Irish Find a Coach: O’Really? No, O’Leary

After failing to hire Oakland Raider Coach Jon Gruden, the name on most Notre Dame fans’ wish list, Irish Athletic Director Kevin White returned to South Bend on Sunday with a name of a different lilt.

George O’Leary.

O’Leary?

Notre Dame?

That might work.

“I’m Irish, I’m Catholic,” O’Leary said. “That’s a great combination at this school.”

No one can accuse White of not working fast.

One week after he fired Bob Davie, White introduced Georgia Tech Coach George O’Leary as the new Notre Dame coach.

Terms of the deal were not available, although it can be assumed the 55-year-old O’Leary did not take a pay cut from Georgia Tech, where he had five years remaining on a contract that paid him $1.2 million a season with a buyout clause of $1.5 million.

“Notre Dame is the only job I would ever leave Georgia Tech for,” O’Leary said. “It’s the pinnacle of all coaching jobs. In fact, I believe there are two great coaching jobs in all of sports, one being manager or the New York Yankees and the other being head football coach at Notre Dame.”

O’Leary accepted the job after a whirlwind courtship.

White left South Bend early last week on a private jet, vowing to return with a coach, the same tack he used in hiring men’s basketball Coach Mike Brey.

White headed west, making overtures to Gruden, Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti and Stanford Coach Tyrone Willingham.

White also might have made a run at Steve Mariucci before the San Francisco 49er coach took himself out of running.

Notre Dame fans had all but demanded the school take a run at Gruden, who had professed his love for the Irish and attended high school in South Bend when his father was an Irish assistant, but White could not find a way to extract the Raider coach from his contract.

White did not dwell on his failure, though, and quickly moved down his list of candidates.

“We traveled literally to all parts of the country,” White said.

After Bellotti took himself out of the running, and the infatuation with Stanford’s Willingham apparently waned, White flew to Atlanta late in the week and met with O’Leary at an airport hotel.

Satisfied he had his man, White flew back to South Bend to confer with his board of trustees, which approved the hire.

Then it was back to Atlanta on Saturday, at which time O’Leary and White reached a tentative agreement.

The deal reportedly was finalized Saturday night.

O’Leary called an early Sunday morning meeting with Georgia Tech staff and players to inform them he was taking the job.

He did not speak with reporters as he left the Georgia Tech athletic complex Sunday morning on his way, as it turned out, to the jet that would whisk him to an afternoon news conference in South Bend.

“It’s a sad time for us,” Georgia Tech defensive end Greg Gathers said as he emerged from the players’ meeting with O’Leary, “but we wish coach O’Leary the best. Him being Irish Catholic and all, some of the guys understand.”

Added Will Glover, a Georgia Tech junior wide receiver: “It’s a dog-eat-dog world. It’s a business. You can’t fault him for leaving.”

Unlike Davie, fired after posting a five-year record of 35-25, O’Leary comes to the Irish with head coaching experience, having led Georgia Tech to five consecutive bowl games.

While not the dramatic hire some Irish fans hoped for, O’Leary may fall in line with previous coaches who made it big after they got to Notre Dame: Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz.

Whether O’Leary measures up to those icons remains to be seen.

“I think this program is basically inches away from being where they need to be,” O’Leary said.

Others might suggest O’Leary has his work cut out at a school where the talent level has dropped considerably while the schedule remains one of the nation’s toughest.

At his news conference, after an Irish fan shouted, “We love you George,” O’Leary cracked, “I hope you feel that way at midseason.”

O’Leary was 52-33 in seven seasons at Georgia Tech and won Atlantic Coast Conference coach-of-the-year honors in 1998 and 2000.

He is no stranger to the Notre Dame campus. In the 1997 opener, his Georgia Tech team went to South Bend and lost, 17-13, to an Irish team coached by ... Bob Davie.

After going 11-11 in his first two full seasons, O’Leary turned a listless Georgia Tech program around. This year’s team is headed to the Dec. 27 Seattle Bowl to play Stanford, although most people in Atlanta expected more from O’Leary’s team this year.

Thought by some to be a national title contender, the Yellow Jackets finished the regular season 7-5 and are coming off consecutive losses to Georgia and Florida State.

O’Leary, in fact, never defeated Florida State in seven years, but did beat archrival Georgia three consecutive years in one stretch.

O’Leary started his career coaching on the high school level in New York and worked his way up. He was an assistant coach under Bobby Ross at Georgia Tech and followed Ross to the San Diego Chargers, where he served as defensive coordinator in 1992-93.

O’Leary returned to Georgia Tech in 1994 as defensive coordinator and become interim coach when Bill Lewis was fired with three games left in the season.