The sharks are circling Willingham
Published 11:00 pm Thursday, November 29, 2007
SEATTLE — Odd verbal gaffes are legion in sports. Always have been, always will be. They’re a part of sport’s charm. Yogi Berra made a career out of them, as has President Bush.
Someone asked Cleveland Cavalier player Drew Gooden about the ups and downs he’d experienced in his career. He said, “I’ve had to overcome a lot of diversity.”
Former Boston Red Sox star Mike Greenwell once said, “I’m a 4-wheel-drive pickup kind of guy. So is my wife.”
So maybe we should just let this week’s gem by Tyrone Willingham slide. After all, it’s at the end of another disappointing season for him. His Huskies will finish either 4-9 or 5-8, out of a bowl game and he’s hearing it.
Boy, is he hearing it.
Except, we can’t let it slide.
In the vast majority of cases, Willingham is such a supremely cautious purveyor of words, it’s not often we hear what he says, look at each other, shrug and say, “Huh?” Add that to the notion that, as he is the object of scorn from a growing swarm who believe this program should be on his second straight bowl season and who still have visions of Brandon Gibson in the end zone with UW defenders 15 yards behind, Willingham has to be on top of his game in everything he says. He has to demonstrate that he’s in full control as a leader should be.
He hasn’t. At least, he didn’t the other day.
What he said was this: “We have an opportunity to play a game in December. When you start playing in December, usually good things are happening and we want to recognize that.”
As we said: Huh?
We interrupt for this breaking news bulletin: University of Washington officials announce that all football games scheduled for September 2008 will be moved to December because that’s when coach Tyrone Willingham says good things happen. Athletic director Todd Turner said cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball and swimming are expected to follow suit. Film at 11.
What was he thinking? It’s a game Turner added on to the schedule late. Speaking of which, what was Turner thinking? Aren’t 12 games enough? Who’s this trip really for, the players or the university’s big wheels?
Maybe the coach is so desperate to pull something positive out of 2007 that he has delusions that Saturday’s game at Hawaii is a warm-weather bowl game, a reward for a season well played.
It’s not.
In fact, Washington’s 13th game of the year is anything but a vacation, regardless of the palm trees, Waikiki and mai tais.
Hawaii is good. Very good. And even though Turner said this week that he expects Willingham to return next season, it’s not a stretch to speculate that a blowout at the hands of the Warriors may well open up the possibility of a change.
A blowout is anything but a fantasy. If Willie Tuitama can hang 510 passing yards on Washington’s defense, Hawaii’s Colt Brennan can break 1,000.
Should the Huskies somehow lay a defeat on undefeated Hawaii or even give the Warriors a tough game, then sure, we can pretty much pencil in Willingham’s return.
But a 56-7 loss, combined with a season’s body of work that includes stunning losses to Washington State, Oregon, Arizona and Oregon State, could well change Turner’s mind.
That is, if the decision lies with Turner at all. UW president Mark Emmert has largely been in the background where it concerns the Willingham question. Yet, he has little trouble with the title as The One Who Brought Nick Saban to LSU and has been vocal about the importance of a winning football team on a university’s image.
The problem is this: After Washington’s convincing victory against Cal, the sharks circling Willingham temporarily stopped leaping into his boat. Apple Cup and the way Washington lost it deflated the notion that the program was heading in the right direction.
The sharks are in no mood for an embarrassment. Neither, we could reasonably assume, are Turner and Emmert.
I remain in favor of keeping Willingham for another year, with the stipulation that all or some of the defensive staff exit and Washington finishes 2008 better than .500.
But when Willingham says something as inane as the December thing, he makes it difficult to push a persuasive case that he’s on top of it enough to stick around.
Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. For Sleeper[`]s blog, turn to cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/danglingparticiples
