The coaches that ND has hired in the past were well thought of when they got to ND.....
Really? Davie & Weis lacked HC experience & were unknown quantities or weren't regarded as great recruiters. Why is a program like ND taking a chance on unknown quantities? Because of idiotic leadership. Ty Willingham had a track record, a mediocre one while a Stanford. Yet ND hired him. They were looking at non-football PC things, not football when they hired him.
Consider Bill Walsh left him with more future NFL talent than any program in the country in the late 90's, yet where are all those bowl wins? Ty couldn't even develop a 5 Star, Parade AA QB, & had two of them!
Notre Dame hired some real bozos since Holtz. Imagine what they would have been had they hired Barry Alvarez or promoted Urban Meyer?
And even then if you just compare regular seasons, UC went undefeated, the 2000 Huskies lost to Oregon.....
Yes, they lost to top 10 Oregon on the road, but they also beat 3 BCS bowl teams that year. Won the Rose Bowl, & beat the Sugar Bowl & Fiesta Bowl winners.
Cincy has an easier road to the BCS. No powers like USC to have to go through every year, smaller conference. One team can become a Florida State in the ACC in the 90's type of team in the Big East. It looked like Louisville was about to pull it off before Petrino jumped ship. Cincy could easily be that program if they invest some $ right now. They are one of two BCS programs in football rich Ohio, the foundation is there ready to build on.