a lot of our sports facilities were just plain bad before Jack came in and now a lot of them are some of the best in the nation so you have to give him credit for that even if you don't like the man
When I was a student in the late 90s we played our hockey games in a temporary rink surrounded by bleachers they'd set up in the other dome of the JACC. It was probably the worst "arena" in major college hockey. When they took it down every April through October I'm not even sure where the team was supposed to skate.
That’s fine but someone made the comment Jack made multiple sports elite even though the coaches for said sports weren’t hired by him and those sports had already had great success.
Not that hard. He didn’t hire any of the legendary coaches during his time period which were mostly responsible for the athletic programs success during his tenure (Corrigan, McGraw, Brey, Jackson, Waldrum, Clark). His best hire was Link Jarrett who is already gone.
There here too. Swarbrick navigated our independence about as well as one could possibly hope for (if one values our independence).
This is kind of a bizarre one to me. Are we praising Dick Rosenthal or Mike Wadsworth for the massive 1997 expansion? Further, Campus Crossroads certainly wasn't Swarbrick's brainchild. In 2007, Asst. Dean of Mendoza at ND Sam Gaglio was a sub. professor for a business class I had. He discussed how the university was actively looking on how to maximize the stadium since it's only used 6-7 times a year. He talked about how they (ND brass) liked the FSU stadium which incorporated classrooms into the structure. Sound familiar? We also had the ND architect give a talk to our dorm around that time and he noted one of the biggest items on their radar was how to incorporate a true student union into campus and the area around the stadium was a prime candidate given the foot traffic by Debartolo and Mendoza and the unused stadium space.
Jack was one of many involved with the playoffs (any ND AD would have been included for obvious reasons). Not sure that's necessarily a feather in his cap. In terms of ND's independence, that decision is made above Swarbrick's paygrade.
BK is also the coach with the most losses at ND. His win percentage is like 7th or 8th in ND history. He was a good coach who also a.) never won a major bowl game b.) was dummied in any game of consequence ('12 Bama, '18 Clemson, '20 Clemson ACCC, '20 Bama) and c.) took 8 years to even figure out how to coach at ND and maintain consistency (playing 5 ACC dregs per year certainly helped him here as well).
Not a very easy job if the AD never gets credit for anything.
The expansion was welcome...except the fact they didn't leave a damn window for Touchdown Jesus. It's no wonder 2 decades of mediocrity quickly followed!
None of these sorts of things are done by one person, obviously. And I'm sure the idea was in the air before Jack showed up, as every major project at an institution like Notre Dame is really 20 years in the making. But Swarbrick played a major role in executing it, and execution's just as important as the original idea.
I think most of what you said is bullshit handwaving. "Any ND AD would've been included" seems aggressively reductive.
I don't disagree with anything in the second paragraph. I think Swarbrick was good AD, but I do not believe his tenure was remarkable.
The point sailed over your head like a Brandon Wimbush throw.
Agree. One of the first things you do when you get hired to run a department, is you take the time to observe and evaluate before making changes. A won loss record isn't always indicative purely on the coaches ability to coach.
One of the qualities of a good leader, is to recognize the great ideas of others and not dismiss them simply because it wasn't your idea.
Thanks for the leadership lesson Mrs. Swarbrick.
You can blame Jack for that. lol
It's not an easy job anyway you look at it. Ara coached 3-4 fewer games a year, didn't have to deal with NIL and had an advantage in recruiting, yet it caught up with him because of all the demands on and off the field. Even with today's world of CFB, as you say, there are 100+ that would switch places with MF.
Reposting bio from the University's website for posterity. Too bad there aren't any accomplishments on this list.
Not even sure where to begin with this. I do have to laugh at some of the "successes" like touting the UnderArmour deal in 2014 which was a massive turd given we received some of our compensation in stock. Remember when Jack claimed UA would be a $20 billion company, but today is like a 10th of that and has been in a freefall for a few years? Also have to laugh at the most national championships of any athletic director bullet point which is akin to Kelly as winningest coach at ND. It's true but super deceptive. The average tenure of the four ADs preceding Jack was like 6 years, and Moose Krause's tenure was largely without women at the school as well as men's programs that we have now that weren't varsity sports in the 50s-70s (e.g. Lacrosse).
How can you make the argument the stock deal was a poor choice if (a) you and I know nothing about the total and cash value offered to ND from other apparel companies relative to UA, (b) you have no idea how much of the comp was in stock, and (c) you and I know nothing about how long Notre Dame's hold period was on the stock / when we would have liquidated our position?
