Barnett Turns Down Irish

The Notre Dame football coaching situation, muddied by the strange resignation of Lou Holtz on Tuesday, became even more confused Thursday by the withdrawal of the top candidate to replace Holtz.

Gary Barnett, the man who has turned the Northwestern program from a joke into a giant in the last two years, said no thanks to life under the Golden Dome. And his reasons clearly revolved more around family than football.

“I am humbled and flattered that Notre Dame has asked me to be considered a candidate,” Barnett said in a prepared statement. “However, for very personal and private reasons, I have informed Notre Dame officials that I wish not to be a candidate.”

A quote in Thursday’s Chicago Sun-Times, in response to a question about the differences between living in the Chicago area or South Bend, Ind., elaborated on that theme.

“Coaches don’t live anywhere. The airport, the practice field, the training table,” Barnett said. “Coaches don’t live anywhere, but coaches’ wives do.”

Barnett, 50, who took the Wildcats to the Rose Bowl last season and has them poised to accept a probable Citrus Bowl bid with their 9-2 record this season, was wooed by both Georgia and UCLA near the end of last season, and appeared to come closest, of all three job opportunities that have been on his plate now, to accepting the Bruin offer. After he turned down UCLA, he negotiated a 12-year, $5-million contract with Northwestern that he signed in May. There was, however, a buyout clause, estimated by one Notre Dame source to be around $500,000, that would have allowed him to join the Irish, had he so chosen.

Barnett’s rejection left the Irish with one certain candidate, current assistant Bob Davie, the team’s defensive coordinator. Sources close to Notre Dame told ESPN on Thursday night that Davie would get the job.

Davie, quoted by the Chicago Tribune, said, “Obviously, this is the best coaching job in the country.”

More obviously, Notre Dame needs to move quickly on Davie if it, indeed, wants him, since he is a top candidate for the head coaching job at Purdue.

Other candidates seem to be a pick-em of media speculation. Among those are Gerry DiNardo of Louisiana State, a former Irish offensive guard who had reportedly pulled out of the running, but may be back in with Barnett’s withdrawal; Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin coach who was a Holtz assistant until he moved on to the Badgers, and Tom Clements, another former Holtz assistant and a former Irish quarterback who currently is a businessman.

There had been some speculation that, were Barnett to pull out, Terry Donahue, former UCLA coach and the winningest coach in Pacific 10 Conference history, would reenter the picture. Donahue, now a broadcaster for CBS, had been on the Irish short list last week with Barnett and Davie and had decided against taking a shot at the job after thinking it over for a couple of days.

Donahue reiterated that stance Thursday night. Donahue, in Miami preparing for the Miami-Boston College game Saturday, said: “The fact that Gary Barnett has withdrawn has no bearing on my situation whatsoever. I’m not a candidate. It’s not that Notre Dame isn’t a great school, because it is. I enjoy my job with CBS.”

Other names mentioned Thursday included Marc Trestman, San Francisco 49er offensive coordinator, and Mack Brown, North Carolina coach. The possible Notre Dame connection to Trestman is 49er owner Ed DeBartolo Jr., a Notre Dame graduate, whose family is a large contributor to the school. The possible connection to Brown is Gene Corrigan, current Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner, who is the former athletic director at Notre Dame.

*

* THE HOLTZ TRUTH?

If Lou Holtz doesn’t have better reasons for leaving Notre Dame than he has stated, he’s making a big mistake. Chris Dufresne’s column, C9