College football moves fast, but for a long time, Notre Dame felt stuck in the past. Legendary coach Urban Meyer recently admitted he had completely written off his former team, convinced the Fighting Irish would never win another national championship. For decades, the program seemed content with outdated facilities and strict rules, while rival schools spent millions to win. But as Meyer pointed out, a massive financial shift inside the university finally brought Notre Dame back into the modern championship conversation.
“When I was at Notre Dame in 1996, Notre Dame took great pride in awful facilities, no training tables,” Meyer told Collin Cowherd on CFB ON FOX. “You’re gonna treat the football players like an average student. Coaches actually got paid half of what Big Ten coaches were getting paid. Brian Kelly changed that, and no one wants to give him credit. And now, you’re seeing the best facility in college football; I imagine they’re spending as much, or more than anyone else on their roster. The leadership at the top of the University of Notre Dame says, ‘Let’s give Marcus Freeman everything he’s got to do to win a national title.'”
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“I was convinced that Notre Dame’s national championships were over. And they were, until this transition took place and they said, ‘We better ante up and make us Notre Dame again,'” Meyer added candidly.
Look back at Notre Dame’s history, and you will see why fans grew so impatient. The Fighting Irish won 11 consensus national championships throughout the 20th century (while some argue the number is 13), never going more than a decade without lifting a trophy. But after head coach Lou Holtz won it all in 1988, the program entered an unprecedented multi-decade drought. That was the exact dry spell Urban Meyer walked into when he joined the coaching staff in the late 1990s.
Meyer served as Notre Dame’s wide receivers coach from 1996 through 2000, working under Lou Holtz and later Bob Davie. During this era, the school leadership’s stubbornness held the team back. While rival programs built state-of-the-art training centers and poured money into recruiting, Notre Dame refused to adapt. They kept strict academic barriers, tolerated outdated weight rooms, and suffered through embarrassing big-game losing streaks. To insider coaches like Meyer, the school seemed more focused on maintaining tradition than actually winning football games.
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Things stayed rocky through the coaching runs of Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham, and Charlie Weis. Brian Kelly brought some stability when he arrived in 2010, but a dreadful 4-8 record in 2016 forced an emergency wake-up call. Realizing they were falling behind modern college football standards, university leaders finally agreed to overhaul the entire operation. They hired new assistant coaches, upgraded athlete nutrition, updated academic restrictions, and poured serious money into facilities.
That structural reset laid the groundwork for Notre Dame’s impressive run to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Under head coach Marcus Freeman, the Fighting Irish are operating like a modern powerhouse rather than a museum piece. While Meyer believes Kelly rarely gets enough credit for starting this shift, the outcome is clear. Notre Dame proved it was willing to spend what it takes to compete at the highest level again, forcing even its biggest past skeptics to take them seriously as title contenders.
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