Bundled with headlines in today's Chicago Tribune about yesterday's USA Basketball press conference, the inevitable 2008 Cubs World Series, and the daily Derrick Rose vs. Michael Beasley banter was this piece about finding a new athletic director at Notre Dame. In analyzing the difficulties of guiding one of the country's most prestigious athletic departments, the story read more like postmortem No. 2 on the Kevin White Era in the land of the Golden Dome. The most interesting quote came from former ND athletic director-turned-Duke search consultant Gene Corrigan, who was reportedly the first person to reach out to White about the Duke position:
"It's no secret Kevin was upset about that," Corrigan said [of the firing of former head football coach Tyrone Willingham]. "He probably has turned down five jobs that would have paid him more money than he'll get at Duke. He wasn't running away from Notre Dame, but I think he was looking, and if the right thing came up, I think he felt like he would try it."
Current LSU baseball head coach Paul Mainieri, who guided the program in South Bend from 1995 to 2006, said this:
"When you go to a place like Notre Dame that believes very strongly in a way to do things, you either adapt to the way Notre Dame does it, or you don't work there."
White doesn't work at Notre Dame anymore, so it makes you wonder if the way he believes in doing things will ultimately lead him to find success at Duke.
—by Meredith Shiner
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