Tyrone Willingham fired by Notre Dame

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

All day I've been reading about this firing, and it upsets me more and more every time i hear about it.

Notre Dame has always prided itself on being a higher-class and higher-dignity institution than the other football powerhouses. They have more rigorous academic standards for their athletes, and have always put integrity ahead of wins of losses. Back in the day, when Notre Dame and Miami became rivals, ND students used to wear shirts that read "Catholics vs. Convicts"

During Willingham's three years as coach, he compiled a record of 21-15. not incredible, but respectable nonetheless. The academic performance of the average ND football player also increased during his three years as coach. Willingham refused to recruit players with questionable characters (such as Miami's prized recruit, Willie Williams, who has numerous arrests on his record, including an arrest for groping a woman and vandalism during a recruiting trip). The Athletic Director himself said that Willingham was everything they could have wanted as a coach, except that the team didnt win enough.

It doesnt matter, of course, that Notre Dame plays one of the toughest schedules in Division 1-A football, as opposed to Oklahoma, who loads up on home games against creampuffs to boost their BCS ranking. Notre Dame played 4 teams in the Top 15 (including top-ranked USC), and two others that were in the top 25 at points this season.

On top of all that, Willingham is the only coach in the history of Notre Dame to be fired before his contract expired, including a few recent predecessors whose performances were not as good as Willingham's. He was also one of 5 black coaches this year in Division 1-A football (out of 117 teams), 3 of whom have been fired, leaving only two black head coaches. Thats a shame as well.

So, you can throw all that dignity out the window. It's a sad day in sports, when Notre Dame sells out

End rant

Freak

Mister D, I think you need to focus more on the fact that Willingham just wasn't getting the job done for Notre Dame on the field.

21-15 is terrible for a school whose recruiting classes are consistently among the best in the nation, especially when you consider that a large portion of those wins came in Willingham's first year -- the only year that ND was even competitive. They haven't been a threat to do anything the last couple years, which is insane considering the athleticism (and like you said, intelligence) of the players on the roster. They pulled off a couple upsets in 2003 and 2004, but also lost way too many games that they should have won. There is a lot of pressure on ND to be a championship-caliver team every year, with their NBC contract and influence on pretty much any catholic player coming out of high school. 21-15 just doesn't cut it.

Yeah, it's sad because Willingham is a great guy and it was good to have a black coach in the spotlight like he was. He'll surface somewhere else though, and maybe ND can bring someone in who will better utilize the talent.

DMW

I saw one of them on my way home from class the other day.

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

Freak, i understand that and all, but i feel like sometimes there are things more important than winning and losing, especially in college athletics.

The point is that Notre Dame always put itself above schools like Florida St, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Miami by caring more about the growth of their players as men, and not just as football players. Now that all goes out the window. Now, Notre Dame is just like every other "football factory" in the nation. Whether they want to accept it or not, Notre Dame just turned itself from an exceptional program into an ordinary, run-of-the-mill one. They may try to continue to market themselves as a program of class and dignity, but they've lost all credibility.

Dont you think its fucked up that Willingham was the FIRST coach in the school's history to be fired mid-contract? That his reign was the shortest of any ND coach since the early 1930's? That other mediocre coaches were allowed to stay five years while Ty got the axe after three (two of which were winning seasons, and one was 10-2)? I watched Sportscenter today, and the players they interviewed were crushed.

Freak

Yeah I understand how terrible a situation it is, with a guy as nice as Willingham getting axed mid-contract, but you're making it sound like Notre Dame just replaced him with Suge Knight. The school has always had high academic and tolerance standards, and I assume they will hire another "good guy" figure.

Guys get fired mid-contract all the time in sports, it just so happened that it had never happened with ND. Ty wasn't cutting it, and history was made... it's sad, but that's sports right?

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

it is the nature of sports these days, but it doesnt make it right. I've been preaching for months that owners and Athletic Directors are too quick to can a coach after struggling. For instance, there was a point last season where no coach in the NBA's Eastern Conference had been with his team for more than one year. How about the coaching carousel in the NHL? how is a team supposed to build any sort of consistency, when a coach is only given 1 or 2 seasons to build a team and implement his system?

Last year, Nebraska football finished with a 9-3 record and fired their coach. 9-3!!!!!!

To put that in perspective, thats the equivalent of a 12-4 record in the NFL, a 60-20 record in the NBA (which would probably get you best record in the league), and 120-40 in baseball, which would be a record. Looking at other college sports, its the equivalent of a 24-6 basketball team, which would get them a 2 or 3 seed in the Tournament

I said that they would rue the day they fired a 9-3 coach, and sure enough they went 5-6 this year and missed a bowl game for the first time in 35 years. There is much rueing going on in Lincoln, NE right now.

I know this went way off-topic, just wanted to throw some of my thoughts out there

On another tangent, did you know that Nebraska has NEVER had a QB throw for 300 yards in a game?

Freak

Dude, college football records are so unlike the leagues you're using for comparison. Football programs like Nebraska expect to contend for a BCS bowl every year, and losing 3 games will not allow you to do that. Look at the NCAA this year, there's like five undefeated teams, three of them being national powerhouse schools. Yeah, the Huskers have struggled this year, but keep in mind Bill Callahan has only just started to completely remodel the way Nebraska football is played.

Boise State won all of their games this year, but you would never compare them to a baseball team winning 162, would you (exagerration yeah I got it, but still)?

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

so, does that mean every time a "powerhouse" doesnt make a BCS bowl they should fire their coach?

There's only 4 BCS bowls, and one spot annually goes to a shitty Big East team. That leaves 7 spots for Nebraska, Oklahoma, Miami, Florida, Florida St., Michigan, Ohio St, USC, LSU, Texas, Auburn, etc. Does that mean that all the coaches at those schools who dont make a BCS bowl are bad coaches? Or is it just a case of too many good teams and not enough spots to go around?

Firing a 9-3 coach is a travesty. You cant just assume you're going to win the National Championship every year, because there are 10 other teams laying the same claim. Nebraska deserves the 5-6 record they have this year, and i hope they dont make it to a BCS bowl for a looooooong time

Freak

Dude, you have to realize the certain standards set by certain programs. Nebraska went 7-7 in 2002, which doesn't seem THAT pitiful to the casual researcher, but it was their worst season since 1960 I think. Nebraska became a worse football team during Buddy Solich's tenure, and that's why he was canned. They had every right to expect a championship team at the start of each year, especially considering their dominance in the 1990's. If San Jose State is firing their coach after a 9-win campaign, yeah there's something wrong -- but this is the Nebraska Cornhuskers we're talking about.

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

Just read an article with Tim Brown on NFL.com, and there was one part that I found very interesting:

Hmmm, maybe there's something we dont know about, and its not just wins and losses after all...