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Ty Willingham has announced earlier this week that he will be stepping down from his position as head coach of the University of Washington football team. I know that Ty has not had the best run in the last few years, but can you name a coach that has been fired as fast as Ty Willingham has in his last two coaching jobs, at Notre Dame and Washington?
Ty Willingham was fired at Notre Dame after only three seasons. This is not enough time to secure your own players and run your own system at a college. I think that for all the bad blood between Ty and Notre Dame it must feel good for Willingham to know that the only real successful year that Charlie Weiss, who oddly enough has not won as many games in his first 3 years at Ty did, had at Notre dame was with the players that Willingham recruited. Maurice Stovall, Trevor Laws, Rhema McKnight, Brady Quinn, Tom Zbikowski, John Carlson and Darious Walker all were Willingham signees. Don’t forget he signed Greg Olson the great Miami Hurricane tight end who left Notre Dame because of the great depth at TE.
Ty is a great recruiter and he did the University of Washington a favor by taking over a program in shambles. A program that has done absolutely nothing since finishing third in the country in 2000. I’m sure there was pressure from the Washington faithful who remember the “good ole days” with Napoleon Kaufman and Steve Ettman in the early 1990’s but the climate of football in the Great Northwest has changed. Mike Belotti has had Oregon amongst the nation's elite for a long time now. Oregon State also has had its share of success since Don James left his post at Washington. These two programs are smack dab in the middle of the only recruiting pipeline that gives Washington a chance to win and that is California. So why skip over all the good programs in California and the rest of the country and even the Oregon schools to play ball in at Washington? Doesn’t make sense to me either or Kurt Cobain for that matter. Washington produces little talent every year and those players like the Jonathan Stewarts (Former Oregon TB) and Taylor Mays (All-World USC Safety) of the world now head for the greener pastures of more elite programs with better facilities. Which leads to another reason that Ty had such a problem is that Husky Stadium and other athletic facilities at U-Dub are way over due for a makeover.
One last reason that Ty really deserved another year is that he was hired late in the recruiting season his first year on the job and only managed to nab 13 recruits that year which is hardly a foundation to lean your hat on this, his fourth year. This in effect really means that Coach Willingham has 3 years of recruits on the sidelines at UW. Detractors may say that he really did not impress in his subsequent recruiting efforts after his first year, but do I have to mention all the problems at Washington again for you to realize that Ty Willingham is really just a scapegoat for a much larger problem that persists at UW.
Change is good and even thought I feel like Ty deserved another year in Seattle in order to prove his worth. Maybe a new coach will be the rallying point that UW need fortify its boosters and alumni in order to make the major changes it takes to survive in the lowly Pac-10. How sad indeed is this last statement. UW is behind the bar on the proverbial short bus, of big time college football, that is the Pac-10, lol. Six Mag wishes Ty all that best in his future endeavors, possibly Clemson or Tennessee is a future option for Ty who knows. I would hope that wherever he ends up that he is finally given a fair shake and the time needed to produce a winner because to this point this has simply not been the case for Coach Willingham.
Sincerely,
Cy Clayborneham
20 comments:
A few things...
1. Willingham was 21-15 in his three years at ND, and Weis was 22-15. Your blurb about how ironic it is that Weis hadn't won as many games during his first three years is wrong.
2. Greg Olsen left because his brother Chris was a QB and got passed on the depth chart by Brady Quinn, not because of great TE depth.
Please do some reasearch before opening your piehole.
Is this a joke? Is the author Willingham?
Ty lost 9 of his final 11 games last year, and was still given a fourth try. He lost six in a row to begin 2008, and was still given another week.
I don't know what is worse, your perception of reality, or Ty's ability to run a successful program.
Tennessee fans would burn down the campus if Ty was named their coach. Washington is not a talent depraved state (in fact produce talent proportionally to its size, which means more NFL players than states like OK, TN, etc). Also, many boosters were behind him, that's why he finished 10th, 9th, and 10th and kept his job. Finally, the recruiting classes under Gilbertson were solid and combined with Neuhiesel they gave Ty much more solid players through all the classes than he is leaving WA with. Ty's proclivity to run off good players, not recruit hard (his first class was poor because he elected to coach a senior bowl type game instead of start on getting a staff and recruiting for UW), and his insistance on not fixing obvious problems or scouting other teams was evident by UWs numerous second half blow outs. I don't even like UW and even I will say that their failures are only temporary due to poor coaching selections (Gilbertson and Ty).
PS: Gilby was fired in his second year with and had a better record than Ty. He even had a .500 season. His 1-10 team had no QB play and was horrible offensively. Ty's team is almost last in both total offense and defense (sounds like a regression to me)
Husky fans have been more than patient with Willingham. I'm sorry we didn't listen to ND fans who tried to warn us. They were absolutely right about everything they told us about Ty.
He's a lazy recruiter and does not develop the talent he recruits. His practices are closed and doesn't have a clue about making game-time adjustments.
Ty and his staff never seemed to design schemes to fit the athletes they had. Instead, they tried to run the same old schemes regardless of who was playing on the field.
The list is endless. Most of all, he is arrogant and stubborn. He is not a nice man. He just likes to come across that way.
He never embraced the tradition at UW and did not make friends with the fans and the media. You should listen to his Ty-speak during his press conferences... absolutely terrible.
The list goes on and on.
If he wants a break after 4 years of further damaging Husky football, then I'm sorry. He's not going to get an endorsement from this fan.
Good riddance.
Have you had the displeasure of sitting through a Husky football game recently? Have you even sat down and watched any film on the Huskies this year? Reading your article, it's apparent you've done neither. What would be a "Fair Shake" is if he were to give back some of his ill gotten gain he's stolen from ND and the UW.
You have a magazine coming out in the Fall? Are you going to do any research for it, or are you going to make stuff up like you did with this smoking turd of an article?
This is one of the most ignorant articles I have ever read. Do some real research, and then try and convince me that you are not just some die hard Ty supporter.
You, sir, might be the dumbest person ever born on this planet. I woe the day your mother had you. Seriously, how did you survive this long?
Wow, just wow. Willingham is a fraud. He put the Dawgs in a bigger hole than they were in before he got here. He a lazy recruiter, poor motivator, bad with the media, worse with the boosters and fans, and too loyal to incompetent assistant coaches. I've watched players regress under him. You've clearly never seen his UW teams play, they are disgrace to a program with proud tradition. He got four more years than he deserved!
Wow what a waste of time. Ty not only has had a fair shake but that shake has been so far beyond fair that it has likely hurt opportunity for other minority coaches.
Your blog is illogical, non factual, and poorly written. Every coach fired at UW had a better record than Ty - Gilby, Lambo, Skippy, Daugherty, Bender, and on and on.
This is the third consecutive program left in worse shape than he found it.
Ty you should probably refrain from writing future articles on here, we can all see right through these lies.
Tyrone was fired because he was 11-33 (so far) and because he treats the players fans and alums like crap. Never have we seen a more standoffish, arrogant, control freak here at UW. Try finding some facts before writing such a terrible article.
I can't believe I wasted time reading any of this. Tyrone Willingham is one of the worst coaches of all time. He is a lazy recruiter, horrible at coaching players, alienates former players, fans and media and he is completely unclassy. He has never done anything to show that he is a fine upstanding human other than say so. He blames his mistakes on the players and kicks anyone off the team who cares about winning. Tyrone Willingham is a huge fraud and anyone who knows anything about his career recognizes that.
Why does this f*cktard author hate college football?
This is one of the worst written, most poorly researched articles I have ever come across. It is clear the author doesn't follow UW football. Ty will go down as the worst coaches in UW history and you think he deserves another year?
Your statement that Ty won more games than Weis in his first 3 years is wrong. You completely ignore the direction each program is going in- ND is 5-2 and UW is currently 0-7 and will probably only win one game this year against a really bad WSU team.
Ty is a great recruiter? What proof do you have of that? His recruiting classes have been terrible both at ND and UW. In the last 3 years he has recruited only 4 four star or higher recruits from out of state. That's terrible. His last 2 recruiting classes at ND were some of the worst classses ND had in decades. Hmm you failed to mention that Weis had at top 10 recruiting class his second year followed by two top 5 classes. Ty has never had this success in recruiting.
He did UW a favor? He was out of a F-ing job and he is getting 1.5 mil/year! Who was doing the favor?
He got more than a fair shake. UW bent over backwards for him. Next time you write an article try to do some research for it. If you want your magazine to be a success you seriously at least have a clue about what you are writing about.
You obviously have no idea what Ty has done to the Seattle Media, UW Fans/Boosters or his players. Maybe you should watch some of his press conf. and see a man saying "atsk" and "Okay" after every answer. Or using Ty Willingham in the 3rd tense. The guy has treated the job like he was Stalin and has shit on all of us. Players weren't given a chance to get out of his dog house and he only played players if they "comported" to his thinking....no emotion. Check you facts if you plan on writing another article. Idiot.
"One last reason that Ty really deserved another year is that he was hired late in the recruiting season his first year on the job and only managed to nab 13 recruits that year which is hardly a foundation to lean your hat on this, his fourth year. This in effect really means that Coach Willingham has 3 years of recruits on the sidelines at UW."
Yes indeed, Ty has a full 3 years of HIS recruits at UW, in HIS 4th year (the one ND has been chastised for denying him), and has failed abysmally with an 0-7 start, finished off with a 26-point drubbing from ND that could have been much worse (what's that? Under 70 yards total offense midway through the 4th quarter, not even crossing midfield until ND's 2nd and 3rd teamers made it in.
Besides, your argument serves as a much better excuse for Weis last year, whose "own" players were true freshmen and true sophomores. But it's just too fun credit Ty's players for Weis's good years, then leave Willingham blameless for the lack of good upperclassmen on last year's ND squad.
"do I have to mention all the problems at Washington again for you to realize that Ty Willingham is really just a scapegoat for a much larger problem that persists at UW."
I love cavalier statements like this.
Let's see:
Washington had 1 losing season in the 27 years before Ty arrived... he's clinched his 4th losing season in 4 years.
Washington had 1 losing season within PAC-10 play since 1990 until he arrived... he's had 3 losing seasons in conference play in his 3 years (finishes of 10th, 9th, 10th) and is off to an 0-3 start this year.
His record at UW is (with some minimum time restriction) either the 2nd worst or 3rd worst for a single tenure in PAC-10 HISTORY.
The out-of-conference schedule excuse even falls flat when you note that Ty has fewer wins against the PAC-10 at UW than Charlie the Fat Man has at ND.
All of this after inheriting 3 Top 25 recruiting classes at UW, two of which were rated higher than the (gulp) ND classes of the same years. Ironically, one of those years was a Ty ND class. That's right: in his first year at UW, Keith Gilbertson outrecruited Ty Willingham at ND.
By the way, Gilbertson was fired after 2 years. Ty had an identical record after 2 years... and got a third year (gasp!). Then Ty had a nearly identical winning percentage after 3 years... and got a fourth year (no way!). And some individuals (such as you) think he should get a 5th year, despite all of the above. Where's the crying for Gilbertson? If Ty deserves 5 years, then it is nothing short of criminal that Gilbertson was let go after year 2.
What can I say that everyone else hasn't said already.
Did you do any research before you wrote this article?
And I'm just amazed at how little accountability you give to Willingham. I would think that for $1,500,000/year that Willingham would be 100% accountable for the state of Husky football.
Have you been reading the commentson your article? You'd think that might change your mind.
I suggest you apologize and write a retraction.
The authors claim they are "young educated African-Americans with street cred who love football"
Unfortunately all the article points out is
1)educated- NO. Didn't bother to actually educate themselves about the job Ty did at UW. Came off looking incredibly uneducated about UW football, recruiting, alumni relations.
2) Street Cred- sorry how about street fraud. Basically you are defending Ty because he is African American without any regards to the facts or what kind of job he has actully done. What kind of cred is that? Only cred you are only going to get is from the BCA.
The only part of the statement I can't argue with is that yes you probably are young and you may love football. You just don't know very much about it.
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