The fact that each of Davie, Weis and Willingham had at least one moderately-successful year at ND (Weis had two) is a testament for how good the ND job is. Yet, ironically, those years are used to prop up Kelly’s tenure, because he beats the teams he’s supposed to (despite hardly ever winning a big game) and those three clowns prior to him didn’t.

Bob Davie and Charlie Weis combined for three BCS games at ND. Let that sink in. Those are two terrible college head football coaches.

But he wasn’t a failure so your point stands.

Maybe 3

1999 South Carolina 0–11 0–8 6th (Eastern)
2000 South Carolina 8–4 5–3 2nd (Eastern) W Outback 21 19
2001 South Carolina 9–3 5–3 3rd (Eastern) W Outback 13 13
2002 South Carolina 5–7 3–5 4th (Eastern)
2003 South Carolina 5–7 2–6 4th (Eastern)
2004 South Carolina 6–5 4–4
South Carolina: 33–37

All-time record 620–599–44 [1] (.508)

Leahy, Parseghian, and Devine never coached elsewhere. Neither did Layden, who didn't win a NC, but who had a .770 W/L %. Rockne, obviously, never had the chance to coach elsewhere.

Except for Holtz, the general rule of thumb has been that ND was a destination job for successful HC's. Except for Brennan, the general rule of thumb has been that unsuccessful ND HC's took another shot and were even more unsuccessful than they were at ND.

EDIT: I looked up Anderson, who, previously unbeknownst to me, coached at NC State for 3 years, where he went 11-17-1--including 3-7 in his last year there.

Holtz got them to a place where they weren’t viewed as an SEC doormat. There was enough there when he was done that he talked Spurrier into taking the job.

rumor is that is the reason Holtz and Spurrier took the job