COMMENTARY : THE END OF THE HOLTZ ERA CAME AT THE RIGHT TIME.

Byline: Diane Pucin The Philadelphia Inquirer 

Maybe there should be term limits for Notre Dame football coaches. Maybe eight years, same as the president, or 10 years.

That way, potential successors - Knute Rockne wannabes, masochists, whatever - could better plan their careers. This would have helped Gary Barnett.

If the glib, personable, smart, eager, young Barnett had known last year that Lou Holtz would be finished at Notre Dame this year, Barnett wouldn't have signed that pesky contract extension at Northwestern. So Tuesday, when Holtz announces his resignation, Barnett will not be named his successor.

Too bad.

Rockne coached the Fighting Irish for 13 years and won 105 games. No one else has coached them as long or won as many games with them. Dan Devine won a national championship, but lasted just six seasons. Ara Parseghian lasted 11 seasons, and when he quit, he looked as if he had aged 30 years. His face was as gray as his hair. He said he was exhausted. He said no one could do the job for very long.

Penn State has Joe Paterno, Michigan had Bo Schembechler, Ohio State had Woody Hayes, Nebraska has Tom Osborne, Florida State has Bobby Bowden. They are men who made themselves a home in one place, men who, in a way, became bigger than their programs, men who could afford a 6-5 season or even two in a row and still be secure.

It is not that way at Notre Dame and never will be. Did Lou Holtz ever really seem as if he belonged in South Bend, as if he could slip into the legend of Rockne and the Gipper, of the Golden Dome, of leprechauns and blarney stones, and magical victories touched by the hand of God?

Did it ever seem as if Holtz was anything but another football coach - out to win, of course, but always ready to leave if something better came along? Maybe that was the problem. The coach at Notre Dame can never think that anything better can come along, because the job at Notre Dame must be better than anything else.

There was always the sense that Holtz someday would want to be a pro coach again, that he might only be rehabilitating himself at Notre Dame so that he could get a second shot at the NFL. He had one totally unsatisfactory season as head coach of the New York Jets in 1976. Well, it wasn't even one. He quit with a game left. The Jets were 3-10, and he was a wreck.

Hey, bolting the Jets after a year isn't so bad. Rich Kotite should be so lucky. Holtz escaped back to the campus, to Arkansas, but privately he always spoke of his one failure. Sometimes you wondered: Is that what's gnawing at this skinny, twitchy figure who lisps out one-liners that make everyone but him laugh?

Periodically, there were rumors of Holtz's leaving Notre Dame for a pro job. Most often, his name was associated with the Minnesota Vikings. Apparently, he had some friends on the team's board of directors.

A 1993 book, ``Under the Tarnished Dome: How Notre Dame Betrayed Its Ideals for Football Glory,'' portrayed Holtz as a petty, mean-spirited man and accused him of promoting steroid use. It seemed that Holtz might leave then.

Understand, though, that there is no tougher football coaching job in the country. You think Eagles fans are critical? Multiply their number by about a million. Practically every Catholic in the United States claims a piece of the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame's, more than any other, is a national program.

Everything that seems positive also is negative.

Is it so great to have absolutely every one of your games televised nationally? It might seem so when you are upsetting top-ranked Miami, but it is not so when Air Force knocks your golden helmets off.

There is no high school football player in the country who doesn't know about the legends of Notre Dame, right? So, hey, coach, why don't you get every single player you want?

Notre Dame's is ``the'' national program, and the Irish start ahead of the class when voters determine the national champion, right? But many voters also resent Notre Dame. Holtz believes - and he might not be wrong - that Notre Dame has to be way better than No. 2 or jealous voters will go for someone else.