. Are you kidding me? Now the kid doesn’t know what it means to truly earn something.
When I dislocated my kneecap in my first spring here, I couldn’t practice but I was still out there in full equipment, with a knee stabilizer, and I kept my helmet on. That’s how I was taught. Coach Holtz would grab my facemask, he’d slap my helmet, he threw me out of practice all the time. My line coach, John Palermo, he beat the s- out of me. The offensive line coach Joe Moore, what he had our guys do ... Do you even have fights in practice anymore?
This isn’t badminton. You need coaches who can build you up, tear you down, piss you off ... Football is different than any other team sport, and your manhood is challenged every play. I could not coach today, because I would not only be fired the first day, I would be arrested.
I didn’t come from a disciplined background growing up, and I needed someone kicking my ass. In high school I learned to always have my helmet on and not even take a knee on the sidelines. Water? When a student manager here first handed me a water bottle, I was like “Really?” I came from a different environment.
As much as I could hate my coaches at times, it taught me about courage, succeeding under pressure and pushing myself beyond what I thought I could do.
Zorich: Fight your butt off to get a training table. I think he had one at Cincinnati. I recently talked with (Connecticut head coach) Randy Edsall and he has one -- and that’s a program that’s been out of I-AA only nine years. He told me, “When I heard you don’t have a training table at Notre Dame, it blew my mind.” (Athletic director) Jack Swarbrick has said that he’s making it a priority because of all the weight loss that occurred on the team this past season (an average of 13 pounds per man, possibly contributing to another November meltdown).
Now, I’m not saying, “Hey, get a training table and we’ll automatically win.” It’s not just so much about the food per se, but it’s the camaraderie you have when you are breaking bread with teammates after a really hard practice or a really hard workout. It’s not the same like when you’re practicing and going at it against each other. A quarterback from some farm state has a chance to sit down with a dude from a different part of the country, it’s the family aspect that helps make a team. Having meals as a team is a bonding thing and a different kind of experience where life-long friendships can grow.
I know the university has said that we don’t want our student-athletes to be treated differently and it wants them to have the experiences the rest of the student body has -- but the players usually sit with each other in the dining hall anyway. They have that experience with the rest of the student body by living in the dorms and going to classes together. But when you are talking about getting first-rate nutrition, and getting it consistently to maintain your body properly in big-time athletics, you need to do anything you can to stay competitive with everyone else. We’ve done so much with facilities and a lot of other things, but a training table has been the missing link.
With today’s constant media attention, Lou Holtz’s escapades -- never mind John Palermo and Joe Moore’s -- would’ve brought intense scrutiny and attention that surely would’ve been unwanted.
As for training table, here’s hoping that Swarbrick figures out a way to incorporate it as soon as this semester, as the strength training and conditioning work that the team does with Paul Longo and his staff will be transformational.
Great stuff by Somogyi and Zorich...
(H/T: BGS)