It is these folks, collegeBLITZ.com has learned, who will very likely determine the future of Notre Dame football.

It is these people who organized a very strong campaign to influence the now desperate push to get a new coach in place in time to bring a positive finish to the recruiting year crunch time.

"A bunch of people bombarded (Athletic Director Kevin White's) office with e-mails and calls," said a Monogram Club source close to the campaign. "A lot of them, (White) might not pay attention to, but when (former Irish and pro quarterbacks) Terry Hanratty and Joe Montana are in the mix, he pays attention."

Their man, the source said, is former Irish quarterback Tom Clements, who guided Notre Dame to the 1973 national championship, who currently is the Buffalo Bills' offensive coordinator. He was interviewed by White and other Notre Dame officials Thursday evening.

A Canadian Football League Hall-of-Famer, Clements, 51, brings a powerful resume that includes a magna cum laude law degree from Notre Dame Law School, a successful run in various positions with National Football League teams and reputation as a creative offensive mind.

"Tom had one major administrational obstacle to overcome," the Monogram Clubber said, not elaborating (likely a lack of college coaching experience), "but in the past couple of days, that got straightened out."

Amid the calls for the return of Lou Holtz, maybe a push for Norm Chow, U.S.C.'s hugely-visible offensive coordinator, etc., Clements' entry into the Irish sweepstakes has gone almost unnoticed.

But, given Wednesday's statements of current university President Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., Clements might represent the stabilizing effect most Irish alumni and fans seek.

Speaking in New York City at the Sports Business Journal's college sports forum, Father Malloy tried to distance his administration from the current Notre Dame image crisis.

"In my 18 years, there have been only two days that I have been embarrassed to president of Notre Dame, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week," ESPN.com quoted Fr. Malloy as saying.

"I thought we were going to abide by our (football coach contractual) precedent, which was a five-year window for a coach to display the capacity to be successful within our system and to fit."

Ty Willingham, hired after a bizarre pursuit following the firing of Bob Davie, who finished 35-25, including a 5-6 finish in his last season, 2001, lasted only three years.

"Both (White) and I have a very high regard for (Willingham, whose teams went 21-15 in his three years)," Fr. Malloy continued. "Having lost to Southern California, we had a meeting called by my successor (incoming Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins) with a strong presence of the board of trustees which led to a result."

It's no secret that the decision to fire Willingham was far from unanimous, but it is highly unusual for a person of Fr. Malloy's stature to break ranks within a major university administration.

The rift couldn't be clearer. Fr. Malloy's administration represents Notre Dame's unquestioned entry into the academic elite where the university has achieved Ivy League type prestige, often being compared with Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, Vanderbilt and the Ivies.

It prompted Rick Telander, the Chicago Sun-Times columnist to write, "If you absolutely, positively can't win with high standards, as all these jilting suitors seem to be saying, then why doesn't Notre Dame just join the Ivy League and be done with it?"

But while hugely respected Vandy President G. Gordon Gee termed Fr. Malloy's statement "Courageous," there have been other, less complimentary adjectives employed on campus and among many Irish alumni re: the Malloy Administration.

"What he said," Gee told The New York Times, "is the value system of the university and value system of the athletic department have been totally disrupted...He not only did something very courageous but he stood up for all of us.

"If this were done at University X, people would say that's just the way they do things. This was done at a premier academic institution with a solid record of winning and a values system they failed to stick to in this case."

The justification of firing WIllingham will be debated by reasonable minds under the Golden Dome, a sort of modern day Socratic right vs. might.

While journalistic magpies like feisty Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti will say Notre Dame is really run a cadre of hugely-influential lawyers, C.E.O.s and education officials, it never has been clearer that the real decisions are made by Holy Cross Fathers, with alumni input.

And there is little doubt -- Father Malloy made this clear recently when he said, "Football is a very important part of what we do," referring to the massive income it provides the university -- this will be one of the watershed decisions in recent Notre Dame history.

"It could happen that he won't get the job," the Monogram Club source said. "But if Clements doesn't get hired, this place will be in an uproar. They could have passed on him for (Iowa's Kirk) Ferentz or (Cal's Jeff) Tedford, but they really can't afford to do this now."

Some alumni talk up a rehiring of 67-year-old Lou Holtz, who recently retired at South Carolina and who in his 11 years in South Bend, guided the Irish to the 1988 national title and a near-miss in 1993.

Others wring their hands and wonder if the admissions office's demanding standards aren't pushing Notre Dame out of the blue chip marketplace.

But current Washington Redskins director of football operations Vinny Cerrato, a former Holtz assistant during his early years at Notre Dame, hinted at a key reason Willingham no longer is head coach.

"You'd turn in the (player's high school) transcript," Cerrato told ESPN1000 radio in Chicago, "and admissions says yea or nay, then you'd let the kid know what he has to do. People like (tackle) John Foley, (quarterback) Tony Rice were like that.

"People tell me (Willingham and his staff) never went over and tried to get people in."

The smart money is on Clements now. It would appear Fr. Jenkins is on board and, unlike the Malloy administration, particularly when its liaison was Fr. James Beauchamp, a people-challenged overseer of the athletic department, never quite grasped Cerrato's concept.

Clements' Notre Dame pedigree goes unquestioned. And it is very possible he will bring classmate Gerry DiNardo, a former Irish offensive guard, to rebuild the caved-in offensive line that has been a major key to Notre Dame's offensive woes.

It would be more than just a start. It could dumbfound many cynics and be the catalyst to another long run of Irish football prominence. Without losing a step in the university's quest to continue its climb to the top of the nation's academic elite.