Ty Willingham Fired at Notre Dame

[Purple Reign]

COMPLETELY UNFAIR!!! If scrubs like Davies, Gerry Faust gets 5 years. Truely Tyrone Willingham deserves five years.

But it does not get past me, that at the beginning of November there were 5 Black D-1 College Football Coaches. And now in the beginning of December there are only 2, with one (UCLA coach) clearly on the chopping block and I guarantee will be fired this time next week after USC lays the smack down on the Bruins.

It is a crying shame!!!

 

[Heuge]

COMPLETELY UNFAIR!!! If scrubs like Davies, Gerry Faust gets 5 years. Truely Tyrone Willingham deserves five years.

But it does not get past me, that at the beginning of November there were 5 Black D-1 College Football Coaches. And now in the beginning of December there are only 2, with one (UCLA coach) clearly on the chopping block and I guarantee will be fired this time next week after USC lays the smack down on the Bruins.

It is a crying shame!!!

Ty firing is fair. It is the fact that the others are not fired that is unfair.
This is not a race issue.

 

[Purple Reign]

Ty firing is fair. It is the fact that the others are not fired that is unfair.
This is not a race issue.

I am not saying that they fired Willingham because he was black, but I am saying that the institutional preferential bias that has been at work at Notre Dame and in the 100 plus Division 1 schools for generations would not give him the five years that was afforded his predicessors. I heard a Notre Dame Alum on the radio today say that it is a given and an unwritten policy that every ND coach has a five year window to perform regardless how bad it is. Willingham was not given that window. Notre Dame has opened itself up to the backlash that is sure to come and should come.

 

[bdouble013]

I am sure they opened up the door for the controversy, but maybe, just maybe he was fired because they felt the program was not going the way they wanted it to and they wanted to hire someone else (Meyer from Utah comes to mind). Whether or not they gave him the 5 years everyone else got is irrelevant. I seriously don't think they didn't give him the 5 years simply because he was black.

At least I hope not.

 

[Purple Reign]

No, once again it is not just that black and white, no pun intented. However when you deal with the hiring practice history of this country let alone within the realm of college football, you can not help (scratch that, I can not help) but think that Willingham, just like other African Americans coaches are held to a much higher standard, have to work 10 times harder than their white peers in order to get a fair shot.

Notre Dame has every right to go after Urban Meyer if they choose to. But if that is the case say it. Don't veil the firing nonsense behind "Willingham did everything right. The program is better now than what it was before he came, except on the field on Saturday" The fact of the matter is that Tyrone Willingham restored a sense of dignity to a program that was out of control. Academic scandal and criminal activity was very evident under the watch of Bob Davies. But Tyrone Willingham was held to an impossible standard of upholding the academia of the student athlete AND win a National Championship. It is clear that in college sports (unless you are Duke Basketball) YOU CAN NOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. Where race comes into play in my view is that Willingham was expected to work a miracle, where those that came before him were given a longer period of time with mediocre results.