Willingham's swan song
Richard Linde, 27 October 2008

After the fact, there will be those who will say that coach Tyrone Willingham (11-32) never really had a chance to succeed at UW.

The same goes for his previous employer.

Notre Dame fired him after his third season, sparking charges of racism. In his last season at Notre Dame, Willingham went 6-5 and was 21-15 overall. Currently, a spate of articles written by Notre Dame faithful point to his lack of success at Washington as further proof of his alleged incompetence at Notre Dame.

Some of these articles are so full of vitriol I'm reminded of that line from Shakespeare, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

When hired in 2004, Willingham was Washington's fourth coach over five years, following Jim Lambright, Rick Neuheisel, and Keith Gilbertson. The coaching carousel has cost Washington football dearly, along with a vengeful NCAA (cost to it: $2.5 million), a tabloid media (cost to it: decreased circulation) and an incompetent UW administration (cost to it: $2.2 million and counting).

The NCAA's role and incompetency in the Washington tragedy can't be emphasized enough, and vice versa.

Scout.com ranks Tyrone's four recruiting classes 2005 (55th), 2006 (35th), 2007 (29th), and 2008 (14th). Although recruiting has steadily improved under Willingham, this year's class is in trouble because of his uncertain future at Washington.

Willingham was a Lizfranc injury away from going to a bowl in 2006 (5-7), and, last season (4-9), he was outplayed in the second half of most of his games after keeping them close and winnable in the first half.

Going into this season, he'd lost five wide receivers to graduation and had only one stalwart starter on the defensive line returning out of its six best linemen from 2007. Young Brandon Johnson was the only significant returnee at tailback. Star quarterback Jake Locker broke his throwing thumb in the fourth game of the year against Stanford, his loss crippling the running attack, which was ranked 106th in the nation going into the Notre Dame game.

The failure of a mostly veteran offensive line this season can be explained by the loss of the unfairly maligned Louis Rankin. Last season, Rankin (1294 yards) and Locker (986 yards) combined for 2280 yards rushing. Their synergism was much like that of Marquis Tuiasosopo's and his running mates' in the 2000 Rose Bowl season, when they ran the option. In both cases, suspect offensive lines were made to look better than they were.

Washington hasn't had a dominating offensive line since the Jim Lambright era (1993-1998). Former AD Barbara Hedges and former coach Rick Neuheisel changed the recruiting culture at UW, taking it from Mr. Nasty to Mr. Nice Guy, putting an emphasis on graduating and staying out of trouble. Those Neuheisel recruits who got into trouble had problems with alcohol consumption and holding their tempers, a common malady among young men between the ages of 21 and 35 -- 35 being an age when testosterone is on the wane.

Could this disastrous season -- up to now, anyway -- have been avoided by better recruiting? 

It was blatantly obvious there would be a shortfall of wide receivers and defensive linemen going into this year. Along the way, the coaching staff failed to fill this void from the Junior College ranks, and it could have redshirted defensive lineman Caesar Rayford, who was recruited by Gilbertson in 2004. Bringing in a power running back from the JCs would have been nice. Oregon and Oregon State routinely do a better job of recruiting the JCs than Washington.

However, there are two sides to every story.

It should be said that Washington's strict entrance requirements make if difficult to bring in JC transfers, this according to former assistant coach Dick Baird.

Willingham's detractors point to his frictional relationship with the local media. He restricts the media to viewing just the first 25 minutes of practice.

His basic distrust of the media seems justified and is illustrated by the Seattle Times' recent pillorying of fallen Husky hero Curtis Williams and its tabloid revelations concerning two other members of the victorious 2000 Rose Bowl team. This series of articles came eight years after the fact, coincidentally at the time Neuheisel was hired by UCLA and just before the 2008 recruiting classes were signed.

What about the petty tiff with a Seattle beat writer and reportedly Tyrone's "one-word" answers to the writer's questions?

Too silly to have been mentioned.

And then there is the fan factor.

Willingham's recent barring of a Tyee from viewing further practices can be explained by frustration, a losing season and the unfair pounding he's taken on the Internet.

How about meeting with fans after each game?

Would you want to have a fifth-quarter meeting with irate fans after taking another whipping on the playing field?

Does he play too much golf?

Playing golf with prospective donors is crucial to fund raising.

Is he a lazy recruiter?

Not if he has some glib, hard-working assistants willing to lay the groundwork with a prospect. Then the headman can seal the deal by hugging his mother and telling her he'll pay special attention to her son and his work in the classroom. 

Coming off the 2006 season, there was a spring in Willingham's step and an anticipatory twinkle in his eye when he met with a group of us alums over at Palm Springs.

I will always remember a buoyant Willingham walking over to the school president's breakfast table and bragging about the new toy he'd found under an evergreen tree growing at Ferndale, that "toy" being Jake Locker. Then he stopped at our outdoor table, with the warmth of the pleasant morning brightening our smiles, and bragged about the two wide-outs Locker's presence had brought in.

Seated to the side of us, former AD Todd Turner and his wife took it all in.

The question I have now is does Willingham deserve a chance to see the Locker era out?

His four-straight losing seasons say no, that the head man must pay the piper to bear the cost of losing, extenuating circumstances notwithstanding. In fact, watching Washington football over the last six seasons has been akin to watching a "Groundhog Day" marathon on a 60-inch screen.

Now that Tyrone is bowl ineligible, let's hope he resigns his position before the season concludes, to shelter himself, his family and his friends from further anguish and torment. (*)

A first class guy, Willingham has made Washington a first class institution. You can't take that away from Tyrone, for that part of his legacy will live on for years to come.

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(*) This just in, after my article was written earlier in the morning, "During Monday's weekly press conference, Washington Head Coach Tyrone Willingham announced that he would be stepping down, effective at the end of the season. The embattled head coach is currently 11-32 in his fourth season coaching the Huskies, coming off a 33-7 loss to Notre Dame Saturday night at Husky Stadium."