Willingham needs wins

Sporting News, The, June 7, 2004 by Matt Hayes

He is a portrait of poise and presence, of faith and fortitude. This is Tyrone Willingham because there is no other way. This is how you deal with a distinguished alumnus who spouts idiotic, racially insensitive comments about the state of Notre Dame recruiting. Or how you dodge death threats from some nut in Florida.

Or how, inevitably, you deal with the bigger issue on the horizon: job security.

Tyrone Willingham isn't foolish enough to talk about patience at Notre Dame or brash enough to talk championships. The situation is what it is. He says his team is ready to prove itself after a 5-7 record last season, the third such losing season in the past five years for the most storied program in amateur sports. "Hunger," Willingham says, "is always a good thing."

Actually, hunger is usually one of two things: inspiration or desperation. In this case, it's the latter. If the suddenly stale Irish don't show significant improvement this season, Willingham's days in South Bend will be over. This has nothing to do with impatient boosters or the microwave, want-it-now society all coaches tread in these days. It's economics, plain and simple.

Notre Dame has its own television contract with NBC, and although it recently extended its deal with the network, contracts are made to be broken. Especially considering last year's worst-ever ratings for Notre Dame games could slide further south and have NBC execs pining for the XFL. The Irish are alone in the cannibalistic era of super conferences and can't be left without a television partner when the last chair eventually is taken.

Money drives the train in college sports; why should any coaching decision at Notre Dame be any different? The Irish shouldn't have to settle for just anyone. Yet since Lou Holtz retired after the 1996 season, that's all Notre Dame has done. Bob Davie, George O'Leary, Tyrone Willingham. Those guys aren't sending shockwaves from Miami to Seattle and parts between. And they're certainly not attracting elite high school athletes to South Bend.

According to Rivalsl00.com, only two of the Irish's 18 recruits were among the top 200 in the nation this season. Notre Dame likes to think it's at the same level as rivals Southern California and Michigan, but 15 of the Trojans' 20 recruits and 13 of the Wolverines' 22 were among the top 200.

Forget the argument that Notre Dame's strict academic standards hurt its ability to recruit. There are blue-chip players all over the country who could qualify to play for the Irish; they choose not to. That's the problem. And that, in the end, will be the undoing of Willingham.

Willingham didn't recruit well at Stanford, and his 44-36-1 career record there is deceiving given his 7-0 record against some truly pitiful Cal teams. Now he's at a crossroads in only his third season in South Bend, his teams having lost nine of their last 14 games--including three to USC and Michigan by a combined 127-27 score.

The Irish are three months from beginning a brutal schedule with a handful of young but talented skill players and very little else. Want to put a number on it? Let's say the bar is seven wins; that means Notre Dame will need to win at least two games it shouldn't. Considering the state of this team--shaky on both interior lines--that's asking too much.

If you're Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White, how long do you wait to make a change? A wise man once told me whatever has to be done eventually must be done immediately. Or at least by December.

Get the latest offseason news and analysis by heading online to www.foxsprts.com, keywords: college football.

SPEED READ

* It isn't enough that embattled Florida coach Ron Zook is at the front of the line for the coaching hot seat. Now he has to deal with his best player, linebacker Channing Crowder, being arrested--again. A year ago, Zook publicly told Crowder to stay straight or else. It's time for Zook to cut bait with TSN's freshman of the year. One player isn't going to make or break a season. One poor decision on discipline, though, can lose a team.

INSIDE DISH

The progress this spring of backup QB Brandon Hance likely means Southern California will try to red-shirt sophomore QB John David Booty this fall. The staff doesn't want Booty, a heralded recruit who graduated a year early from high school, to spend another year of eligibility as a backup to All-American Matt Leinart. Booty still will be the team's top backup, but he won't play unless Leinan is injured. Hance will be the Trojans' mop-up quarterback ... K-State coach Bill Snyder loathes individual attention for himself or his players. But he's considering a Heisman Trophy campaign for RB Darren Sproles. That shows two things: Sproles' talent and a thaw in Snyder's hard-line attitude after winning last year's Big 12 title.... Indiana QB Matt LoVecchio hasn't developed into the pure dropback passer the staff envisioned. Meanwhile, freshman QB Blake Powers made huge strides during his redshirt season and outplayed LoVecchio this spring. The problem: Coach Gerry DiNardo has little wiggle room. He's at the 85-scholarship limit for the first time in three seasons and must show improvement. Playing Powers would mean accepting his inexperience--and everything that goes with it.... Remember all those Vanderbilt jokes? Well, the Commodores have a player at every position who has started at least three games in his career, and Vandy begins the season with five winnable games.... Clemson is so concerned about pass protection on the outside for QB Charlie Whitehurst that it will tweak its running game to keep pressure off one of the nation's top quarterbacks. Look for the Tigers to run more draws and misdirection from the shotgun to slow the rush.--M.H.