Coach Tyrone kicked to the
curb as Irish look to regain former glory
By Biff
Stevens, THG Sports
December 1, 2004
In the no-brainer of the
week news, Notre Dame decided Wednesday to 86 unpopular football coach Tyrone
Willingham. If anyone didn’t see this coming, you just chose to ignore the
facts.
In all actuality, the man
was lucky to be back this season. There were serious rumblings last year after a
5-7 season; alumni were calling for his head then. Even worse than that is this
year: Notre Dame has to settle for the Insight Bowl. Maybe IU, Illinois, or
Kentucky would be happy being selected for this bottom feeder bowl, but not the
Irish. They play in Orange and Sugar Bowls, even Cotton Bowls, not one of the
Johnny-come-lately bowls.
In discussing the Irish’s
postseason plans, Tyrone fell into what I like to call the ‘fallacy of
continuous positivism.’ Many coaches make the mistake of thinking the most
important thing is to be positive all the time—that’s absolutely the wrong
position. If your team is laying an egg, sometimes you need to pull a Bill
Parcells and let them know it. This is probably one reason why his team had sub
par performances (see Mike Davis).
For example, after finding
out his team will be playing in a reconfigured baseball stadium seating 42,000
for the holidays, Coach Tyrone said “"We’re excited
and I think our young men are excited.” That’s an amazing statement. No one
goes to Notre Dame to play in the Insight Bowl; players go there to compete for
National Championships. If you wanted to settle for the lower bowls of the
world, I would surmise you’d just go to Toledo or Western Michigan
instead— the academics are easier and there are more young coeds at those
institutions. If I’m Father Malloy, I’m just shaking my head in disbelief
thinking “did my football coach really just say he was excited about the
Insight Bowl?”
First sign
that the demise of Notre Dame Football is more than just a blip on the map: the
Irish used to cockily turn down bowls of this caliber. It was beneath them to
resort to a minor bowl after a poor season. Now they embrace the minor bowls.
That speaks volumes.
One of the
cardinal rules in the lawless world of college football is Thou Shalt Not Lose
to Thy Rival Year In and Year Out. Happened to John Cooper. Good coach, won a
lot of games, but could not for the life him beat Michigan.
You can cheat, have recruitment violations, academic fraud, etc. etc., but you
simply can not get embarrassed by your rival on prime time TV for the third
straight year. Coach Ty had to learn that the hard way. You simply can’t let
USC obliterate you when the whole country is watching, and by the way, what was
he doing letting Purdue beat him on his home field for the first time in a
coon’s age?
Don’t feel
too bad for ol’ Tyrone. He’ll be coaching again real soon, just not in South
Bend. He’s a decent coach, and would be good for a mid-level BCS team (it pains
me to classify a team that way, but…). I’m sure many Hoosiers would welcome him
with open arms down in Bloomington to replace our current Notre Dame flunky as
coach (see Gerry DiNardo).
I’m just
disappointed the firing preempted the planned campus gathering of those wishing
to protest the train wreck that is Fighting Irish football. What a great country
when you get people together to protest the suckiness of your football team.
Just think of the opportunity that was taken away from all of these misguided
souls—they were robbed of the chance of telling their grandchildren “I didn’t
fight in Iraq or Afghanistan, I didn’t do anything for social change, but dammit
I let the administration know I was sick of mediocre football at Notre Dame.”
Take solace
Irish fans, I think of as last week Lou Holtz is available. Well, good luck
Coach Tyrone, just wish your stay in Indiana could have been a little bit more
pleasant!
