Ty Willingham fired as ND head coach
 

From ESPN

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1935138

Two black head coaches left in I-A

Associated Press

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Coach Tyrone Willingham was fired by Notre Dame on Tuesday after three seasons in which he failed to return one of the nation's most storied football programs to prominence.

Willingham had a record of 21-15, including 6-5 this season. The Fighting Irish lost 41-10 to No. 1 Southern California on Saturday.

It was not immediately clear whether Willingham would coach the team at the Insight Bowl on Dec. 28. Notre Dame accepted the invitation to the game on Sunday.

Athletic director Kevin White scheduled a news conference for 4 p.m. ET Tuesday.

Willingham's firing comes after a season in which the Irish pulled off upset victories over Michigan and at Tennessee, but were also blown out by USC and Purdue.

Notre Dame's loss to top-ranked USC on Saturday marked the fifth time the Irish lost by 31 points or more under Willingham -- three of the losses coming to the Trojans. By comparison, former coach Bob Davie's team had just one such loss. Lou Holtz and Dan Devine had none.

Notre Dame hired Willingham, the first black head coach in any sport for the Irish, away from Stanford to replace George O'Leary, the former Georgia Tech coach who resigned five days after taking the job because he lied about his academic and athletic achievements on his resume.

In his first season, Willingham had many fans recalling Notre Dame's glory days, taking over a losing squad and turning things around immediately. The Irish won eight straight to start the season before finishing 10-3 and going to the Gator Bowl.

But during his second year, the Irish fell to 5-7, with four of their losses coming by 26 points or more. It was Notre Dame's third losing record in five seasons, the Irish's worst stretch in 115 years of football.

Notre Dame has won eight AP college football national championships, more than any other school. The last was in 1988 under Holtz. Players from the school have won the Heisman Trophy seven times, also the most in college football.

The Irish haven't won a bowl game since ending the 1993 season ranked No. 2 after beating No. 7 Texas 24-21 in the Cotton Bowl.

Since then the Irish have lost six straight postseason games.

With Tony Samuel fired by New Mexico State and Fitz Hill resigning from San Jose State last week, there are now only two black head coaches in Division I-A -- Karl Dorrell at UCLA and Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State.

I really liked Ty. I think Urban Meyer's going to get the job, but I'm going to miss Willingham. He was a great gameday coach for us. He just struggled with recruiting, and you've got to have talent to be as successful as most ND people want you to be.

I agree HolmeZz, but as for the recruting, I don't know. There could be multiple reasons why he couldn't bring the players he might had wanted due to academic standards, you know? I mean, I'm not saying that's not the problem, but do you recall Hourning's comments about that ND won't be good as they used to be in the past because of them tightening up the standards.

Plus, this was only Ty's 3rd year, but Ty's first year, he was with Davie's players. So realistically (or technically) his team isn't molded to the point where he wanted them to be. I would had at least given Ty one more year to turn it around.

Wow. I would've given him another year or two to see what his first recruiting class could do as seniors.

I think Stanford also fired their coach, so maybe he'll go back there.

The only reason ND pulled the trigger is because they want Meyer. Urban was a former Irish assistant and apparently really wanted to coach them at some point, and Notre Dame wanted to make a bid at him before schools like Florida and Penn State did.

You have a good point there. Should be a interesting winter season for CFB.

I'm glad we didn't fire Tommy West after our 3-9 season in 2002...

For a team like ND, with the shitty spot they were in when he got there and the tough schedules they play each year, I think it was still too early to get rid of him, considering the fact that they're actually going bowling this year.

That would work pretty well for both parties, IMHO.

Willingham was pretty bad. I am looking forward to meyer.

Willingham should go back to Stanford, or if Alden can grow some balls and fire Pinkel, he would be good for Mizzou.

ND is one of the few programs that sticks to it's academic guns....props.

Stupid move by ND, but then what else is new.

Oh wow, Washington contacted Willingham 2 weeks ago about their head coaching job, from ESPN News.

That is why they can't compete anymore.

I don't like this move, but it may work out well for both parties. I wish Tyrone much success in his future coaching gig.