Willingham not fired
Washington will not fire Ty Willingham. (And thank goodness. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton might have led a march on Pac-10 headquarters if Dorrell and Willingham had both been fired in the space of a week.) There is speculation, however, that the Huskies will "clean house" with regard to the defensive coaches, starting with coordinator Kent Baer. That would please resident BrendanLoy.com Husky fan David K., who commented Sunday that "the biggest failure is our defense and our DC needs to be gone now. If Willingham does not fire him, I will move towards the fire Willingham camp." That's what a lot of Irish fans were saying back in 2004 with regard to Ty's coordinators, including Baer (who followed him from Notre Dame to UW), and it didn't happen, but hopefully this time Ty won't make the Bush-esque mistake of putting loyalty before competence.
In other Washington-state sports news, #17 Gonzaga lost to #8 Wazzu last night, the Zags' first-ever loss at home while ranked.
I would like to thank Brendan for pointing out the fact about Ty's tenure at ND that is often overlooked. He refused to get rid of any of his assistants. He would have gotten a 4th year if he would have ditched his OC, Diedrick. Baer was awful at ND, just like he has been at UW, but Diedrick was even worse. He went from being an OC at ND to the running backs coach for a CFL team. How is that possible? How is it possible that Ty refused to get rid of him?
If Ty makes no changes to his staff at UW this year, I really will feel bad for their fans. They have done nothing to deserve this.
Posted by: treybien | Dec 6, 2007 4:01:36 PM
Trey, While the staff thing may have been cited as a reason Ty was let go by ND, i'm still convinced the real reason was that they wanted Urban Meyer so badly. Unfortunatley, Florida snagged him and Notre Dame got sold on Charlie Weis. Clearly he can recruit, but clearly he can't coach at the college level. It will be interesting to see if one or both programs can make a real turnaround next year or the two W's will both be looking for new jobs. I do agree though, Baer is an awful DC and i would be very surprised at this point if he is kept on.
Posted by: David K. | Dec 6, 2007 5:38:24 PM
Bow down to the Pac, Gonzaga homers!
Posted by: Andrew | Dec 6, 2007 6:22:55 PM
Believe what you want David, but it was common knowledge to people around the program that Ty was given the ultimatum to gut his offensive staff or he was out. He chose Diedrick over the job.
I have a small beef with the part that Weis clearly CAN'T coach. Now I wouldn't say he clearly CAN coach college, but he did go to 2 BCS bowls with talent that was far inferior to the elite programs in the country and absolutely no defense. Can he teach his incoming players the fundamentals to be great players at this level? Can he motivate a team and keep them at peak level throughout a season? Can he coordinate all three units of a football team? After this past year I and every other Irish fan certainly have our concerns, but he gets 1 more year to prove it. If he doesn't significantly improve (probably at least 8 wins with this schedule) he's out.
I would also disagree at being surprised if Baer is kept. It would surprise me if he WASN'T kept. Far and away my biggest problem with Ty was he would not make changes under any circumstances. He hasn't shown any differences at UW so far.
Posted by: treybien | Dec 6, 2007 7:48:37 PM
Uga, the Bulldogs mascot, could coach Notre Dame to at least a 4 win season, and that dog looks damn stupid.
It's pretty ridiculous to believe that your boss tells you to fire somebody or else he'll fire both of you and you don't do anything. As in-- that's ridiculous.
Ty was gone halfway through his third season no matter what he did, and he had the same number of losses as Charlie Weis has after 3 seasons when he got fired, he just didn't lose all his games consecutively. Different standards for different coaches, but we know this.
Posted by: Sandy Underpants | Dec 6, 2007 9:09:55 PM
Sandy, Ty was asked to fire his defensive coordinator after the first and second seasons he coached. He refused both times. After refusing to make changes, he was pretty much toast.
I think you are really underestimating Ty's loyalty to his staff. I would be shocked if Baer is fired as well.
Posted by: Drive-By Media | Dec 7, 2007 12:40:42 AM
Drive-by, are you talking about Notre Dame? Surely that can't be accurate. It's pretty clear that LTW was asked to fire Dietrich, the offensive coordinator, at least after his third year. But I doubt he was asked to fire Baer, and he certainly wasn't asked to fire him after the first year at ND (when their defense was relatively good). Unless you are talking about at UW...
Posted by: Wobbly H | Dec 7, 2007 1:13:46 AM
I guess I'm weird, but I admire a coach who refuses to fire assistants when the fans/AD/press are calling for their hides. If I'm the coach, I'm thinking that it's my staff and the buck stops with me. If the AD thinks he can assemble a better group of assistants, let him take the $%$# job himself. Fire me (and pay the buyout) or STFU and let me do my job.
I'd want my assistants worried about what I think of the job their doing. I don't want them worrying about what a bunch of malcontents on firejimhu.com are saying. If they don't think I have the final authority to hire and fire them, then how can I run the team?
Posted by: Jim Hu | Dec 7, 2007 3:03:34 AM
I am sure about him being asked to fire Baer after his 2nd year (multiple sources from inside the program). I'm only relatively sure about the first year (one source).
I do know that that was not the only coach he was asked to fire after the second year, and that he subsequently refused to make any adjustments(multiple sources).
I wish I could name names, but then people would stop talking to me about the program.
Posted by: Drive-By Media | Dec 7, 2007 8:20:46 AM
Navy has just lost their head coach to GA. Tech
Posted by: PenguinSix | Dec 7, 2007 12:30:15 PM
"Georgia Tech also considered former Washington coach Rick Neuheisel, former Auburn coach Terry Bowden, Georgia Southern coach Chris Hatcher and Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong. Connecticut coach Randy Edsall also interviewed for the job, but quickly removed himself from consideration. "
Whew, UCLA dodged a bullet there! Come on 'ruins, hire slick rick!
Posted by: David K. | Dec 7, 2007 2:15:13 PM
I realized today that the Sagarin rankings are in their 10th year, so I put together this list of the top 5 SOS for each year. FWIW, Ty leads the coaches in getting stuck with tough schedules, having had #1 three times, and being in the top 5 six times. This is over ten years at three different schools (he hit the list 2x with each school and had #1 at Stanford, ND, and UW). The runner up is Bobby Bowden, who never hit #1 SOS, but who was in the top 5 four times, winning the ACC in three of those years.
For FSU, I'm thinking that this is a product of how they always played Miami and Florida as nonconference games. Once Miami joined the ACC, FSUs SOS dropped. But for Ty, this strikes me as amazingly bad luck.
Posted by: Jim Hu | Dec 7, 2007 7:41:34 PM
Jim,
Just wanted to say I think your first comment in this thread, opining that coaches refusing to bow to fan/admin pressure to fire their assistants, is a good thing, is spot-on, in my view.
Posted by: Brian Foster | Dec 8, 2007 5:10:56 PM
And the players and recruits also believe in Willingham, the ones who have been involved with the program the most durning the past few years believe in him. So say all you want about how he is a terrible recruiter (he is getting the top recruits in state to stay and come to Washington) and what not, but i'll go with them over random internet posters any day.
Posted by: David K. | Dec 8, 2007 6:31:06 PM