How Pat Coogan became the soul of the Irish
Don't let the viral speeches fool you. The Notre Dame center is a man of action, not words.
Before speaking the most important words he would ever utter in a Notre Dame uniform, Pat Coogan looked right into the camera.
This was before he became a viral sensation. There was no profanity. He was off-the-cuff, yes, but he was setting the tone for all that was to come for him and his Irish this season.
“It was pretty simple for me,” he began on Sept. 17. “Like, my love for the University of Notre Dame is so much stronger than any individual honor, goal, accolade I could imagine.
“Sure, it sucked and there was dark moments, but the pride of this university and the pride of this program, especially the offensive line unit, I knew I had to be ready at any moment, and helping those guys out was satisfactory for me as well. It sucked not being out on the field, it really did, but everything happens for a reason. I’m a firm believer in that. And I just put my head down and told myself I was gonna come to the building with a positive attitude every single day and that’s what I did.”
This was after a Tuesday practice ahead of his first start of the season, which came four games later than he was supposed to start this season, given that he started in every game last season.
But Coogan, who entered fall camp battling with friend Rocco Spindler to keep his starting left guard spot, saw redshirt freshman Sam Pendleton leap everyone in August. Then starting center Ashton Craig suffered a season-ending left knee injury in Week 3 at Purdue, moving Coogan back to the first team at a new position.
Those details are mostly lost to history now, with Coogan in many ways becoming the heart and soul of a Notre Dame team that sits two wins away from its first national championship in 36 years. Coogan’s voice may be the most famous of any player among the four teams left playing this season. His pregame speeches, though not necessarily meant for public consumption, have gone viral. His sayings — “Four Quarters of F— You Football” among them — have become rallying cries for the Notre Dame fanbase.
The irony, of course, is that Coogan is a man of action, not words.
Take, for example, sixth-grade football at St. Alexander’s, a parish in Palos Heights, Ill., on the South Side of Chicago. There were weight limits for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders. And every year, Coogan, among the bigger players, did everything he could to make weight, from sitting in his father Mike’s sauna to working out in the woods in sweatsuits with his old man.
On August 16, 2014, Pat’s grandfather Bill — Mike’s father — passed away. The funeral luncheon was five days later at Capri’s, an Italian restaurant across the street from Franklin’s, a gastropub that Mike now owns and operates.
Pat took one look at the spread and, days before sixth-grade weigh-ins, told his dad that he couldn’t eat.
“Grandpa will take care of you,” Mike told his son. “Eat the food.”
Pat made the team. It wouldn’t be the last time he got by on the power of belief.