Hats Off

Everyone who cares one iota about the direction of college athletics should doff their caps to Notre Dame football Coach Lou Holtz.

On the night before his top-ranked Fighting Irish were going to play the second-ranked University of Southern California, Holtz told his squad that he was going to suspend two of its best skill-players, tailback Tony Brooks and flanker Ricky Watters.

The two had been 20 minutes late for a team meeting Friday night, so Holtz announced at a meeting later that night that he was going to send them back home to South Bend, Ind.

Brooks was Notre Dame's leading rusher and Watters was the top receiver for the Irish. They are two extremely valuable and gifted players. Without them, the Notre Dame attack would be seriously weakened.

And this was easily the biggest college football game of the year for the Irish. In front of 93,000 fans in the Los Angeles Coliseum, Notre Dame would defend its top-ranked status against USC. The Trojans vs. the Irish. There are many college rivalries, but few compare with Notre Dame-USC.

But despite the magnitude of the game, despite the national rankings, Holtz decided to send Watters and Brooks home anyway for what he called "repeated offenses."

By sending home these players--and placing Notre Dame's top-ranking in greater jeopardy--Holtz reaffirmed the meaning of college athletics. Unlike so many college coaches, Holtz understands what the game is all about.

College athletics is not just about winning. Itis about the spirit and excitement of competitionand the value of self-discipline.

When receiver coaches teach a flanker to run anew pattern, they are teaching him discipline asmuch as they are teaching him how to get open fora pass in next week's game.

And when coaches set up a new blocking scheme,they are teaching the linemen the value ofteamwork as much as they are setting up a winningstrategy for next week.

College coaches should not be in the businessof winning for winning's sake, although they toooften are. They should really be in the businessof teaching.

By suspending his two players, Holtz wasteaching his two young players a lesson--theimportance of discipline.

And in doing so he put himself in front of thefiring line. Had the Irish lost, who knows howmany Notre Dame alumni and fans would have been onthe phone, yelling for Holtz's skin.

He might even have been less popular in SouthBend than Gerry Faust was.

But the coach did what he thought was mostimportant, teaching what he thought was right. Andfortunately for him, the Irish prevailed withoutWatters and Brooks, 27-10.

Now, Notre Dame will face undefeated WestVirginia in the Fiesta Bowl on January 2 for thenational championship.

If the Irish can overcome the Mountineers,Holtz can rest easy knowing that he did notsacrifice the principles of college athletics forthe sake of winning.

And even if West Virginia wins, Holtz can beproud of the fact that he did the right thing onThanksgiving weekend