So, as mentioned before, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame are 0-3 this year with nary an offensive touchdown. This got me to thinking about the raw justice that Tyrone Willingham got by being fired in 2004. Traditionally, Notre Dame gives it's coaches an initial five year deal to see out their vision of what the program should achieve. Well, in the case of Willingham, Notre Dame fired a coach before he finished his initial five year contract. Willingham was also the first coach in the school's history to post 10 wins in his initial campaign. Now, I would be remiss not to mention the fact that Mr. Willingham lost his final three games by 31 points each, but I'm not sure that necessitated his departure. I also need to mention that while Weiss had a better record than Willingham in his first two seasons, it was largely done with Willingham's players; including the much ballyhooed Brady Quinn.
Now on to Weiss, who is 19-9 through a little over two seasons as Notre Dame head coach. He has taken ND to two back to back BCS bowl games, while Willingham took the team to none. However, after starting this season 0-3 while not scoring a single offensive touchdown should ring the same bells that Willingham's struggles did. I will not call Weiss a bad coach, but I think justice will be served if he continues to struggle and falls to the same fate as the unjustified firing of Willingham.
1 comment:
First of all, not all ND coach's received 5 year contracts that was something the media hyped up, but I do agree that Ty did not receive a fair shake by ND. However, perhaps he's better off now though, because his team is 2-1 and he's a millionaire.
Secondly, his last three losses by 31 points did make a huge impact on his firing. In fact, they were specifically called out as one of the reasons ND bought out his contract.
Thirdly, Ty won 10 games his first season with players from Bob Davie's team and one can argue that the ND program/history alone can take credit for at least 1/2 the recruiting decisions.
Lastly, if Charlie keeps losing and doesn't make the necessary changes then he probably only deserves one more year, but he shouldn't be fired after this year since he did make it to back-to-back BCS games.
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