I feel we got real lucky to get Cut back in the unbelievable round about way we did. That Cut is a quality coach is undeniable. (Notre Dame could have hired any number of assistants.) Name a coach, head or assistant, at any program in the country that doesn't have some bad years and down times. They, too, have their nay sayers, and have to pretend their not looking as folks walk by them with hangman's nooses. I bet Stoops has his share of haters by now.
IMHO, it is both good and bad that Cut left us in 98. It's bad because with him I firmly believe we would have played for a couple of more national championships and probably bagged at least one of them. Something has to be wrong to not have been more dominating since 98 considering the recruiting classes we have landed following our championship year. What we have had during that interim are superb athletes merely keeping the program a precious few notches above mediocre. And that lulled the majority of us fans into a restlessly patient "Wait 'til next year!" stupor.
The good thing about him leaving is that it may have finally taught Phil that loyalty to assistants is a double-edged sword; one that almost decapitated him!!!!!! We were setting up into a flight pattern that was going to carry the program exactly where Bill Battle took it in the 70's. You might say that last year's 5-6 bummer and the exit of Sanders makes such a statement nonsense. I don't think so. I don't believe anyone but Cutcliff could have walked in after Sanders left and fully grasped the seriousness of the program's condition. And, I am sure no person other than Cut would have been able to shoot as straight with Phil as Cut was able to.
The program has had the scheduled slump that all programs experience for any myriad of reasons. Our slump wasn't all that severe, and we should be in great shape for at least a decade or so if last year's bad recruiting debacle can be quickly rectified Both Phil and Cut have grown and learned a lot without being too horribly embarrassed, and are still in good shape as far as their legacies are concerned.
Complacency puts programs in the ditch. We went into the ditch, and we need to count our lucky stars that it didn't total out the Big Orange Machine!!! I feel we got real lucky. Imagine if Cut had never clogged any of his arteries!!!!!!:salute:
hmy: SMASH MOUTH type play that we had on the opening kick off. WHATEVER it is that Phil, David, and Big John are doing there on lower Hudson Field (that's where everything was in '79 when I started!), they need to double it, 'cuz it is certainly working. 
