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Davie, Irish believe team comes first
By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
There's no Tim Brown. Or Paul Hornung. Or Raghib Ismail. Or even a Jerome Bettis for that matter. Yet come New Year's Day, the 2000 Notre Dame football team will find itself in the same place as those Irish teams of the past -- among the nation's elite.
They've done it in the most un-Notre Dame of ways, finishing 9-2 and earning a trip to the Fiesta bowl against Oregon State without a marquee player or a face to identify their team.
At a school known for producing Heisman-winning and NFL-starring talent, there were no stars this season. No one received a vote for the Heisman and the Irish aren't exactly dominating the NFL mock drafts. Why, only one player, senior linebacker Anthony Denman, even earned AP All-American honors. And that was as a second-teamer.
|  | | Bob Davie led the Irish to a 9-2 season and a spot in the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl. |
Call it what you want -- a lack of talent in South Bend, a lack of respect, whatever. Coach Bob Davie just calls it success.
"We don't have to have a Heisman Trophy winner. We don't have to have a first team All-American every year. We don't have to have a guy on the cover of The Sporting News or Sports Illustrated," Davie said. "We can win here with a bunch of unselfish guys that play as a team."
Huh? At Notre Dame? This is a school that has won more Heisman Trophies (7) than anyone else. It's a place that has had a player finish in the Top 10 in the Heisman voting in 33 of the 65 years the award has been presented.
It's a place that had at least one All-American every single year from 1934-1996. That's 62 years.
And while this lack of star power usually signals bad things for Notre Dame -- the Irish have never finished in the Top 25, not to mention the top 10, without having a first-team All-American -- that could all change this year.
"This is how we have to win as we move forward. We're not going to win in Lincoln, Nebraska just by out-talenting or out-individualing Nebraska or A&M or Tennessee," Davie said. "We have to win as a team and I think our players truly buy into that in a lot of ways. I think that's what Notre Dame is."
What it means is unity. Unselfishness. And sacrifice. Take the case of junior running back Terrance Howard, who could star at most schools, but instead is a member of the special teams and one of three backs competing for carries.
Or Denman, who leads the team with 84 tackles, but is hardly exempt from special teams duty, doubling as a cover man on the punt team. Fellow starting linebacker Rocky Boiman also helps on punt coverage.
It's all part of the me-last, team-first attitude.
"There are no individuals on this team anywhere. Everybody tries to contribute," said Tony Fisher, another member of the three-headed Irish rushing attack. "It's just very family oriented. People are like brothers to each other."
Fisher said many members of the team from different factions often played paintball together, went to movies and even went to dinner a couple times at Davie's house. That's a change from years past when there was division among different cliques.
"I remember my first game here four years ago, you could just feel the separation between the offense and the defense," said senior free safety Tony Driver. "It was that obvious. But now, we're on a whole different level. It's all because of our team goals."
They were goals that started with hopes of a national championship and ended with a BCS bowl appearance. A bounce here or there and the Irish, who led late in each of their two losses, could have achieved both.
Against then-No. 1 Nebraska in Week 2, quarterback Eric Crouch led the Huskers back for a 27-24 overtime win. Two weeks later at Michigan State, the Spartans threw a 68-yard touchdown pass on a late 4th and 10 to win 27-21.
Though Davie had been preaching togetherness since last year's bowl season (the Irish stayed home), it was the Michigan State loss that drew the players even closer together.
"Coach Davie and (tight end Jabari) Holloway inspired us after that loss," Fisher said. "They told us there weren't going to be any more losses like that. They demanded that we do everything in our powers to make sure that doesn't happen again. It meant playing for each other."
Notre Dame is 7-0 since that speech, without starting quarterback Arnaz Battle or defensive leader Grant Irons, who were both lost for the season in the Nebraska game. The unified atmosphere as made it easier for young players like true freshman Matt LoVecchio to fill the gaps left by Battle and Irons.
LoVecchio has played so well at quarterback that Battle will be moved to receiver when he returns next season.
"I just came here with the intention to mind my own business as a freshman," LoVecchio said. "But then I was given this opportunity and tried to step up. And everybody else has done the same."
Davie said at no moment was he more sold on his team's togetherness than at the end-of-season banquet last month. It was there, Davie said, that each honored player took his award, credited his teammates and did little to shine the spotlight on himself.
"I don't see our players trying to get up there to be the cleverest or the cutest, bringing the house down with laughter," Davie said. "I see a bunch of good kids that don't necessarily have to bring attention upon themselves. They want to win as a team."
Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com.
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