2012 Notre Dame football is past the point of relevancy. The Irish are back and are here to stay. The Irish football team is now a legitimate Championship contender. If the Irish go undefeated, the team will be in the National Championship, it is that simple. With Notre Dame 9-0 for the first time since 1993, the Irish are garnerning fame not seen in South Bend since its glory days.

The last football Championship for the Irish came in 1988 under legendary head coach Lou Holtz. “Dr. Lou,” an ESPN college football analyst who has thoroughly dismantled Mark May in picking the winners of college football games this season, won exactly one hundred games while coaching at Notre Dame, second most to Knute Rockne. Holtz was the leader of the Irish for ten years, from 1986-1996, after taking the job and coming over from the University of Minnesota.

There are many similarities between Holtz and current head coach Brian Kelly. Holtz took the Irish to the Fiesta Bowl in 1988 in just his third year with the Fighting Irish, winning the championship over West Virginia 34-21. That team was led by Tony Rice, an eerily similar quarterback to current starter Everett Golson. Brian Kelly is in his third year at Notre Dame after leaving the undefeated Cincinnati Bearcats before their BCS matchup against Florida and Tim Tebow.

Holtz was an exceptional motivator and recruiter. His offense, which used the option attack, was favorable to talented skill players like running backs Ricky Watters and Jerome Bettis and quarterback Rick Mirer, who were standouts at the college level and also played in the NFL. He could coup the most talented high school players in the country and make them fit into his system at Notre Dame. Holtz would use his quick thinking and determination to inspire his players. While not the most intimidating coach, Holtz would rely on his knowledge of the game and ability to speak from his heart to win over his players. Sound like Coach Kelly yet?

Holtz traveled a long path before arriving at South Bend. He was born in West Virginia, but grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio and attended Kent State University. Holtz was a scrappy linebacker during his playing days at Kent State, and graduated in 1959 with his sights on coaching. Before Dr. Lou could take on a lot of responsibility, he had to learn the ropes of successful coaching. He took a graduate assistant job at the University of Iowa and earned his Master’s degree at the same time. From 1960 to 1968, Holtz coached as an assistant for a number of programs, ranging from William and Mary to Ohio State, where he shared a National Championship trophy with Coach Woody Hayes.

Holtz finally landed the lead job at William and Mary in 1969 and earned the respect of his peers in the college ranks. He caught the attention of N.C. State, and coached the Wolfpack from 1972-1975. Holtz earned a trip to four bowl games during his tenure at N.C. State and had an impressive 33-12 record over these years.

Holtz made the giant leap to the NFL, as many up-and-coming college coaches have done. Holtz found out quickly that the NFL is a totally different beast. He was the head coach for the New York Jets for only thirteen games and quit the job after a 3-10 regular season record in 1976. Instead of giving up, Holtz returned to the college game and saw his star shine brightly once again.

Holtz joined Arkansas for seven seasons in the next stage of his career journey. He won the Rose Bowl in 1978 over Oklahoma and was arguably the most successful Arkansas coach in the program’s history. He could have taken the job at Ohio State when Woody Hayes was fired after punching an opposing player; however, out of respect for Hayes, Holtz stayed put. Showing how allegiances fade quickly in the business of football, Arkansas fired Holtz after a 6-5 record in 1983. This turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to Dr. Lou.

Holtz went to the Minnesota Gophers the next season and turned around a losing team, soon earning a berth in the Independence Bowl. Holtz left before the bowl game because he had a “Notre Dame clause” in his contract. He took on the challenge of restoring another struggling team and turned the Irish into a winner once again. By fine tuning the offense and defense and using the Irish’s tradition of excellence as a marker, Holtz went 5-6 in his first season that featured a program-defining win over USC after coming back from a double digit deficit.

Holtz made his mark with the team in 1988, bringing the National Title trophy back to Notre Dame. He also won the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award and the Coach of the year award for the second time in his career. He had won it before in 1977 in his first year at Arkansas when Holtz went 11-1 and won the Fiesta Bowl.

Following that Championship season, Holtz didn’t lose more than three games in a season for the next five years. He notched victories in the Cotton Bowl in the 1992 and 1993 seasons by defeating Texas A&M twice in a row, and won the Sugar Bowl in the 1991 season over Florida. Holtz went on to coach for the Irish until 1996 when he was still in his 50s after an astounding 100-30-2 overall record. As to why Holtz “retired,” Holtz believed it was just “the right thing to do.” Read into that quote any way you please. Holtz would surely have broken Rockne’s record in 1997 for victories with the Irish.

Holtz couldn’t stay retired for long though. After two years off, Holtz came back to coach for South Carolina. Although Holtz’s career record was 33-37 with the Gamecocks, he finished 9-3 in 2001 and won the Outback Bowl.  He retired for the second time (not unlike Brett Favre) in 2004 and joined ESPN, where he pleasantly entertains sports fans with his spirited debates as an advocate for Irish football. Holtz has four children and three of them are Notre Dame graduates. Skip Holtz, one of his sons, is an ND alum and now the head coach for South Florida.

Holtz will undoubtedly be considered one of the best coaches of all time in the college ranks, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008. The similarities between Coach Holtz and Brian Kelly are endless –– hopefully Kelly will enjoy the same success as Holtz did while “under the dome.” With the way things are going this year, it looks like Kelly is trending that way.

Rich Hidy is a First Year of Studies student looking to major in Business. He might be the youngest Sports Editor in Irish Rover history. Congratulate him at rhidy@nd.edu.