Sept. 14, 2006
By Craig Chval
You might think that a guy who coached for Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz would have an opinion about Notre Dame’s 2006 season.
Not Joe Yonto.
On the eve of the season, Yonto expresses optimism, but caution, “It’s hard to say anything about the present team until they get out there and do something on the field. “The new coaching staff brought back a lot of enthusiasm last year and made a big splash. Now, they have to continue that splash,” Yonto observes. “It’s possible sometimes to have too much, too soon. Your head can get so big that it’s hard to put your helmet on.” Yonto is quick to opine that second-year Irish head coach Charlie Weis has put together a top-flight staff. “It looks like they’re all real good teachers, which is the most important thing.” An injury ended Yonto’s Notre Dame playing career, but Leahy put Yonto and other injured players to work.
“We broke down film and prepared the scout teams,” he explains, before laughing, “They wanted to make sure they got something for their (scholarship) money.”
After a high school coaching stint in Chicago, Yonto returned to Notre Dame to join Parseghian’s staff, and even survived Ara’s wrath.
“The linemen were pushing a big seven-man blocking sled and it wound up against a fence. They started struggling to get it turned around,” Yonto remembers. All-American tackle Mike McCoy ordered his teammates aside and lifted one end of the 1,500-pound sled himself. Unfortunately, McCoy set the sled down on his own foot.
“I had to tell Ara that McCoy was going to be out a few days.” Parseghian’s response?
“Not repeatable,” chuckles Yonto.
Assistant coach Joe Yonto with head coach Ara Parseghian.
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Yonto was a peerless defensive coach. In addition to masterminding national championship defenses in 1966 and 1973, Yonto led the 1980 defense through five straight games without giving up a touchdown, culminating in a 7-0 shutout of number-four Alabama in Birmingham. With that resume, Yonto would be in huge demand for head coaching vacancies today – but he has no regrets.
“My goal in life was to make it to Notre Dame,” he says. “There was no sense in going anywhere else. I was there for 31 years (as a coach and special assistant to the athletic director) and they treated me great.
“Do you know what a special assistant to the athletic director does? If I told you, it wouldn’t be so special,” Yonto teases.
Today, Yonto and his wife Betty spend time with their six children and 18 grandchildren. Yonto still gets on the golf course. “I don’t do much playing – I do a lot of swinging,” he says.
Yonto attends every Notre Dame home game and keeps in touch with former coaches and players. He’s especially proud of how so many of those players have helped one another out through tough times over the years.
“That’s the real meaning of coaching – to see what the players do when they get out, how they help one another.”