SEATTLE – Washington football coach Tyrone Willingham said the perception that he has remained quiet about his firing at Notre Dame after last season isn’t so. He says it’s just that people don’t want to hear what he’s saying.
“I did speak out about the situation,” Willingham said. “My problem is, I didn’t say what somebody else wanted me to say. So therefore it’s assumed I bit my tongue. I didn’t bite my tongue. I said exactly what Tyrone Willingham wanted to say. But the world isn’t ready for what I have to say.”
Willingham’s firing despite compiling a winning record and two bowl game appearances brought an outcry from many that even Notre Dame, the most storied collegiate football program in the country, was becoming nothing more than a wins-and-losses football factory.
But Willingham refused then and now to get into the name-calling, protesting game. He said he, as he always does, simply moved on.
“It’s part of life,” Willingham said. “You have to be able to deal. I think I coached our young men well. I think I finished with a winning record. Did I win as many games as I wanted to? I’ve said from the beginning, no, I did not. Is there anything I can do to change that?”
That seems to be the culture of coaching today, where it doesn’t take much to move on to the next hot property. It’s something that coaches have to be prepared for when they get into the business.
“It’s the rough and nasty part of the business that you have to accept,” said Washington defensive coordinator Kent Baer, one of five UW assistants who coached with Willingham at Notre Dame. “You’re around the same group of 10 guys and their families all the time. So you have an extended family right there. Then you add another 120 football players to that. I’m not sure there’s another profession quite like it.”
“It’s business, there are no hard feelings,” said running backs coach Trent Miles, another former Notre Dame coach. “There’s two kinds of coaches: Coaches that have been fired and those that are going to be fired. It’s a business. You just happen to build some bonds while in this business. You build personal bonds, and you don’t lose them.”
So though there is hurt that comes with losing a job, the former Notre Dame coaches say that they left the school with mostly good memories.
“All of us that were part of the staff at Notre Dame have a lot of positive memories, positive feelings about the kids that were in the program there and just the university in general,” offensive line coach Mike Denbrock said. “But we’ve also all moved on and become Washington Huskies and are proud and happy to be here.”
“I was very proud of what we did at Notre Dame,” Baer said. “All I know is we started out 8-0 my first year. We played great defense. What more can I say? I tend to dwell on that more than anything else.”
As for Willingham’s refusal to place any extra emphasis on this week’s game than any other on the schedule, his assistants say that’s just the way he is, and they all agree with him. Other than watching film on players they are so familiar with, there is nothing different this week than last week or next week.
“It’s an indication of the type of person he is,” Miles said. “He’s a solid person. He’s not an up-and-down person. He keeps things in perspective.”
“Obviously there are relationship there that aren’t going to go away just because you happen to be working for another university,” Denbrock said. “You’ve heard us talk all along that winning football games is very important but being a part of these guys’ lives and helping them be better men is also part of it. That side of the relationship doesn’t go away.”
And neither does the feeling of disappointment after losing a job. Baer said that though coaches get used to having to pack up and move on, it never becomes easy or routine.
“You try to but I’m not sure you ever really do,” he said. “It’s just part of it. You’d like to say you’re prepared, you’re ready if it happens, but when it happens it’s still a shock.”
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