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Friday, December 14 Notre Dame: Duped not dopes By Beano Cook Special to ESPN.com |
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Discovering that new head football coach George O'Leary lied on his resume which has been in circulation for 20-plus years, is certainly not the most embarrassing incident in Notre Dame's athletic history. I don't know what they could have done to see this coming. I never thought I would feel sorry for Notre Dame, but I do in this situation.
As a former sports information director, when hiring a new coach, you write the bio for the media guide and give it to the coach for final approval. So, O'Leary approved everything that was written about him. That information has been in Georgia Tech's media guide for seven years, not to mention several NFL media guides and publications. It's really surprising to me that this did not come out sooner -- maybe not while he was an assistant coach, but certainly since becoming a head coach. Perhaps if O'Leary had a great record at Georgia Tech, Sports Illustrated or someone would have done a story and started asking questions about his past at New Hampshire sooner. Nationally, Notre Dame may be different animal, but in Atlanta, the Yellow Jackets are bigger than the Fighting Irish. If I'm the guy at the Atlanta Journal who received O'Leary's bio information when he was named head coach, I might have called New Hampshire -- obviously nobody bothered. In no way do I think Notre Dame goofed-up here. After being at Georgia Tech for seven years, why would they think to check? |
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