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That's a pipe dream. Yet I'll try to conjure up a makeshift offense for Willingham, doing some daydreaming-- which is what I am good at.

Since Willingham says his offense starts with the quarterback, Carl Bonnell sits at the top of the list. Here I go again, trying to pick a QB. Well, Bonnell can throw on rhythm and timing off a three-step drop. If Willingham should coach at the UW, Bonnell could be key to Willingham’s implementation of the WCO.

Craig Chambers would be Bonnell’s go to guy.

Shelton Sampson and Kenny James give that offense run after catch.

Oh, yes, and throw to the tight ends, especially inside the redzone.

Yada, yada, yada.

Is Willingham even a reasonable candidate for the UW job? He said he had informal contact with Washington a few weeks ago and told them he was the coach at Notre Dame.

Now he's not a coach. As a side note, AD Kevin White at Notre Dame gave Willingham a vote of confidence after the Irish's victory over Tennessee this year. Sound familiar? Remember Lambo and AD Barbara Hedges in 1998? However, the Irish panicked and fired Willingham before Florida could get to Urban Meyer of Utah.

Tyrone Willingham is the epitome of hard work, detail and preparation. His Stanford teams led the Pac-10 year after year in accumulating the least amount of penalty yards – which is a tenet of the WCO.

Preparation and detail? On-side kicks are a specialty of Willingham's. Remember Washington’s squeaker against the Cardinal in 2000? Who will ever forget those two successful on-side kicks in the fourth quarter which, in effect, led to Stanford’s taking the lead with just seconds left on the clock? But then there was Marques Tuiasosopo’s 40-second drive to win the game for Washington.

Work ethic? As the story goes, Willingham rode five miles back and forth on his bike everyday under the hot summer sun to attend high school football practice -- something to tell his grandchildren about. "And, children, when that car slammed into me on the way to practice one day, I returned to the field a few days later with bumps and bruises." True story, sans grandchildren.

Another. His father, who was in his 80’s at the time, once tore a house down with his bare hands.

"That sort of epitomized the hard work that we always saw our father doing --and dreaded because we always worked with him in the summers,” says Jerome Willingham, Ty’s brother, an attorney living in Jacksonville, N. C.

The media? Ty is taciturn and soft spoken, but he can call on his dry wit and warmth to melt an icy audience. He’ll be popular, even with Seattle’s iconic iceberg, Art Thiel. He’ll have the Thiel’s of the North Atlantic sitting on the edges of their seats, leaning ever so far forward – “did I miss something?” – and laughing at his jokes as if they were hotties on the prowl.

What about Jim Moore of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the local media’s Husky hater? I doubt if Moore would be on Willingham's case any more than T. J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times rides Karl Dorrell, although I’m certain that Moore is dreaming up sobriquets for Willingham as I write this. Simers calls Dorrell, Karl Dullard. Dorrell coaches at UCLA and Simers is an 'SC rah-rah guy.

Honesty? Willingham is as honest as the proverbial day and week are 24/7. His honesty fits under the purlieu of that described by Mike Lude in his book "Walking the Line." Lude, a former AD at Washington, was a stickler for the proverbial cherry tree. BTW, his book is a page turner, no pun intended.

Graduation rates? Willingham will have a jump on the rest of the country. Don’t expect the football rate to fall off under Willingham at the UW. So, guys, hit the books.

A storied career? At least two books have been written about him: “The meaning of victory,” and “Return to Glory.”

Recruiting? The UW football team (1-10 in 2004) will need an infusion of talent to make it competitive in 2005, and Willingham had trouble convincing prospects that they could play under his system at Notre Dame this year. Rivals.com ranked the Irish number 32 in recruiting its 2004 class.

However, I don’t believe that recruiting players for a West Coast Offense would be a problem for Willingham at Washington. Almost every team in the Pac-10 runs a variation of that offense. So, pick your “poison.”

Anyway, the WCO is just a short-passing game which, since its birth with the San Francisco 49ers and Bill Walsh, has been thoroughly homogenized. UW QB Cody Pickett ran that offense to perfection in 2002 -- so, I'm thinking Bonnell. But remember I'm the guy who thought Casey Paus should start at  quarterback in every game this season. What a dunderhead. Not Paus, which leaves me.

Willingham won’t be a player’s coach in the sense that Rick Neuheisel was at the UW. His practices will be strenuous and there will be no sloughing off. That would be a hurdle for him to overcome as there will be plenty of Neuheisel’s recruits left on the team (the 2001-2003 classes).

Willingham is a phenomenal first-year coach.

He was able to turn a 3-7-1 Stanford team in 1994 into a 7-4-1 team in 1995. The 1995 team picked to finish last in the conference ended up in fourth place. Conference coaches voted him 1995 Pac-10 Coach of the Year.

His 2002 team at Notre Dame finished 10-3 on the season. Willingham became the first Notre Dame coach to lead his team to 10 wins during his initial campaign.

However, since winning its first eight games of the 2002 season, Notre Dame has gone 13-15, losing to North Carolina State in the 2003 Gator Bowl. Implementation of the WCO was taking too long and was one reason Willingham was fired along with the Meyer-panicky scenario. Fans, alumni, and officials became impatient during the Irish's quest for a return to glory.

UW fans who criticize Willingham fault him for his X's and O's and his inability to make the appropriate half-time adjustments. They say he's nondescript and a seven-win-season coach at best. They don't see him going into a recruit's home and giving the mom a big hug.

If AD Todd Turner hires Willingham, he should give Willingham 5 years to right the Huskies' ship. Most likely Jeff Tedford (California) or Meyer could resurrect the program on a faster pace because, going out of the gate, both of them would be better recruiters than Willingham. Recruiting players for Washington could be a tough sell for Willingham since he was fired from his last job.

With that in mind, Willingham would be a long-range choice for rebuilding the program to its former status given his final two years at the tarnished dome and his dismissal.

Next year’s game in Seattle pitting Notre Dame and the Dub? Call it “Ty Willie’s Revenge.” That is, if Tyrone Willingham should come on board. (Ty Willie? All potential and former UW coaches get endearing sobriquets on this website)

All things considered, Willingham, 50, is on my short list behind Tedford, Meyer, and Dan Hawkins of Boise State. Throw Meyer out and bet on Tedford as a long shot. That leaves Hawkins and Willingham. Since Boise State is making a strong pitch to keep Hawkins, I would be happy with Willingham and willing to be patient during our return to glory. People speculate that Cal might hire Willingham if the Dawgs bag Tedford.

Willingham has circled the field at a dizzying pace, and it was a hell of a ride while it lasted. For that man, so devoted to the whimsical profession of coaching football, Willingham could not have fared much better.

He'll tell you that.

Brief Bio

Born Lionel Tyrone Willingham on Dec. 30, 1953, in Kinston, N.C., he graduated from Jacksonville High School in Jacksonville, N.C.. Willingham earned his degree in physical education with a minor in health education from Michigan State. He and his wife, Kim, have three children: Cassidy (20), a gymnast at the University of Denver, Kelsey (16) and Nathaniel (14).

Year School/Team Assignment

1977 Michigan State (7-3-1) Graduate Assistant
1978 Central Michigan (9-2) Secondary
1979 Central Michigan (10-0-1) Secondary
1980 Michigan State Secondary, Special Teams
1981 Michigan State Secondary, Special Teams
1982 Michigan State Secondary, Special Teams
1983 North Carolina State Secondary, Special Teams
1984 North Carolina State Secondary, Special Teams
1985 North Carolina State Secondary, Special Teams
1986 Rice Receivers, Special Teams
1987 Rice Receivers, Special Teams
1988 Rice Receivers, Special Teams
1989 Stanford Running Backs
1990 Stanford Running Backs
1991 Stanford (Aloha Bowl) Running Backs
1992 Minnesota Vikings (NFC Central champ) Running Backs
1993 Minnesota Vikings (wild-card playoffs) Running Backs
1994 Minnesota Vikings (NFC Central champ) Running Backs
1995 Stanford (Liberty Bowl) Head Coach (7-4-1, .625)
1996 Stanford (Sun Bowl) Head Coach (7-5-0, .583)
1997 Stanford Head Coach (5-6-0, .455)
1998 Stanford Head Coach (3-8-0, .273)
1999 Stanford (Rose Bowl) Head Coach (8-4-0, .667)
2000 Stanford Head Coach (5-6-0, .455)
2001 Stanford (Seattle Bowl) Head Coach (9-3-0, .750)
2002 Notre Dame(Gator Bowl) Head Coach (10-3-0, .769)
2003 Notre Dame Head Coach (5-7-0, .417)
2004 Notre Dame Head Coach (6-5-0, .545)
Stanford Total (44-36-1, .549)
Notre Dame Total (21-15-0, .583)
Totals as Head Coach – 65-51-1 (.561) in eight seasons
 

Richard Linde (a.k.a., Malamute) can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com