So following the FoxSports.com playbook, I am going to write a story about a "name," throw in a couple of digs, and hope it gets picked up on the wire.
In his most recent commentary, Ian O'Connor has about as realistic a perspective of the Notre Dame football program, and the departure of Tyrone Willingham from the Irish, as the believability that he is not wearing a hair piece.
In his recent post We're still waiting for Weis to prove himself, O'Connor proves clearly that perspective and research do not go hand-in-hand with blogging.
The first gem in his post reads:
Tyrone Willingham should've never been fired, in my opinion, and the venomous emails challenging my Irish Catholichood for printing it suggested a vast legion of clueless/heartless Golden Domers disagreed. How dare I criticize a storied, faith-based university for using its first African-American coach to rescue it from the George O'Leary mess before discarding him faster than administrators had ever fired anyone in the same job?
Notre Dame Football is a business, and the CEO of that corporation is the head football coach. When running a $100 million dollar enterprise, having a heart does not apply.
I dare Ian to find an example of a company with equal revenue and brand equity at which "having a heart" was factored into business decisions. The simple truth is Ty Willingham has failed not once, but twice at running huge football operations at both Notre Dame and now Washington.
Being the Notre Dame head coach has just as much to do with the performance on 12 to 13 Saturdays a year. It is an exhausting, year-round position that cannot be done on the golf course, somewhere where you can always count on finding Willingham.
You need to be able to say goodbye to upper management. Charlie Weis let Rick Minter go, Ty Willingham refused to let Kent Baer go while at Notre Dame. You need to recruit not just for top-level talent, but program depth. Something morons like O'Connor here obviously fail to research.
Weis has brought in three top-10 classes that are balanced and deep, and the No. 1 class after the worst season in program history. Willingham never cracked the top 10, and his lack in understanding depth on the offensive line is one of the main reasons for last year's record, as well.
Lastly, you have to be a Notre Dame man. Like Weis or not, he is a Notre Dame guy. Willingham, on the other hand, is a Ty Willingham guy. Nothing wrong with that, just not what a school like Notre Dame needs.
The next gem from O'Connor:
Three seasons later, Weis would trade a large piece of his lavish contract to secure that advantage. Working on a deal worth some $30 million, Weis is 22-15. Willingham was fired for going 21-15.
He's almost tied with Ty, and that isn't what Notre Dame bargained for. The same board of trustees that overruled then-athletic director Kevin White in dumping Willingham decreed that a 5-2 record in Weis' very first year was reason enough to extend the coach's deal through 2015, at megastar wages.
9 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment
sven ghali 10 months ago
You need a reality check, CJ.
First, to correct an obvious inaccuracy, Willingham's first full recruiting class was ranked 5th by Scout.com just like Weis' '05 class.
If you're going to compare the two coach's performances you should compare Ty's second season to Charlie's third. Both started the season with dual threat qb's and had to switch to freshman pocket passers. Both coaches had offenses that ranked near the bottom of D1 in production. Both coaches lost 0-38 to Michigan. Both coaches played close games with Navy, only Ty won with a 4th quarter field goal that Weis refused to attempt.
The fact that Weis coached 2 BCS bowl eligible teams compared to Ty's 1, as far as anyone can tell was more a matter of circumstance than coaching ability. Let's not forget that Weis' first team had the most returning experience at o-line in school history. It should be noted that the experience came from Ty's program. O-line experience in Weis' program so far equates to 58 sacks.
It's easy to knock Willingham's lack of o-line recruiting in his two complete classes. However, was Charlie's first two years of d-line recruiting any better?
With Ty and Charlie having virtually identical records, it's reasonable to compare this upcoming season with Ty's last season in '04. Both coaches have second year quarterbacks, and ND's '08 schedule is very comparable to their '04 schedule. They replace BYU with SDSU, and Tennessee with UNC and Syracuse.
Ty was canned for going 6-5 before their bowl game. Considering the schedule trade offs, finishing this regular season at 7-5 would not be an improvement over what Ty produced.
Guys like Rockne, Leahy (happy 100th birthday), Parseghian, and Holtz are "ND guys." The jury is still out on whether Weis is an ND guy. A diploma and singing the alma mater are not enough. This program has very serious needs. ND NEEDS to win 8 regular season games. ND NEEDS to beat UW. ND NEEDS to beat BC and end that ridiculous 6 game losing streak. ND NEEDS to finally win a bowl game.
Look, Notre Dame entered their '06 game against Michigan in a virtual dead heat for the all time best winning percentage, and have been losing ground ever since. This group of players needs to know that it rests squarely on their shoulders to get it back. They better come out of that tunnel seeing red and go for the throat after gutting their opponents. That's the nasty team Charlie promised. No excuses.
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Jerry Noonan 10 months ago
Ty was canned for:
1. lazy, ineffective recruiting process and admin (first class was all about hope, I had it too).
2. refusal to accept constructive criticism from superiors (refused to change out coaches)
3. sought out UW job in Fall of 2004
4. not a HC
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CJ Daley 10 months ago
Sven,
I use Rivals not Scout. Explaining the different take on classes.
I am not about comparing seasons. MY POINT was that people say Weis and Willingham are equal after 3 years because they share the same record. However, anyone with an ounce of football knowledge knows Notre Dame is in MUCH MUCH better shape after 3 years with Weis.
I am not talking about the BCS games but the overall health of the program. Put it this way and in very simple terms. After 3 seasons with Ty, not many coaches wanted the ND job because of the state of the program. After 3 seasons with Weis, not many coaches would turn down the job. Simply put Wies has treated the program OVERALL much better then Ty did. Countless reasons as to why but none of them have to do with the color of someones skin.
In terms of recruiting, lets use all 3 years guy and not be selective. Kinda funny you are mixing and matching years to make a point. It was not just a quality issue with Ty but also a NUMBERS issue. You need 10 O-line for a good two deep. Depending on what D you run, you need 8 to 6 for a good 2 deep. N
With Willingham you had 9 O-linemen in his classes his biggest class of 4 being the 1st. With Weis, you have 10 d-line in his classes with his biggest being his last.
BS on comparing this season with Ty's last season to this season on on principle alone. But if I were a betting man, I would have no problem in laying down that ND has better season than sub 500 with no bowl game to show for it. I agree 100% with all of your needs but disagree in your comments about Weis.
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sven ghali 10 months ago
Ty's final season was above .500 and did have a bowl to show for it. My point isn't that Ty should have kept his job, or that Weis is aweful. I just think it's worth recognizing that the comparison is not nearly as clear cut as most ND fans make it out to be. Perhaps I'm just too geared up for the new season, but I think this is the most important season for the Program that I can remember. This is absolutely put up or shut up time for Weis, the days of free passes are over. You see a program in much better shape, but what if this team lays another egg? The media is going to start asking why Weis is still around. What's the answer going to be? Recruiting rankings?
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CJ Daley 10 months ago
Sven,
The point of this post was Ian DID think Ty should have gotten another year or two and that Weis, in a round about way, is no better.
TW and CW have had two complete different sets of results when you factor in EVERY aspect of running a program. I have accepted last year because of what Weis has done over his entire time in the program. I am not happy with it but I do not think much could have been done to prevent a bad season in Notre Dame standards.
Maybe the team could have been 5-7 if Weis was the perfect head coach. But going above 500 last year would have been impossible, IMHO, for any coach.
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Clashmore Mike 10 months ago
Good article and good discussion. But, I will disagree with you CJ about one thing you said, that being "Notre Dame Football is a business, and the CEO of that corporation is the head football coach. When running a $100 million dollar enterprise, having a heart does not apply." It is exactly this belief that opens the door to the University being accused of hypocrisy, that its positioning itself as a faith-based institution is a fraud, and that it really is only all about money. This is not the case. Notre Dame understands itself as standing for and teaching the Catholic faith and Catholic values, first and foremost. Everything at the university in theory works to that end, even... or, some would say, especially... athletics. Of course you must protect the program, the "brand," etc., but behind the money, the rankings, behind everything, comes the idea of excellence in all things, because all things are to a higher purpose. This is why mediocrity cannot be tolerated.
These morons in the press, from ESPN to this pinhead Ian O'Connor, have zero understanding of this, and filter everything through their jaundiced view of the world. Let them parrot each other. They don't matter, and before too long they will all be eating their words. Go Irish!
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Raj Kamruddin 10 months ago
Most who write about ND in major press, dont follow college football or the irish as in depth as they should to write an informative or accruate article. So when reading junk like CJ's, keep that in mind.
Forget about comparing records between Ty and CW. A coach is judged on more than the present situation. Ty was not doing good at recruiting. HE was not bringing in top talent and at the time, not coaching up the talent he did bring in. we say many of "his" players make their biggest strides with CW at the helm.
He was not setting up the program for future success. It is pretty safe the say, had he not been fired, the program was on the downswing. He failed to recruit playmakers. Compare that to CW. He had a late start recruiting his first year, due to NFL playoffs. This following recruiting classes have been great. The fruits of that labor will begin to show this season, but wont bloom until next year when his two best classes are juniors and sophmores.
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Michael Collins 10 months ago
Fox Sports is a business and Notre Dame sells. Why get lathered up over sportswriters who clearly don't know sports? Notre Dame football wasn't worth writing about when Willingham was fired. But, according to those who pontificate without thinking, Willingham might have been on the verge of the two BCS bowls Weis accomplished - and "We're Still Waiting for Weis to Prove Himself".
Didn't Lisa Horne say in the college football challenge article she wrote for BR say that she beat all the male writers at Fox with 52% correct choices? http://bleacherreport.com/articles/48443-college-football-contest-lisa-vs-bleacher-report-bloggers The best college football game picker at Fox is slightly better than flipping a coin?
Most of them write trash just to get known and move up (in a manner of speaking) to ESPN. Sorry, I guess he has an ESPN show in NY. Please don't tell me he went to Boston College.
Who really cares what Ian O'Connor thinks? Not the hordes of nationally-ranked recruits that are now headed to South Bend. Not me.
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CJ Daley 10 months ago
The main reason I did this post was the power of content on Google for articles posted on Bleacher Report. If "journalists" are going to try and make a name for themselves on the Internet by bashing Notre Dame and doing hit and run posts, I will do the same.
Just one post only a couple of days old is already page 2 in Google for Ian O'Connor. It really gets old when people try to make a claim on traffic by posting a hit and run.
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