Willingham's Scorched Earth, Aftermath of Bad Recruiting Classes for UW

One great player a year from outside the state? That wouldn't cut it at Texas, Florida or USC which are loaded with in state talent. Washington is not. To succeed you have to get at least some of best kids from around the country.

But that folks is as good as it gets under Willingham. Woof, woof.

Currently the Huskies have the 86th ranked class after losing their best player (who decomitted last week).

Willingham is about to do to the Huskies what he did to ND and Stanford before him.

For those who didn't follow Notre Dame closely back at the end of Willingham's tenure, the most frightening element wasn't the prospect of another mediocre to bad season, it was the recruiting abyss we were staring into.

In Willingham's second season at Notre Dame he recruited one of the worst overall Notre Dame classes in decades. In this third season, he was doing it again, only this time it looked even worse. Two classes that were all but bereft of linemen.

When USC and Michigan are piling up top ten class after top ten class, that dog won't hunt.

Worse still was the fact that Willingham didn't expect things to get much better on the field, which would have ensured three straight bad recruiting years; a virtual death penalty that Notre Dame wouldn't have recovered from 'till this day.

What made all of this maddening to Notre Dame fans was that Willingham wasn't even trying, he simply expected recruits to come to him. Recruiting analyst Tom Lemming labeled Willingham and his staff outright lazy. Willingham would wait and wait to evaluate and offer kids while other coaches mounted full court presses.

Charlie, while still coaching the Patriots, wasn't able to do much to turn that second class around, but finally put together a top 10 class his second year and has followed that up with two top 5 classes including last year's number one recruiting class.

But the die had already been cast. Last year Notre Dame had exactly two offensive linemen in its junior and senior classes.

That's unheard of... or maybe it isn't... read on.

Willingham left Notre Dame with over five million dollars in payouts (he was still the highest paid Notre Dame coach last year btw) and then proceeded to scorch ND's reputation, letting John Saunders float charges of racism while Tyrone played the big man.

So that's Notre Dame. Scorched and burned. Millions out the window and a black hole in recruiting that's taken Notre Dame to its lowest depths in decades. That scorched earth is finally turning to fertile ground and the Irish are coming back from the dead.

None of this surprises Stanford followers who also felt the black hole of Willingham recruiting, twice.

Willingham created his own black hole back in 1996 when he failed to recruit one offensive lineman that year.

None. Zero. Zippo.

Willingham went 5-6 and 3-8 the next two years and almost got fired. But a 8-4 run against a depleted Pac 10 in 1999 (he was 7-1 against the Pac 10 and 1-3 outside of the Pac 10) saved his job before a third losing season in four years in 2000.

Willingham had his best year in 2001 finishing 9-3 (another down year for the Pac 10.) But pain was coming as Willingham's recruiting sowed the seeds for failure again leaving Teevens with what the San Francisco Chronicle called "rampant inexperience on the o

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