The Bob Davie Era began Nov. 24, 1996, made possible by a confluence of circumstances that all flowed in Davie's favor. Notre Dame interviewed just three candidates to replace the sometimes difficult, but legendary Lou Holtz. There was Dave Wannstedt, Gary Barnett, and Davie, who had spent the previous three seasons as Holtz's defensive coordinator and was being courted by Purdue, Maryland and Boston College.

Davie was 42 at the time, popular with his players, but he had never been a head coach. Notre Dame had a history of taking fliers -- remember Gerry Faust? -- so they chose the worker bee Davie over the more experienced Wannstedt and Barnett. Davie was the anti-Lou: young, a hot commodity, and surely more pliable and easier to control than Holtz had been.

	Bob Davie had a 35-25 career record at Notre Dame

"Three years ago, when I came to Notre Dame, I came here because Lou Holtz told me that he would teach me how to be a head football coach and he did that," Davie said when he replaced Holtz.

Notre Dame's problems were obvious: The coaching staff needed to be rebuilt. Recruiting had suffered. The Irish were slowly becoming a national afterthought.

"When I accepted this job I said it's the best coaching job in the country and I still believe that," Davie said before the 1998 season. "Saying it's the best coaching job doesn't mean it's the easiest coaching job, that doesn't mean there won't be bumps in the road."

Davie did a respectable job repairing Notre Dame's recruiting machine. Only one Irish player was selected in the 1997 NFL draft; six were chosen in last year's draft, and the number could grow in the 2002 draft. But five seasons after he took the job, there still is no Rocket Ismail- or Tim Brown-type player on the roster.

"To be successful here at South Bend, Ind., we have to be different and there has to be a higher standard and what we need to do is go find those kind of players that respond to that challenge," Davie said prior to last season.

And he made his share of rookie mistakes, such as hiring Jim Colletto as his first offensive coordinator, the same Colletto whose Purdue team had been beaten routinely by Holtz. It also didn't help that Davie tried to shoehorn drop-back passer Ron Powlus into a run-oriented offense. Even now, Notre Dame is without a true offensive identity.

There were moments to remember during Davie's tenure, like the 1998 upset of No. 5 Michigan and last year's nine-win season and Fiesta Bowl bid which earned him a five-year contract extension. But other numbers can't be ignored, such as an 0-3 record in bowl games, a 6-15 record against ranked opponents, a 1-7 record against traditional opponents Michigan State and Michigan and an 0-4 record against Nebraska and Tennessee.

And, of course, the slow starts that ended Notre Dame's national championship hopes before they ever began: a 1-4 start in 1997, 1-3 in 1999, 2-2 in 2000 and 0-3 this season.

"Bottom line is that all I have to prove is that I am capable of handling this job and that someday Notre Dame people look back and say we were fortunate to have Bob Davie as a football coach," Davie said on Sept. 1, 1997.

In the end, Davie was considered an earnest guy done in by his initial inexperience and indecision, by the difficulty of following a legend, by Notre Dame's high admission standards, and by a changing college football landscape where the Golden Dome is no longer the centerpiece of the map.

"I don't know if anybody is going to come in here and just have the fans just jumping up and down each and every week," Davie said last week. "I don't know if that guy exists. If he did his name was Knute or one of those statues outside my office."

Davie promised improvement, but delivered two losing seasons in five, and did it at a place spoiled by history and steeped in high expectations.

"I am not going to live and die every day based on what other people say," Davie said last month. "If I go coach the nose guards tomorrow at Slippery Rock, my family is going to be happy, and I am going to come home at night proud of what I did that day."