Is Ty Willingham Racist?

Be clear on this: Notre Dame fans wanted Willingham to succeed.

We needed to him to succeed.

We were, in fact, desperate for him to succeed.

The same can be said for Husky fans.

This isn’t just one data point. Willingham’s pattern of unassociated blame has continued at Washington.

When Willingham's job was on the line last year, Athletic Director Todd Turner intervened, lining up power brokers while James Bible, president of the Seattle-King County NAACP, requested a meeting with UW President Mark Emmert to discuss "the value of Coach Willingham to this community."

Willingham won again, but the subversive actions of Turner in support of Willingham reportedly cost him his job.

And at what cost to other aspiring black coaches?

If you can’t fire a black head coach with cause (and an enormous payday), than what signal does that send to other schools who might hire a minority head coach?

I’ll answer.

To a school, it means you may not be able to fire him when you want to despite performance on the field. That equates to a much riskier long-term hire, which tilts the scale away from prospective black head coaches.

I know this because “fireability” is a key employment proposition at every major company. It’s the very reason many companies won’t do business in Spain and France, because changing out talent mistakes becomes incredibly costly.

In college football, however, it’s not just cost which is prohibitive—it's also the negative publicity that comes with firing a minority head coach. Willingham’s passive-aggressive tacit approval of racial attacks on Notre Dame showed everyone how painful a process that can be.

It would have been far more beneficial to those who came after Willingham for him to refute unfounded charges rather than tacitly and cowardly advancing them without the benefit of proof.

So if you’re an AD on the sideline, you’re thinking, “Do I need this headache? I just want a winning team.”

Not only isn’t Willingham filling the minority pipeline with potential head coaching candidates, he’s created a giant hurdle for others like him by selfishly protecting his own reputation and job.

This brings up another point: Was Notre Dame racist for hiring Willingham? Was Washington?

Letting the John Saunders of the world dictate how you run your program isn't just asinine and spineless: It's wrong. The law of unintended consequences will eventually make you pay.

It's better to make the right decision for the right reason.

That's what we teach our students...right?

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