Lundy: Irish going through hard times

That's what a half-dozen University of Tennessee players said the Notre Dame program means to them when they were quizzed as they exited the locker room following the Vols' victory at South Carolina on Saturday.

Yet most of Notre Dame football tradition can only be found in old, yellowed newspaper clippings. The glory days of the Irish are long gone.

Since 1993, UT coach Phillip Fulmer has lost 29 games. Notre Dame, 5-3 and UT's guest this Saturday, has lost 50 times during that same period.

Notre Dame has not finished in the top 10 a single time in either major poll since 1994. Tennessee has been in the final top 10 six times during that time.

In the last 10 years, the Irish have had three first-round draft picks; Tennessee has had 10. Here's the real shocker: In two drafts since 1998, the first player from Vanderbilt was drafted before the first player from Notre Dame.

The Irish have had just one first-round draft pick the last five years. Does the name "Jeff Faine" ring any bells? Didn't think so.

Know how long it has been since a Notre Dame player won the Heisman?

Seventeen years. Flanker Tim Brown won the voting in 1987.

In the old days, Joe Theismann, Joe Montana and John Huarte played quarterback for Notre Dame.

In recent times, the most famous person to wear a Notre Dame gold helmet is a product of Hollywood. He wasn't known for his ability to make long runs or throw touchdown passes. He was a walk-on named Rudy, the subject of a 1990s movie about underdogs, courage and determination. Rudy played 27 seconds in his college career at Notre Dame.

Tennessee junior receiver Chris Hannon probably knows more about the Irish than most UT players. One of his high school teammates in Sarasota, Fla., linebacker Courtney Watson, played at Notre Dame and finished his career last season.

"Courtney was trying to get me to go there,'' Hannon said.

"Everybody knows about their tradition. I wanted to go there. Pretty much everybody as a kid wanted to go to Notre Dame at some point in their life."

Maybe, but most of the top prospects end up going to Miami, Southern Cal, Oklahoma or some other football factory.

Truth is, during the last decade Notre Dame's program would rank no higher than sixth in the SEC behind Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Auburn

The struggles experienced of late by Notre Dame's football program have led to a debate whether an institution of higher learning can excel at both football and academics.

The issue came to a head in April. That's when Paul Hornung, Notre Dame's 1956 Heisman Trophy winner, made an ill-advised and racist comment on a Detroit radio show.

"We can't stay as strict as we are as far as the academic structure is concerned because we've got to get the black athlete,'' Hornung said on station WXYT. "We must get the black athlete if we're going to compete."

Hornung quickly apologized and said what he should have said is that "for all athletes it is really tough to get into Notre Dame."

Too late. The can of worms was already open.

Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon reacted by writing that the problem isn't that Notre Dame's academic bar is too high. He said Notre Dame veered off the road into the ditch because of its history of running an outdated option offense that doesn't attract top athletes. He said the 2003 hiring of former Stanford coach Tyrone Willingham to direct a pro-style offense should help Notre Dame over the long haul.

That explanation makes more sense than Hornung's.

Remember, twice in recent years the first Vanderbilt player taken in the draft has gone higher than the first player from Notre Dame.

Not exactly the team with the gold helmets you were thinking of, is it?

Gary Lundy may be reached at 865-342-6274.