They say its always darkest before the dawn. Such was the case today when I received and email from a friend of mine in Oklahoma, commenting on the performance of my beloved Fighting Irish of Notre Dame this past Saturday evening against a superior USC team.
I read his note with interest, as I respect his opinion, and felt he was looking at things with an objective viewpoint, not as someone who's either a Notre Dame homer (HELLO!) or someone with an axe to grind against the Irish (hello Michael Wilbon & Bob Ryan of ESPN). He mentioned that the Irish looked like they didn't look like they played with emotion, and that Ty looked on the sideline like it just didn't matter.
He contrasted the approach on the sideline between Ty and Arizona coach Mike Stoops, who was fired up during his last game and has approached the upcoming recruiting season with a vigor that, quite obviously, Ty never had.
And I knew he was right. And I probably let out an exasperated sigh, thinking about the state of my football team. Thinking about how I was going to have to half-heartedly support my team for the next couple of years, directed by a coach that I didn't think was capable of doing the job.
I started watching a movie (Valley Girl--1983--Nicholas Cage & Deborah Foreman) and then moseyed over to check on my emails. Imagine my surprise when I noticed an email from my man Jim Davies out in San Diego, absolutely rocking my world with the news that Ty was out! My mood brightened, things seemed better, Deborah Foreman looked hotter.....it was turning into a good day.
Speculation began immediately on ESPN and other shows about who the replacement would be, with most people figuring that Utah's Urban Meyer, a former Irish assistant under Lou Holtz, to be the leader coming out of the gate. Other names tossed out by the talking heads on the leader in sports television included Jon Gruden (Oh mama!), Charlie Weis (offensive coordinator of the NE Pats and an ND grad), Jeff Tedford (head coach at Cal), and even Rick Neuheisel (UGH! please no....we'd be on probation within 3 years)...but clearly most people think this is Meyer's job if he wants it.
And now....we can reflect on the Willingham era. 21-17 over 3 years. Some would say that's not a terrible record. Well, its not horrible. At Stanford. But at Notre Dame....its not just horrible....its inexcusable. Ty Willingham stepped into the job opening left there by the monmentual George O'Leary fiasco---and after, according to reports I've read, Jon Gruden was offered the job--accepted it--and then had the offer revoked by the right Rev Father Monk Malloy, Notre Dame president. Clearly this was one of the darkest moments in ND football history. Notre Dame needed not only to hire a good football coach, they needed to score a PR victory with whomever they hired. Enter Tyrone. Let's not kid ourselves people. Ty Willingham was a nice coach doing a fine job at Stanford, where its not easy to win.
He had just guided his troops to a Rose Bowl berth....he was interested in the job, and....perhaps most importantly, if we're honest.....he was a black man.
Yes, a black man as head football coach at the largest Catholic university in the United States. A black man coaching football at NOTRE DAME.
Point in the PR department: Notre Dame
And yet, there was an unease with the hire. No, not because he was black, as some (Cough--Michael Wilbon!) would have you believe. Because while he had lead the Stanford Cardinal to the Rose Bowl THAT season, there were some rather....hmm...uneven seasons before that. Some inexplicable losses. Some rather inconsistent play. A fine record at Stanford...but would it translate to South Bend??
And yet, the fans accepted him....because, quite frankly, we had been embarrassed during our coaching search. Surprisingly, not every coach in the U.S. appeared ready to load the station wagon and the family and move to a small town in Indiana.
Spring football came and talk was all about this "new...revolutionary" offense that Ty was installing at South Bend. Of course, his returning starter was (gulp) an option QB. And then there was his choice of assistants. One of his offensive line coaches was a coach in the Arena Football League. This didn't exactly seem like the sort of spot on a resume that would lead someone to Notre Dame. Reports began to surface that none of the assistants who followed Ty from Stanford were none as....hmm...shall we say "recruiting dynamos". Recruiting is, afterall, the lifeblood of any college football powerhouse, and as a coach, you're either good at it or you're not. It seemed that Notre Dame was immediately at a disadvantage in recruiting.
The few coaches who seemed to have the accuement for recruiting were forced to work even harder.
So the 2002 finally came, and the beginnings were beyond our wildest thoughts.
The team started at 8-0 and was ranked at # 4 in the country. It was dubbed "Return to Glory". The team seemed well coached, disciplined, organized--things that, well, quite frankly they had NOT seemed under the previous coaching regime.
(Coaching "legend" Bob Davie) Oh sure, there were a few "troubling" signs that the ship was taking on a few leaks--the offense could never seem to really get started.
It was like a car in major need of a tune-up. But that was okay. It was Ty's first year, the defense was playing unbelieveable....we really just needed the offense to be average to win. And then....Boston College rolled into town. BC is viewed by most Notre Dame alums as the "little brother" of the Irish. Some on Notre Dame websites have even taken to calling them "Fredo", as a snide slap--casting them as the slower brother to ND's Michael Corleone. The night before the BC game, at the weekly pep rally, BC students crashed the pep rally and were greeted with signs that read:
"Welcome failed applicants".
I guess its no wonder that Notre Dame is so loathed...so hated...in the greater Boston area (hello Bob Ryan!).
And then the next day, Notre Dame took the field--in green jerseys. And something very odd happened. Instead of firing up the Irish, as it had so many years before during the Joe Montana years, it fired up the Eagles of BC. They took the wearing of the "special jersey" as the ultimate compliment from Notre Dame. Finally, they realized, we were viewed as a special opponent. Finally they weren't just another win on the schedule for ND. They were now someone who the Irish WANTED to play. Someone that they WANTED to beat. They had officially become....a rival.
And the fired up BC players took the field and stunned the # 4 ranked Irish by a 14-7 score. Much like had happened in 1993, when coach Lou Holtz had brought his #1 ranked Irish into their home stadium to meet a BC squad....a highly ranked ND squad had laid the proverbial egg against BC. The hated BC. Fredo. "The Jesuits".
And then the rest of the season began to spiral downward. Willingham's Irish eventually went to the Gator Bowl, but by this point they had been exposed as overachievers and a gifted, athletically superior NC State squad took them to the woodshed by a score of 27-9. And it wasn't that close. During the offseason a book was released called, (no surprise here) "Return to Glory". It was written by Alan Grant, a former defensive back at Stanford who was very friendly with Ty. Perhaps a little too friendly. There seemed to be a sign that....well...maybe the whole return to glory thing might have gone to Ty's head. Maybe he had gotten just a little too wrapped up in being the savior of the most historic college program this country has to offer. Maybe Notre Dame, it appeared, was trying a little too hard to become the "Stanford of the midwest". Ty, who at best had been slightly aloof to the local writers on the South Bend beat, had given Grant unlimited access to the program, and Grant took full advantage, stepping on anyones toes who happened to get into his personal space, and making no friends along the way.
Ty Willingham had committed a fatal mistake in his first season. He gave the students, the administration, the fans......hope. He gave them what they had been looking for all along....just too quickly. If Ty Willingham had gone 5-7 his first season, and then followed it with a 6-5 season...and then gone 9-3....do you really think he would've been fired? Of course not. He made the mistake of succeeding before he was supposed too. So after the 8-0 start, he appeared to be going backwards. We started seeing mistakes that a first years coach's team would make.
Except this was a 3rd year coaches team making dumb mental mistakes. Progress?
How about 13-15 in their last 28 games---after the 8-0 start. Does that signify progress to you? How about losing more games by 20 points in three years than coaches like Bob Davie and Gerry Faust--coaches regarded as "failures" by Notre Dame fans--had combined in 10 years! They had lost to USC, historically their biggest rival, by 31 points in EACH of the past 3 games. They had continued to lose to Boston College. There were nice wins, against Michigan & Tennessee this year. But there were also disturbing losses to FSU & Michigan last year--blowouts.
And these blowouts and disturbing losses were happening at HOME.
Ty Willingham is a very decent man. He can, in the right spot, become a good coach. Just not at NotreDame. Notre Dame is a school steeped in tradition.
They believe that ghosts exist there. There are people who are so caught up in Notre Dame's past that they believe the 3 year myth.
The 3 year myth?
Every Notre Dame coach that has been labeled "great" (fairly or not), has won a national title in his 3rd year.
Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, Lou Holtz. Every one of them won a national title--in their 3rd season.
Joe Kuharich, Gerry Faust, Bob Davie, Ty Willingham. Nope.
You figure out which one list has the legends and which one has the also rans.
So why was Ty shown the door? Was he given enough time?
Fair questions. I think the answer is slightly complex. I have a feeling (and this is just my opinion), that Ty was basically told to shake up his staff or face termination.
Ty is known as a man who is loyal, almost stubbornly so, to his coaches and staff.
And, realistically, if you fire 3 or 4 assistants, and bring in newer coaches, how many attractive assistants are going to want to come to what may well be a one year position with a coach that's one thin ice? I think Ty probably refused the request to change his coaching staff and the administration felt they had no choice.
Was 3 years enough time? Well, of course the experts on ESPN (the ones who currently aren't coaching because they were canned by their previous schools for the lousy job they were doing. Ahem) feel that 3 years wasn't enough time. They spout the ridiculous notion Ty hadn't had enough time to "bring in his own recruits". Apparently Jeff Tedford & Urban Meyer didn't need the same time frame before their program started turning around. Why doesn't anyone mention that? Ara Parseghian took the Notre Dame job in 1964 and asked for a 3 year contract, saying..."if I don't get the job done by then, I don't deserve more time". Hello!
Ty did get enough time. For his team to remain as inconsistent as they had been the week before. There was no progression going on. There was no where...literally, where you could point to and say: "that's an example of how the team is improving".
I hate using this as an example...but....
Pete Carroll came to USC....had a rough first year and his squad has IMPROVED in every facet of the game on a yearly basis.
Ty Willingham has not done that, did not do that....and that isreason enough for him to lose the Irish job.
So who's the next coach going to be? Well, certainly all signs point to Urban Meyer, but after all the drama of the last Notre Dame coaching search, who's to say ANYTHING is for certain?
Jeff Bowdren
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