Read this: RACE OR INCOMPETENCE? YOU DECIDE...
Is Willingham For Real?
Dave Follett
Tyrone Willingham is the biggest coaching fraud in college football.” That statement was made to me this past week and it got me thinking, really thinking. Does Tyrone Willingham actually coach college football or is he a manager of a staff of coaches and gets paid a huge sum of money to hold the title of “head football coach?”
Watch Willingham very closely throughout the course of a football game. He doesn’t call the plays on offense or defense. He doesn’t send in the substitutions or come up with personnel packages. He works the referees, decides whether to go for it on fourth down and of course there is the famous 1 finger raised in the air after a touchdown letting the whole world know that yes indeed, we are going for one!
Even this past weekend versus Notre Dame when his Huskies were trailing 29-3, there was Willingham making his executive decision to go for one while the whole world was watching. No kidding Ty, we get it. You made the decision to go for one when your team was trailing by 20 points. You can put your finger down now.
I asked a former player of Willingham’s at Notre Dame what kind of coach he was during the game. His response was, “well, as most teams, the offensive and defensive coordinators called the play which incorporates personnel packages, position coaches substitutions. But he made the call on whether to go for it on fourth-and-2, one point or two point conversions, accept or decline the penalty, etc.”
Then I wondered what type of coach was Willingham during practices. The former player’s response was, “he mainly let his assistants do their job, but he walked around to every position, every day just to critique and chime in when he felt needed.”
What is that? He is the head football coach at a major university and he would “critique and chime in when he felt needed?”
Isn’t that always needed? Shouldn’t he be teaching these kid’s fundamentals and working with them daily.
I asked this former player the following question, did he ever get in there and actually SHOW you how to do something or did he leave that to the assistants?
The player’s response, “I mean, not out there running around, but verbally when the player came off the field with depth rotations he would maybe pull them aside and talk to them...”
Is there any doubt why Tyrone Willingham-coached teams don’t sustain success? At Stanford his teams were regularly up and down. He won the Pac-10 in 1999 with an 8-3 record and took his team to the Rose Bowl before losing to Wisconsin 17-9. In 2000, Stanford finished 5-6 and failed to qualify for a bowl game.
In 2002 at Notre Dame, Willingham led the Irish to its first ever 10-win season under a first year head coach, only to lose heavily in the Gator Bowl to North Carolina State, 28-6.
A year later, Notre Dame went 5-6 and missed qualifying for a bowl game.
My perception of Willingham has been that he was a great man with the highest integrity, but maybe he was just an average football coach.
That idea quickly changed over the weekend prior to Willingham’s matchup with ND on Saturday. Willingham sat down with ABC’s John Saunders and was asked to speculate if race may have played a role in his dismissal at Notre Dame.
Why now Tyrone? Why not before? Why not the hundred other times you’ve been asked that question have you suggested that race might have played a part?
When Willingham left Notre Dame (notice I haven’t used the word fired), I held a level of respect for him and the way he handled it. He was all class in his press conferences and interviews. It was time for Notre Dame and Tyrone Willingham to part ways.
Fast forward nine months and another coach is leading the Irish and doing things with these kids that Willingham could never have accomplished. The national media is covering the game and it looks an awful lot like someone got the bright idea that now would be the perfect time for Willingham to have his revenge on Notre Dame. We all knew it wasn’t going to happen on the field, so why not do it in an interview. Not a whole lot of class or integrity shown there either.
Now about the so-called firing of Willingham. This is just a false statement that the likes of John Saunders, Michael Wilbon and Mark May are clinging on to. Willingham had a three-year contract with an option for three more. He knew this from the very beginning.
At the end of that three-year term, Notre Dame could buy out those final three years or decide to keep Willingham for three more. Notre Dame made the only choice they could and showed tremendous courage in doing so. They knew the immense heat they were going to take for firing their first African-American head football coach before a term that both Bob Davie and Gerry Faust were given.
In Willingham’s final 25 games at Notre Dame, an 11-14 record by the way, the Irish lost by 22 or more points eight times. On five of those occasions the Irish were crushed by at least 31 points.
Bob Davie and Gerry Faust lost by 22 points or more three times each. In other words, they combined for six such losses in 10 seasons compared to Willingham’s eight in just three years.
Let’s not feel too sorry for Willingham. His buyout from his Notre Dame contract has been reported to be in the millions. That is after making $1.5 million a year for three years at ND. Now he is reportedly making that same figure per year at Washington.
Willingham now finds himself in the perfect situation in Seattle. He has the national media on his side (for now) and making bold predictions of future BCS appearances. He is coaching for a program that has been hit with NCAA sanctions and is coming off their worst season ever with a 1-10 record.
He has nowhere to go but up at Washington. If he wins three games this season he will have tripled their win total from a year ago. For the first time as a head coach he can recruit with out any restrictive admission standards to adhere to. He will succeed at Washington, if you call seven or eight wins a year successful.
Over his 11-year head coaching career, Willingham is averaging 5.9 wins a year. Expect that number to go up at Washington soon, but just don’t expect a lot of Pac-10 titles and certainly don’t expect it year in and year out.
He’s just not that type of coach.
