Kelly Green has heretofore remained silent about Kevin White pulling a Matt Doherty on Notre Dame (a little farther down Tobacco Road this time around), so I felt it was time to weigh in on this truly earth-shattering even in my alma mater's athletic history. After all, as Gene Wojciechowski has proclaimed, Notre Dame "will never be the same."

Well.

If by "the same" Mr. Wojciechowski means not having another athletic director who throws his school under the racially-stigmatized bus, then... we can only hope. In any event, Dr. White's apparently delicate touch is probably better suited for Duke, where race relations have as of late been in a bit more dire a predicament than the mere firing of a mediocre black head football coach with a penchant more for the links than the gridiron.

According to Wojciechoski's twisted logic, White apparently had the power to (and deserved the credit for) hiring the first minority head coach in Irish history. However, the decision to jettison Willingham was made by the greedy, amorphous, shadowy cabal known as the Board of Trustees, led by the sinister Fr. Jenkins. I could swear that Wojciechowski writes under the psuedonym "Dan Brown" from time to time. If so, he should stick with it, as it is far easier to remember how to spell.

No, Gene. Whether or not Notre Dame will ever be the same in the return-to-glory sense will have very little to do with whomever replaces Dr. White. That task right now rests on the shoulders of a big and big-hearted old alum from New Jersey, and a few green but talented and hard-working young men, all of whom love their University with all their hearts. All the best to them.

And all the best to Kevin White, who has described his mood upon being hired by Duke as "euphoric." Certainly the whole of the Blue Devil administration is sharing in his euphoria, as a Kentucky judge has sided with its argument that Duke, after going 13-90 over the past decade, is of such poor caliber that Louisville lost nothing when the Blue Devils welshed on the remaining three games of their series with the Cardinals.

A university that considers itself no different than any other Division I school. I'd be euphoric too, had I just found my dream job.