Posted on 11/30/2004 10:47:49 AM PST by Flightdeck
The University of Notre Dame announced Tuesday that Tyrone Willingham will not be retained as its head football coach, according to the school's Web site.
Willingham's teams were 21-15 overall in his three seasons as Irish head coach.
A 4 p.m. news conference is expected.
With Willingham out -- and after the recent firing of New Mexico State's Tony Samuel and resignation of Fitz Hill from San Jose State -- there are now only two black head coaches in Division I-A: Karl Dorrell at UCLA and Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State.
Notre Dame (6-5) has accepted an invitation to play in the Insight Bowl in Phoenix against a Pac-10 team on Dec. 28.
Yes, it is all silly.
As a die hard New Mexico fan I am torn about Meyer leaving Utah, on one hand My Lobos would finnaly be able to win the Mountain West, but on the other hand I love the fact that it was the Mountain West that finnaly blew up the BullS@#t BCS. And I would love to see Utah do it again next year. New Mexico is a couple of years away from being able to do it.
I also think Willingham is getting the shaft on this deal, next year the Domer's would be sitting pretty.
There was a woman who played for New Mexico.
Actually, I believe the buyout was meaningless anyway. Willingham reportedly had a $6 million buyout. Meryer, given that it's Utah and he wasn't a top tier coach at the time, supposedly only has a $500,000 or $600,000 buyout. That's peanuts to a big time program. A winning program is worth a fortune, even to the Irish that already has a TV deal.
As an example, back in '02 during Ty's first year, the school sold 150,000 of those green shirts, and this was for charity...one shirt is designed for charity fundraising each year at ND and all of the proceeds from the sale of "The Shirt (above the production costs) go to charity. Remember, there are only 8,300 undergrads at ND and a couple thousand grads, yet they sold 150,000 of the green shirts alone. In normal years they would sell 20,000 or so. A winning coach means huge money to ND, so even if they had to pay the Utah buyout fee, it's pocket change.
If the UW Huskies can't pry Jeff Tedford loose from Cal, Willingham would be my next choice.
I think he is now #1 on the Washington list. A minority hire would play well here, and we remember Stanford was always tough when Willingham was there. Tedford is probably out of reach, and Meyer will probably go to ND.
Ty is a great guy. As a Notre Dame fan I believe he had to go but he is a class act. Coaching at Notre Dame is unlike any other school. He just was not up to the task. We'll see if Urban Meyer (or whoever is next) will be up to it.
I thought Willingham would be great at ND, based on his record at Stanford. I'm surprised his record was so mediocre. But I still think he's a good coach.
Groan! But LOL!
There is no way Chucky would take a college job!
Tyrone supposedly has already interviewed at UW in Seattle.
I think Tedford will stay at Cal and the UW will go for Willingham.
that game when Tui threw for 300 and ran for 200 was one of the classics.
We could have used him this year; I think with him at QB the Huskies would have been respectable - maybe 5-6 instead of 1-10. And without the rash of injuries they could have been maybe 7-4 with a plus QB. The situation here isn't as bleak as the 1-10 record suggests.
If true, that'll make the SEC the sickest in the country in terms of coaching talent.
Saban, Spurrier, Richt, Davis (with Tuberville, Nutt and Fulmer just a notch below)...that's pretty darn strong.
Give Sly Croom a year or two of recruiting for Miss. State...
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