Seattle – Tyrone Willingham refers to it as “the Notre Dame episode,” as if he watched it unfold on television, then simply changed the channel.
Willingham doesn’t have much else to say about his controversial dismissal from Notre Dame – not even as his new team, Washington, prepares to face his old one Saturday in Seattle. He has never been big on regret or bitterness, and he has little use for anything that happened yesterday, much less 10 months ago.
“I don’t live life in the past,” he said recently. “And I don’t live it dreaming of something else.”
He lives it the way few would expect of a man whose public face is one of stone. In private, he is relaxed and gregarious – the possessor of a soulful laugh, sharp wit and zest for life usually associated with exuberant personalities. He told the Washington alumni magazine that he has bad moments – such as “the Notre Dame episode” – but never bad days.
“Someone once asked me if as a coach I ever had a tough time waking up in the morning,” he said. “And I responded, ‘Absolutely not. Would you prefer the alternative?’ I’m always going to be excited about life.”
That’s why Willingham isn’t angry about the first black coach in Notre Dame history becoming the first football coach in modern Notre Dame history to be dismissed after three seasons. (Even Gerry Faust got five.)
That’s why Willingham isn’t bitter about being let go despite a 21-15 record, two bowl games, victories over Michigan (twice), Tennessee and Florida State, and stellar performances by his players in the community and in the classroom.
And that’s why he picked up the phone one day last winter, called his successor, Charlie Weis, and asked if there was anything he could do to help.
Sure, Willingham, 51, has something extra in his tank this week – just as he did when he coached Notre Dame against Stanford, his employer in 1995-2001. But he has not spent the past 10 months thinking about the Irish.
“Notre Dame is in his rearview mirror,” said Ray Anderson, Willingham’s friend and former agent who is now an executive with the Atlanta Falcons. “We don’t even talk about it. What we have talked about is the excitement of being at Washington.”
It has been a rough start for Willingham in Seattle. The Huskies (1-2) blew a double-digit lead in their opener against Air Force, lost, 56-17, to Cal (the most points scored by a visitor at Husky Stadium), then beat Idaho on Saturday for their first victory in nearly a year. They have second-rate talent, a brutal October schedule and little chance to qualify for a bowl game.
By contrast, the Irish are 2-1 and ranked 16th, leading some to comment that Weis is making Notre Dame look smart for changing coaches. But the Irish have 10 offensive starters back from a team that won six games, and lest anyone forget, Willingham started 8-0 in his first fall in South Bend.
In fact, his job seemed secure for most of last season. The Irish beat Michigan and Michigan State early and were 5-2 in late October.
But a one-point home loss to Boston College derailed their momentum.
Three weeks later, they lost at home again, to Pittsburgh, and Irish fans blasted Willingham’s game management.
Meanwhile, Washington was headed to the worst season in school history and searching for a replacement for lame-duck coach Keith Gilbertson. Athletic Director Todd Turner met with a handful of former players – including Husky legends Warren Moon and Sonny Sixkiller – to discuss his search.
“I didn’t talk names,” Turner said. “I talked about what they thought was needed in a head coach. They wanted a guy who would lead, a guy who would give us discipline and toughness – the things we used to be known for. We had a bunch of quarterbacks in the room, but they didn’t talk about someone who would throw the ball 60 times a game.
“Before they left, I gave them each a card and said, ‘Write a name or two.’ Almost every card had Tyrone’s name on it.”
So Turner reached out to Willingham – not for the first time and not for the last.
As Vanderbilt’s athletic director in December 2001, Turner tried to lure Willingham from Stanford. Just as he did then, Willingham politely declined.
Everything changed after Notre Dame’s 31-point loss at USC in the regular-season finale. Frustrated with the seventh lopsided defeat of the Willingham era and fixated on Utah Coach Urban Meyer, the trustees called an emergency meeting and terminated Willingham’s contract.
“I was mildly shocked they moved as quickly as they did,” Anderson said. “Like Tyrone, I think there are fine people at Notre Dame. But the situation got away from them, and the powers that be, who were in the background, saw winning as the most important thing, and that carried the day.”
Notre Dame made it official Nov. 30.
Two thousand miles away, Turner placed a call.
“I’d like to talk to you,” he said.
“Give me 24 hours,” Willingham replied.
The next day, negotiations began. Two weeks later, Willingham had a five-year contract worth a reported $1. 4 million annually (plus incentives).
He called the Husky job a “no-brainer” because it combines the best of Stanford (lifestyle) with the best of Notre Dame (a community that’s passionate about football). It’s his first experience as a head coach at a state school, which means layers of bureaucracy but also more flexible admissions requirements.
Willingham has said he coaches for two reasons: because of the players and for the players. In Seattle, he’ll have the chance to shape the lives of young men he couldn’t have coached in the past – players from the lower end of the socio-economic scale who were not admissible at Stanford or Notre Dame.
“I think it’s a phenomenal match,” Anderson said.
Willingham is no stranger to floundering programs. Stanford was reeling when he replaced Bill Walsh in 1994, and Notre Dame was in disarray when he took over for Bob Davie in 2001. But the Cardinal and Irish were models of stability compared to Washington. He is the fifth coach in the past 13 years – and third in the past three – at the program known as “Probation Nation.”
The stream of NCAA infractions and coaching changes, beginning with Don James’ resignation after the ’92 season, has waylaid recruiting.
The Huskies used to have their pick of the elite West Coast prospects, but they have signed just two five-star players in the past four years. There are no game-breakers at receiver or tailback, no dominant defensive players and no elite quarterbacks.
Little wonder, then, that the Huskies went 1-10 last season, the lone victory coming against San Jose State.
“Guys are saying, ‘Hey, we’re willing to give anything a try,”‘ junior linebacker Scott White said. “And Coach Willingham is exactly what we needed. He has provided a calming hand.”
Willingham met the team in December and began his PowerPoint demonstration by putting four words on the screen: “Return of the Dawgs.”
“And fellas,” he said, “I’m not talking about a poodle.”
He talked about his expectations of himself and of the players, then went about changing the culture.
He banned facial hair and long hair, removed the names from the backs of uniforms and held 6:30 a.m. meetings. He outlawed fighting, and when fisticuffs broke out the first day of spring practice, he made the entire team run laps.
“The Husky community has been searching for a Don James replacement, and this is the closest they’ve come to finding someone with that style of running a team,” senior center Brad Vanneman said.
The issue for Willingham at Washington – as it was at Notre Dame – is time.
There’s no guarantee he’ll get five years to rebuild, or even four.
Can he do it in three? If he’s feeling pressure to produce in Seattle, or to show Notre Dame it made a mistake, it doesn’t show.
“He hasn’t changed a bit,” said Washington defensive coordinator Kent Baer, who has worked for Willingham for a decade. “He’s the same old Tyrone. I don’t think Notre Dame scarred him one bit.”
