The UW team is so bad, it's hard to tell whether it is quitting on the coaching staff or not. The rebuilding job is immense.

In his second and third years at Washington, Willingham kept himself afloat using a cadre of players left over from the Rick Neuheisel era, while failing to add meaningful depth to the squad. He went 5-7 in 2006 with the aid of 35 of Neuheisel's players and was a Liz franc injury away from going to a bowl. Now, all of them are gone, except for Center Juan Garcia.

The laissez–faire attitude of a few Neuheisel recruits apparently disgusted the disciplined Willingham. Ironically, he was befuddled by a couple of his own cast, expecting their 100% commitment to the team.

His firing of Kent Baer, a 13-year associate, adds a sorrowful twist to Willingham's legacy. Known to be extremely loyal to his assistants, the appearance of Baer's ghostly vision at night must haunt Tyrone like Hamlet's father. Apparitions appear at places conscience fears to tread, Hamlet might have said.

Now the look of sanguinity on the faces of his minions has been replaced by dejection. The starry twinkle of expectation has given way to a vapid stare, for it becomes harder with each loss to look the coaching staff straight in the eye.

Declining attendance will hasten the coach's exit faster than a soprano's, after murdering high C.

A new coaching staff, if that should occur in December, will need to recruit California better than the current one has and bring in more athletes out of the sunshine state. Think Oregon and Oregon State. Also, they will need to bring in a quality JC transfer for the defensive line, these notions among other emergency issues coming immediately to mind.

In my mind, California athletes are half a star better than those from the state of Washington, assuming they carry the same ranking on dawgman.com. UW needs a head coach familiar with California recruiting, and not one necessarily associated with the Don James era.

Next time around, bring in a capable, hungry, young coach, hopefully fired from his last job, who has the work ethic of a Jeff Tedford, with a refrigerator and sleeping bag in his office and a loyal wife and young daughters to feed at home -- like Jim Owens had. Pay him "peanuts" relative to the outrageous CEO salaries of today and make him earn his raises over the next five years of his contract by winning on the field and steering his players along the road to graduation. He needs a gift of gab, charisma and fund-raising skills. He needs to leap to the fore when called to attention, but be his own man when the chips are on the line. He needs to donate his time to the present to provide for his family's future. When he retires he can learn to play golf.

In one way, Willingham's hiring is an enigma.

If Notre Dame fired Willingham because he wasn't performing on Saturdays, why did former AD Todd Turner hire him and pay him over $1.4 million per year?

Answer: In my opinion, Turner wanted to clean up Washington's act and keep Myles Brand and his cohorts from the NCAA, who were dogging the Dawgs, at bay. Honest, almost to a fault, the solid, stoic Willingham was sure to run a tight ship.

Hiring a more dynamic, successful coach would have led to the implication that UW was out of control and still headed on the ruinous path of big-time college football because of what had happened in June 2003.

Before Willingham's hiring in December 2004, the NCAA had overreacted to Neuheisel's auction incident, scaring the hell out of the UW, seemingly on a vendetta, allied with the media, to get Rick in June 2003.

Its impetuousness, without gathering all the facts, cost itself $2.5 million and UW approximately $2.2 million. Entering an outdated bylaw into discovery is one for the books. This led to the settlement in Neuheisel's wrongful termination lawsuit against the UW and NCAA in January 2005.

The NCAA's investigation in June 2003 should have been handled internally, as it would have been in the old days. Its rush to judgment cost UW its football program, this over a silly neighborhood gettogether where well-healed friends wagered a bob or two.

I hope that Washington football is not doomed to make the same mistakes it has made in the past. Also, the NCAA should acknowledge its role in Washington's collapse and abide by its own bylaws.