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Thursday, September 5, 2002
9/1 Baylor head coach safe for now
t verify !j Athletic Director gives Steele vote of confidence
liush,
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member
WACO, Texas (AP) — Baylor athletic
|>*<*mber 1 i rei lor Tom Stanton, saying he won’t be
—^waM.-d by Internet campaigns, rumors and
iuiK>inunu» n 8 r ' l ans ’ £ ave a passionate vote of confi
dence for coach Kevin Steele.
^^■tanton said Tuesday that Steele, whose
•ver til record is 6-28 after a season-opening
0-22 loss at California, will remain the
^■h throughout at least this season.
^^^^^^^^K<evin Steele is the leader of our football
and that’s not going to change
k- AmcricMpecituse we went out to California and lost a
a bclball game’” Stanton said. “That’s not the
:nd of the world. We’re not going to go
limp off a bridge and we’re not going to go
■lit our wrists.”
Hit the pressbox after Saturday’s game,
itaiton was visibly upset as he talked to
iorieone on his cellular phone. California, a
?ac-10 team that was 1-10 last season, led
$5-0 in the first quarter.
^K)n Tuesday, in an unscheduled appear-
at Steele’s weekly media luncheon.
Slat ton read off a prepared list as he out-
linld improvements in the program in
many areas, including academics, disci
pline and administrative and organization
al skills.
Quitting is not an
option... when you
teach players not to
quit, why would you
ever let that thought
into your mind? ”
STEELE
tame that
the
be
Y
But Stanton, who gave Steele an unspec
ified contract extension last year, didn’t rule
out a change after the season.
“When the season is over, if Kevin and I
decide that we want to do something else,
then Kevin Steele and I will sit down and
talk about that and we’ll make those deci
sions at the appropriate times,” Stanton said.
Steele, who said the vote of confidence
from Stanton was appreciated but not neces
sary, said he has never considered resigning.
“Quitting is not an option,” Steele said.
“Because when you teach players not to
quit, why would you ever let that thought
into your mind?”
The Bears play their home opener
Saturday against Division I-AA Samford,
and have two more games after that before
their Big 12 opener Oct. 5 against Kansas.
Baylor has a 29-game conference losing
streak, 0-24 under Steele.
The Bears had a players-only meeting
Sunday described as emotional.
“It got pretty heated in there,” said quar
terback Aaron Karas. “Not negative, but peo
ple finally stepping up and making people
accountable for their actions. I think you’ll
see a different team out there this week.”
Stanton said he was moved by the
courage and emotion of players who came
to him and "pledged their absolute commit
ment and support to their head football
coach and this university.”
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d He
pen
New head coach gives
ND faithful new hope
■(AP) He looks nothing like
his predecessors.
^^■But in the span of a few
months, and on the admittedly
thin evidence of only a single
game, Tyrone Willingham has
given the faithful hope. He’s
Heady stirred faint echoes. He
has made Notre Dame football
look, and feel and sound very
ftfeuch as it used to — big-time.
B All those trophies lining the
walls and the statues outside
his office might have some
company yet.
I Expectations scared off a
few of the coaches who were in
line ahead of him. Not
Willingham. His only fear is
getting ahead of himself.
■ “It’s like playing golf,” the
new coach said after the Irish
made his debut Saturday night
almemorable one. “A hacker
will get all excited when he
pars a hole. But in his excite-
ment, he’ll forget to play the
next several holes. I’m not a
hlcker.”
I The last guy who held
Willingham's job for more
than a few days was Bob
Davie. He didn’t understood
what made Notre Dame special
when he took the job and he
was just as clueless when he
lift. He worked plenty hard,
but got trapped into thinking
l'ii in the r- Perspiration was the same
.nul ha> tfing as inspiration,
past fourm- 1 “I don’t know if anybody is
going to come in here and just
k tithe top ^ ave t * ie * ans jumping up and
i n ,u prep down each and every week. I
t being v don 1 know if that 8 u y exists -
^ “If he did,” Davie said just
before he was fired last winter,
“his name was Knute or one of
those other statues outside my
office.”
| Willingham is black, neither
Irish nor Catholic. But he has
embraced Notre Dame’s tradi-
morthatwf lion as though he was born to
ning like ^ mstead of a kid who was
<ad coach!'raised a Baptist in North
bration in ^ fjarolina and sneaked out of
church on fall Sunday morn-
combined ings to catch ND’s highlights.
Bowls in*' ^ Llt l ie s made up for lost
1()s time in a hurry. Since
luled for 8-' Willingham took the job, he’s
will be te^ rea d tw o books on Rockne,
on £5pn. watched all the mushy movies
houl the a
o what \hc
ving her L
for the new f
imfer ** r
was domi
Stefan '
and it ~
bing Jewfcr.
nhered Csp
ir umpire
i the spt-
imcd dowr
hrovui or
. hangc the
i to what I
Mauresmo
out conquc
k from ad'
t. Only 26.
priorities r
i a iifetiro
n 1990. in'
1994, bad
7th in IW
the first lilt
No. I to
d forth.
un. she
y ones thafi
same !ni'' 13,
rn.”
v Yorkers.
and old game films and memo
rized the fight song. He’ll be
reminded soon enough that
there is no substitute for win
ning. In the meantime, though,
Willingham has bought himself
some time.
Last off-season was a rocky
one for a program that hadn’t
contended for nearly a decade to
begin with. After a messy round
of job interviews to replace
Davie, first-choice George
O’Leary turned out to be less
than advertised. The starting
quarterback split and the leading
rusher was shown the exit.
Three more players were dis
missed from school after accu
sations of sexual assault.
None of that has been
repackaged as an excuse. There
have been no complaints about
a tough schedule — Florida
State, Michigan, Michigan
State, USC — or having to
compete against players — as
Davie often claimed — who
would not have been admitted
to Notre Dame.
Willingham, after all, came
to Notre Dame from Stanford.
He knew exactly what he was
getting into, even if all his assis
tants did not.
“Everything you hear about
Notre Dame is true, but even
more so” defensive coordina
tor Kent Baer said last month.
He followed Willingham to
the Midwest after seven sea
sons at Stanford.
“It’s amazing,” Baer added,
“how important it is to so
many people.”
And this was before the Irish
put a 22-0 hurt on Maryland,
before they revived the slum
bering subway alumni, before
they played defense with inten
sity and offense with enough
imagination to attract the skill-
position players Davie could
never land.
And he’s already learned
something on his way into the
office that Davie didn’t figure
out in a thousand similar jour
neys: Those statues outside
were erected to honor men who
took chances, who didn’t let
being measured by the past stop
them from building an even
better future.
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