<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I'm very saddened that Ty Willingham is no longer the coach at ND. I think that they should have been more patient with him and given him at least one more year. I also think that doing so well in his first year ended up hurting him. If he had instead showed steady improvement each year, he would still be in South Bend.</p>
<p>Maybe they should have given him a little more time to truly prove himself as a coach. I personally saw this coming, and it's probably for the best. As far as the team goes Ty hasn't done that bad, but when it comes down to it Notre Dame cares about winning, which is mainly why Ty got the boot.</p>
<p>I think that it should be either Urban Meyer or perhaps Butch Davis. Meyer is a former Irish wide receivers coach, so he's familiar with the program; and while Davis didn't do so great with the Browns, he was an excellent college coach at Miami.
It's also too bad that Lou Holtz had to retire so soon, or else Steve Spurrier could have been an option as well.</p>
<p>I think the firing went against everything I thought ND stood for. It seemed as though they were always above the crap that goes on at so many other programs. The mystique Notre Dame had throughout the years was not because of winning, it was because they did it the right way and stood for something. I think they just saw it as an opportunity to catch the flavor of the week, Urban Meyer. Not that I have anything against him, but whoever comes in is going to have a large task ahead of them. I think its like standing up your prom date for a more attractive, popular, girl. There are many people/schools that you would expect to do this, but not Notre Dame. I feel bad for the players, especially Brady Quinn, who went to my high school. I thought they had the tools to have a great year next year, and Quinn was starting to really get Ty's system. Who knows what will happen now...</p>
<p>Seeing Willingham canned so quickly was quite a surprise. Even Faust & Davey got more time. I think the big factors arguing against patience were the NBC TV contract (Notre Dame has to get its ratings up or it will be hard to justify this kind of deal) and Willingham's apparent weak recruiting. When he was brought in, everyone expected him to be a recruiting powerhouse; in fact, he achieved his greatest success with Davey's players, and ND's recruiting hasn't ranked well. If the administration did perceive that his recruiting was weak, they may have felt that swift action would minimize the negative impact on future teams.</p>
<p>Notre Dame is a tough place to coach. The expectations are that the team will be a consistent top ten team, but ND can't recruit the same players that the football powerhouses can. Teams like Stanford and Northwestern may have respectable programs and high standards, but they don't compete at the same level as Miami, Tennessee, FSU, et al.</p>
<p>I admired Willingham's calm demeanor, though perhaps a bit more emotion might have helped. He'll land a good coaching position if he's ready to continue, I'm sure.</p>
<p>I don't think it was fair or the best way to go. He needed more time... but I guess that's over so let's hope for another good coach!</p>
<p>dc13-You go to coffman? I go to another suburban Columbus high school. I've met Brady a few times, we worked out over the summer together (my school's QB had the same QB coach as him). He's a real nice guy, sucks that he'll have to adjust to a new coach/system.</p>
<p>yup i go to Coffman, did your school's QB have Gantz as a coach?</p>
<p>Nope... He worked out with Greg Frye, who's now our offensive coordinator.</p>
<p>can anyone rebuild a powerhouse in 3 years?</p>
<p>what the hell? his first year was awesome, and they were pretty damn close to being ranked this year. he's one of the top college coaches out there, and it's disappointing to see such a great guy get dumped so unfairly. as far as I know, the players and alumni liked him a lot. nd's greatest football alumni, tim brown, absolutely loves the guy and supported ty's philosophy of keeping a high academic standard.</p>
<p>I have to say, where were all these supporters when a million people were clamoring for his head? All of a sudden they're crawling out of the woodwork. I didn't have an opinion on it either way but I am surprized at the outpouring of support he has received AFTER he was fired.</p>
<p>the only people claiming for his head were notre dame football fans. the professionals and players ALWAYS held the upmost respect for the great man. i've been hearing from multiple notre dame alums that they're absolutely embarrassed over his firing. i mean, could the racial overtones be anymore blatant?</p>
<p>They wouldn't have hired him in the first place if they were racist - there were other coaches as qualified as Willingham they could have looked to after the O'Leary fiasco. It's just too easy to call racist. Example: Frank Solich was fired at Nebraska after a 9-3 season. 9-3. Now, if Solich had been African American, you think everyone wouldn't have cried racism? So which would it have been? </p>
<p>I'd hate to be black in America today because every time something negative happens to you, you'd have to wonder if it was because of your lack of ability or skill, or if it was a racist thing. How do you ever honestly self-examine and improve if you can't objectively judge whether the criticism is valid? I believe there must be many examples of true racism or black America would not feel this way. But I don't believe the ND/Willingham thing was one of them.</p>
<p>I agree many alums now are embarrassed over his firing, but it's not like the writing wasn't on the wall so they could have protested BEFORE they fired him. It was written about and talked about for at least 12 months. My point is they should have been screaming in support of him if they liked him so much - this firing was not a surprize.</p>
<p>you forget, they were basically forced to hire him by the public. they couldn't get gruden, couldn't get shanahan, and when the public was getting impatient, they had to hire the last big name on the market.... willingham. come on, he has one of the best reputations in the nation, is loved by his players and alumni, and wasn't even doing too bad in his 3 years. he had one mediocre season, a good one, and an awesome one. at least let him coach through his contract and have his first recruiting class play under him as seniors. he's the first coach which nd has not let complete his contract!!! i find it way too obvious that this decision was based on the fact that he's black. what else could be the reason?</p>
<p>i never recalled his job being in jeopardy by the media. coaches of his caliber usually get AT LEAST 5-6 years before real results are expected.</p>
<p>and come on, did you hear what a ND committee member said about the qualities they are looking for in a new coach:</p>
<p>"I think for me, someone like coach Willingham, maybe he has a twin out there he doesn't know about."</p>
<p>i.e. a white twin</p>
<p>Look, I didn't have much of an opinion on this, but I did think they should give him one more year, for the very reason you state (his own recruits as seniors). </p>
<p>I think the reason he is the first ND coach to not complete his contract is because ND has <em>finally</em> realized they have to proceed a little more like the rest of Division I college football. In other words, if you let a guy finish a five year contract, and they're not doing well, every recruit in the nation for maybe year four and for sure year five know the guy's on his way out. It makes it exceedingly difficult for recruiting. I know a <em>lot</em> about the inside of div. 1 athletics and this is just a very big facet of the coaching contract process. </p>
<p>To be honest, Willingham's recruiting classes were not very strong, nor were his predecessors. If he wasn't going to get the job done, I think they felt they needed to cut their losses. But again, it would have been fair to give him four years, and that probably would not have killed recruiting. The five year thing is gone forever, as well it should be at that level.</p>
<p>So you're trying to tell me there were NO good white coaches out there three years ago and ND just had to resort to the only guy out there who would take the job and he just happened to be black? And that even though they're racist, they thought they had to make an exception this one time because there was <em>noone</em> else who would touch the job? Please don't make me name all the good coaches out there they could easily have hired. Willingham was hired for his abilities but ALSO because he was at a school with tough academic standards like ND. Maybe if he'd had another year he'd have made a go of it, but it wasn't looking very likely. </p>
<p>Please answer my Frank Solich question above. Seriously, who fires a guy who's 9-3? If he'd been black you would have said it was racist, I'm sure. How can you tell the difference?</p>
<p>Race had nothing to do with the firing - a declining record, embarrassing losses to weaker teams, and lackluster recruiting had everything to do with it. While it was surprise to see the firing occur so early, I think the faction that wanted to dump him didn't see positive momentum and felt it was better to act sooner rather than later. As with many schools with a strong football tradition, the alumni are impatient and have very high (perhaps unrealistic) expectations. If each year had shown an improved win/loss record, or if Willingham could have pointed to a couple of top-5 recruiting classes, he almost certainly would have survived.</p>
<p>All he would have had to do to stay is beat Boston College BYU and Pittsburgh really thats not asking to much.</p>
<p>Roger I so disagree with you in a way about good recruiting classes. what you say may be true, Coach Willingham may still have had a job if he could point to some great recruited classes BUT</p>
<p>That is just so mercenary. I find it a shame to think that he could have kept his job by having the best kids money can buy (recruit)</p>
<p>Actualy what would have been better would have been if the Preseident of Notre Dame had conducted a press confrence and said. "We at Notre Dame are extremely pleased with the direction Coach Willingham is taking our football program in terms of what we expect off the field, while there is significant room for improvement on the field we are sure that over the next two or three seasons our team will be competitiive at the highest levels." </p>
<p>Maybe that is a bit idealistic but in terms of PR value it sure as heck beats the mess they now find themselves in</p>
<p>I thought Willingham's firing was the second tackiest, after Florida's sacking of Zook.
TW is a class act...but I think ND tarnished theirs. I think the firing was rank opportunism--the perception that Urban Meyer was available <em>now</em>--that blew up in their face when Meyer committed to Florida.</p>
<p>The game has changed and ND is a bit like UCLA in that, as a coach told me last week, "A lot of players that walk out that tunnel for USC couldn't get into USC." While ND isn't quite Stanford, it's no slouch when it comes to academics. It will be interesting to see what ND comes up for pay for a new head coach: some UCLA alums bitch about Karl Dorrell's salary as indicating gross cheapness on behalf of the athletic department.</p>
<p>Finally, I'm really sorry that the BCS screwed Cal over...me and my family would have been willing to travel to Phoenix to watch UCLA meet ND in the Insight Bowl...and I could have met Roger into the bargain.</p>