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Washington's Athletic Director Finally Makes the Right Move - Fires Coach

By Ed Bagley

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 29Nov2008 Word count: 787 Viewed: 268 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Scott Woodward, the University of Washington's newly appointed permanent athletic director, has made it official that Tyrone Willingham will not be back for another season as the Huskies' head football coach.

Willingham will stay on to coach the team's 5 remaining games and then leave with a $1 million buyout. Willingham was in his 4th year of a 5-year contract.

His Huskies are currently 0-7 this season following a 33-7 slapping by Notre Dame last Saturday (10-25-08) on the Huskies' home turf. Their 7th straight loss of the season meant that the Huskies will end the year with a losing record and elimination from bowl eligibility.

Only a fool trapped in an outhouse for the last 5 years would not know that it was not if but when Willingham would go. With any kind of luck whatsoever Willingham's entire staff will go with him right out the front door.

Washington's football program needs some new faces, new game plans, new offensive and defensive schemes, new personalities, new life and new excitement before all of its fans leave Husky Stadium and never return.

Only a very inexperienced chief administrator or a broke fool would think that fans and boosters will open their pockets to fund a new or remodeled stadium for a losing team. People with money do not invest their hard-earned dollars in organizations that continually lose, and that look like losers, talk like losers and walk like losers.

People with money are more apt to give their money to an organization or charity that is upscale and already has something going on. The reason is simple—winners want to run with winners or organizations they perceive, with some cash input, will become winners soon.

Sanity keeps me from actually talking about Washington's performance against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Oh, all right, if you must know here are the Husky offensive statistics for the game: 26 yards rushing, 98 yards passing, 124 yards of total offense. That is all you need to know.

If we were in Biblical times, the players and coaches probably would have been dodging rocks before they left the stadium. If you think I exaggerate, you have not seen the Huskies play since their franchise quarterback Jake Locker was injured earlier in the year.

By all accounts Ty Willingham is a stand up guy. He works hard, he is honest, he is straightforward, he has integrity, he is not looking for shortcuts or handouts. He wants to get on in this world by the sweat of his own brow, lifting himself up by his bootstraps to become successful in today's competitive world of coaching on a national stage.

As a big time coach at Washington, he simply could not win more games than he lost, and a whole lot of paying customers (fans and boosters) thought he could not coach victories at Washington if his life depended upon it. His record at Washington was 11 and 32 (11 wins and 32 losses) after seasons of 2-9, 5-7, 4-9 and 0-7 so far this year.

His backers say that no one could have turned the program around at Washington quickly. There is too much evidence to the contrary, and it explains why his backers are so few and jumping ship like passengers on the Titanic.

Mark Dantonio took over a program at Michigan State that was 4-8 and went 7-6 his first year and to a bowl game, he is currently 7-2 this year and ranked No. 22 in the AP Top 25 Poll. Current Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster went 1-11 in his first season last year and is 7-1 this season and currently ranked No. 20 in the Top 25 Poll.

When Mike Price went to UTEP, he took over a team that had won only 2 games in each of its last two seasons. In his first year, Price went 8-4 and to a bowl, in his second year he went 8-4 and to a bowl game. Do not waste your breath telling me the head coach does not make a difference. The head coach can make all the difference in the world.

Speculation is rampant on the Washington campus in Seattle and really all around Western Washington about who will replace Ty Willingham. It is very likely that the Washington powers to be will set their sights on a high-profile coach meaning, among other things, that a successor may not be announced until the current bowl season is over.

Until then, they would be interviewing more losers than winners, like we don't know what that's about.

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