Since the season has ended for Washington, it’s time to grade Tyrone Willingham for his performance in his role as the head football coach at the University of Washington.

The stuff below is an amalgam of criticism, praise, alchemy and one of Ted Miller’s favorite words. Willingham’s grade is for his two seasons at UW.

Negatives:

-- (2005) Willingham listed QB Johnny DuRocher on his two deeps when DuRocher was ineligible to play due to his transfer status. Fortunately, someone at UW caught the error.

-- (2005) He mentioned the names of two PSA’s on Softies’ radio show, a secondary NCAA rules violation.

-- (2006) He failed to have the team ready to go in the last two seconds of the game with Troy. To his credit, he took responsibility for the mismanagement of the time remaining.

-- (2006) He should have gone for two points in the game with Cal instead of giving Cal’s powerful offense – think Marshawn Lynch -- another chance to win the game in OT, especially when considering the game was played on the Bears’ home field.

-- (2006) His handling of Michael Braunstein and Chris Hemphill’s fifth-year status was bungled and, I believe, that was by his own admission.

-- (2005) Inserting WR Craig Chambers in the desperation moments of the opening game with the Air Force was hypocritical, justifiably inviting criticism from Chambers’ mother on Softies’ radio show. The bewildered Chambers was coming off a strong Apple Cup, the year before. Also, think of his Hail Mary catch in the desert, which turned the game around with the Wildcats.

-- (2005, 2006) He hasn’t received a contract extension, which makes me wonder. I remember Karl Dorrell turning one down after a poor season with UCLA, and Dorrell was making less than half of what Tyrone makes (600K versus 1,400K).

Positives:

-- (2005, 2006) Tyrone improved on his first season at UW, going from 2-9 to 5-7 this season. In his first season, he won twice as many games as Gilby did in his last season with the Huskies.

-- (2005) A Seattle Times columnist wrote, "I believe he (Willingham) is too conservative. He is too much like his good friend, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice." Yes, that is a positive.  I first got in trouble with the Seattle media when I wrote that the eavesdropping John Levesque had been on Lynda's Trip and, later on, took issue with Hugh Millen's editorials in the P-I all by myself. (See "Hugh Millen is both right and wrong").

-- (2005, 2006). Willingham teaches fundamental football, embracing concepts that minimize penalty yards and turnovers.

-- (2005, 2006) Tyrone’s 2006 recruiting class was ranked thirty-fifth in the nation. This year’s class, comparatively speaking, is off to a rip-roaring start, with a ranking of twenty-fifth in the nation, according to data from scout.com. You think that recruiting rankings are specious at best? See the recent class rankings for USC, Texas, Oklahoma, and all the perennial BCS biggies for that matter.  See my article on recruiting rankings.

-- (2005, 2006) He is his own man in spite of strong criticism, to wit: Willingham limits the media to the first 25 minutes of practice, thus minimizing distractions. Willingham's dilemma at Washington silenced Washington’s most vocal critic, Jim Moore, for part of the 2006 season, in spite of what Moore will tell you about the Mariners.

-- (2005, 2006) Tyrone has run a clean ship thus far, Michael Houston’s unresolved problem notwithstanding.

-- (2005) He recruited Jake Locker, who some are saying will be another super-playmaker in the mold of Marques Tuiasosopo and Hugh McElhenny, both of whom posted victories on their own.  Locker reminds some fans of John Elway.

-- (2006) Tyrone and Tim Lappano had the common sense to start Isaiah Stanback at QB at a time when half the fans opining on message boards wanted someone else to start.  (See the games without Isaiah, games against Stanford and WSU (sans the miraculous plays by 5 playmakers). Stanback carried the Huskies’ offense in their 4-1 start on this season.

-- (2005, 2006) Although he is soporific and homily-driven in interviews, Willingham commands a clean cut, well-dressed image from the sidelines and handles interviews with the woman down on the field with relative ease. He’s strong and fit enough to make an opposing coach wince in pain when he shakes hands with him after the game, especially if the smirk on the guy's face is dripping Gatorade. Think Charlie Weis -- whose Irish, by the way, lured Willingham away from Stanford so that they could add a rotting Tree to the deadwood they play.

Summary: It would be much easier for me to give a flunking grade to the coach, to curry favor with my peers, some of whom were mesmerized by Jim Mora's recent comments about the UW coaching job, which came off as being sarcastic and patronizing to me, though obviously made in an attempt at humor. Give me a down to earth Willingham any day.

Unfairly fired at Notre Dame and taking undeserved heat at Washington, Willingham's self esteem has borne up well under a cannonade of steady fire.  I like his straight ahead approach to life.

In partially righting the Titanic, Willingham has steered his listing ship -- a mean feat indeed  -- clear of any visible icebergs that could impede Washington’s return to glory.

Willingham’s final grade for his first two years at Washington: B minus.

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Ted Miller's word of the week: soporific, which means causing or tending to cause sleep.