Fans Cheer Notre Dame’s New Coach Defensive Coordinator Takes Over Highly Coveted College Football Job

Bob Davie was surrounded by cheering fans as he made his way into the room to be introduced as Notre Dame’s new football coach. They were still there when he left an hour later, waiting to shake his hand and get his autograph.

The Bob Davie era has officially begun at Notre Dame.

“Obviously, it’s a great day for me personally and it’s a great day for my family,” Davie said Sunday. “I promise to the Notre Dame family that I’m going to do everything in my power so that one day, people will look back on this and say it was a great day for Notre Dame football.”

Davie, Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator the past three years, succeeds coach Lou Holtz in the glamour job of college football. Holtz announced Tuesday he was stepping down after 11 seasons.

Davie signed a five-year contract and his hiring was announced at a campus news conference Sunday, one day after the 10th-ranked Irish defeated Rutgers 62-0 in Holtz’s final home game.

It’s the first head coaching job for Davie, 42, who’s spent the past 20 years as a defensive assistant. He becomes the 26th coach at Notre Dame, and the first assistant to be hired as head coach since Terry Brennan succeeded Frank Leahy in 1954.

Davie became one of the top candidates as soon as Holtz resigned. He impressed the administration by filling in last year when Holtz had emergency neck surgery and leading the Irish to a 41-0 rout of Vanderbilt.