Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? pulling and getting up to the line- backer. Plus, Tony and the rest of those guys were so unbelievably talented, it didn't take a lot of room for them to get through and get quickly to the next level. It was fun blocking for them." While the "Super Sophs" and freshmen such as Raghib "Rocket" Ismail stole some headlines, Ryan said the leadership from upperclass- men such as Heck, rush end Frank Stams, linebacker Wes Pritchett, Bol- car, running back Mark Green, and others kept everyone grounded. "You had a lot of leadership because of a debatable clip call in the 10-9 Notre Dame defeat. It's such a fine line between vic- tory and defeat, but Ryan points the finger at his own class. He the- orizes that unlike the veterans in 1988 who had experienced losing seasons, some complacency might have taken root. "That's such a huge element of from guys that had been around when there wasn't as much suc- cess," Ryan noted. "They were kind of paramount in keeping ev- erybody's attention to detail. It was just a perfect storm of inexperience but talent combined with experience and leadership." The arrival of offensive line coach After his three-year NFL career was cut short due to various injuries, Ryan has spent the past 15 years working in the health care industry. PHOTO COURTESY TIM RYAN Joe Moore in 1988 to help Tony Yelov- ich instruct the line hastened the me- teoric progress that became a school- record 23-game winning streak. In 1988, the Irish became one of just a handful of teams in NCAA history to defeat four teams that finished in the top 10 (Miami, Michigan, USC and West Virginia), and in 1989 they van- quished seven teams that finished in the top 18 of the Associated Press poll, highlighted by a 21-6 win over No. 1 Colorado in the Orange Bowl. Beyond the victories, the 43-year- old Ryan today now cherishes other aspects even more. "Our meetings were nothing short of hilarious," Ryan said. "The offen- sive linemen would always get to- gether about an hour early and ago- nize over what practice was going to look like and just know that Joe was going to kill us before we even got to practice. So we'd kind of go in there and commiserate, and that's where the bond began. "The funny thing is people ask about certain games or situations, and I couldn't tell you what play we ran or what even the score was, but I could tell you all the jokes and different con- versations we had in the locker room. That's what you miss — the blood, sweat and tears with these guys dur- ing the week. Saturdays were kind of a walk in the park compared to the week." www.BLUEANDGOLD.com straight No. 1-ranked recruiting classes might have been the best dur- ing Ryan's years, and that year the Irish beat No. 2 Miami and co-Big Ten champs Michigan and Michigan State at home, and won road games at SEC champion Tennessee and USC. However, the No. 1-ranked Irish On paper, the 1990 team with four BEYOND THE GLORY how special this is." Ryan's three-year NFL career at winning," Ryan said. "I think to some degree the character that they had from being in programs that weren't as successful, they knew what it meant to get to where we were. I can't help but think we took some of it for granted and we didn't have that disposition or lev- ity that we should have as seniors to kind of see the bigger picture on blew a 24-7 lead to Stanford in a 36-31 loss in the fourth game. After climbing back to No. 1 with the victory at Ten- nessee, the 8-1 Irish then squandered a 21-7 advantage versus Penn State and lost 24-21. Then in the bowl game against No. 1 Colorado again, an Is- mail 91-yard punt return for a score in the closing seconds was called back Tampa Bay was cut short with sev- eral major surgeries, including foot reconstruction. For the past 15 years, he's been in the health care industry and is currently working with Ahl- strom, a global company, while living in downtown Chicago with his wife, Bobbi. Just down the street from him is Zorich, who he talks to a couple of times per day, and Ryan continues to have yearly reunions with many of the members from the dynamic 1987 recruiting class. "I have a wonderful life," Ryan summarized. ✦ 'Take It Like A Man' funk on the field. However, the one criticism of Kelly that Tim Ryan disagrees with is the sometimes- volcanic sideline demeanor. "I like Kelly, for whatever that means," Ryan said. "When people were getting on him with his language and all that kind of stuff, I thought that was kind of nonsense." Under former offensive line coach Joe Moore and head coach Lou Holtz, Ryan saw explosions that would make Mount Vesuvius seem tame. He sees it as "Big Boy" football, although it might not play as well today. "It goes back to, 'Not everybody gets a trophy,' " said Ryan, while decrying a culture of giving unearned rewards. "If you screw up, you're going to get yelled at. It's not personal, but it's life where you don't get rewarded for everything you do, especially if it's wrong. I don't relate to this 'everybody has to be coddled' or that it would turn recruiting off … I don't know how you would recruit or run a program back then with all these people getting in your business about how you should run a program." Ryan also cannot relate to all the social media and Tweeting college athletes do, and applauds coaches who ban them. "It would be hilarious if someone would have Tweeted something that Joe Moore did during practice," Ryan said. "I bet Joe would have made him practice with the phone shoved up his ass. "If Moore yelled at you and saw that you didn't like getting yelled at — he'd just do it more. It was like, 'Take it like a man.' "Some people today might call it unorthodox, but I thought it was absolutely necessary and couldn't be more appreciative of the way he did it." — Lou Somogyi MARCH 2012 81 The jury remains out on whether head coach Brian Kelly can raise Notre Dame football from its 18-year