For generations of Irish Americans the Notre Dame football team has become symbolic of all that the Irish experience in America meant, gritty, hard-charging underdogs who eventually succeeded in spite of all obstacles.

Notre Dame personified the Irish and Catholic rise from underdogs in society to where they could play on a common field with any other college or institution. The term “underdog” could have been coined for them. 

At least that used to be the way. These days the early Irish supporters of the Fighting Irish would hardly recognize the team. 

The Notre Dame football team is a perennial power, at least when it comes to television contracts, and it has a following all over the world that far surpasses that of any other college team. The college still personifies the spirit and up from the bootstraps attitude of generations of Catholic immigrants and their kids.

Every weekend during the college football season you can see Notre Dame on national television, whether they are contenders or also-rans. It is a measure of the clout the school has, and an attribute to the institution that has become such a large part of America’s sporting life.

After all, Notre Dame is an isolated campus in South Bend, Indiana, a few hours drive from Chicago. South Bend is not exactly the center of the universe, but for college football, one of America’s fastest growing popular sports, it might as well be.

All this attention has not meant that Notre Dame is automatically successful, however. Indeed, in latter times Notre Dame has been anything but. 

This year they barely crept into a bowl game, and their 6-5 record dismayed Irish Americans across the country who are used to not just wining seasons, but championship ones too.

The firing of black head coach Tyrone Willingham last week has unleashed a storm of criticism, especially as he was not allowed to carry out his five-year term like other coaches before him.

Willingham showed dignity after he was fired, pointing out that he had not delivered on the field and that he understood that this was a business, and a cutthroat one at that.

Still it was an unfortunate step, especially as Urban Meyer, the man they wanted in his place and who likely precipitated the firing, suddenly decided that he wanted to coach at Florida and not Notre Dame, where he previously had been an assistant.

The facts are that any head coach of Notre Dame has a near impossible task in taking over the team. Because academic standards for their athletes are so high many of the best football players can simply never make it into the college.

Notre Dame points out correctly that most of their athletes will never make it into the pros, and therefore a solid grounding and a college education is their best chance at life.

Certainly, compared to other colleges where graduation rates for athletes are sometimes laughable, Notre Dame is certainly doing the right thing by their student athletes.

However, the reality is that by so doing they are costing their football team dear. They are simply unable to recruit the talent because of the academic strictures. 

It is a no-win situation for the college and as the firing of Willingham shows, it causes enormous tension between the expectations of the most rabid fans in America and what can actually be achieved. 

It might be the greatest job in college football, but these days coach of Notre Dame is a double-edged sword. Just ask Tyrone Willingham.