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In a dramatic turn of events Notre Dame will call a press conference to announce that TY WILLINGHAM will coach ND! I understand the white haired, red ruddy faced old geezers have lined up to jump off the Chicago Bridge. Armed gaurds are now lined up to prevent massive suicides from the "Subway Alumni" to prevent those fans from jumping in front of the Amtrac trains en route to South Bend!!
What does this mean? A coach from Stanford that WANTED this job as a life long dream was granted his wish. A disciplinarian with experience at a high level high academic school with WEST COAST ties takes the helm. I would guess that schools such as TENN that has been grabbing top flite talent will now have competition in the recruiting wars.
I understand that Monk Malloy has agreed to ease some admittance standards. The pq and redshirt will NOW be allowed at ND. Both considered obstacles by leading candidates for the job. Ty has agreed to keep Jones(GaTech recruiter) and Mattison on his staff. I understand UT has a coach or two who will be courted by Ty to join his staff.
Ty Willingham was pushed by some national media as "Black" coach who deserves a shot. IMHO he was perfect fit who ND needed in the worse way.
Why did ND need him in the worse way? He is a loser. WEhat the hell has he ever accomplished at Stanford? Give me a damn break. This guy gets his eyes beat in by GT in a bowl game for drying out loud. If this goes down it is a major mistake by ND. Holtz would have been the best hire. IMHO!
That was/is the talk around the ND program. I understand Willingham refused to do anything publically until after the GaTech vs Stanford game. Rumors had floated that the Stanford kids KNEW something was up. I understand the Stanford ad WAS aware thatTW would take the job as early as Christmas Eve. I understand this is a done deal and a press conference has already been called for today.
ND has not lost any committs during this hiring process, and IMO will not now that it is over. ND is going head to head with Michigan, Illini, Stanford, UCLA, Oregon, Washingto, and OSU for some top flite prospects. Look for ND to have a TOP caliber class because of this hiring
O'Willingham is reportedly going to receive b/w $2 and $3 million a year at ND. This is a guy whose won 55% of his games in a conference that, up until the last couple of years, has been the weak sister of the "major conferences."
If UT beats UM, Fulmer's raise will bring his total package to no less than $1.75 million per year. Expect Tall to find space for more Pilot adds in Neyland and expect the volume of the Bi-Low adds to get a little louder.
PV, would ND even being going after Willingham if...
December 31 2001, 11:59 AM
he WASN'T black??? I don't think so.
I think TW is a pretty good coach but the bottom line is he's won 55% of his games at Stanford.
If Holtz wasn't coming back & one of the big-time NFL coaches (Gruden, Shanahan, Mariucci) wasn't going to take the job, then hiring Willingham BECAUSE HE IS BLACK is the only way ND could save face with this hire in the eyes of the national media.
PV, if your information is correct & ND is now allowing PQ's & redshirts then Willingham has a huge advantage over past Irish coaches. I have no problem with ND making a move that other schools have allowed for many years but this change in policy tells me EVEN Notre Dame it's all about winning in bringing in the $$$$.
I hope to never hear another Irish fan with the "we're better than you because we do it the right way" attitude again. Uh, Irish fans, I think you've found out over that last several years ND isn't what it used to be. You're having to "sellout" on some long standing academic traditions to be able to compete at the highest level.
I have never disagreed with you more. First ND allowed redshirts and pq's at ND during the first half of Lou Holtz's career. Just remember a PQ at Notre Dame is a whole different animal than at other schools. A PQ deals with meeting ND's standards not the NCAA's minimum standard. If you recall the starting QB for Lou Holtz NC team was a redshirt frosh who had to use his first year at ND to get his academics in order. His gpa and test scores were both sub par in comparison to the avg. ND student, but both above minimum NCAA standards. He graduated in 4 years and was not granted a 5th year of elegibility by ND. That was the price ND required for substandard admissions.
2nd. No Tyrone Willingham is very typical of all other ND hires that have had success at ND. First he wanted the job and lobbied, 2nd he has ND ties. His win lost record matches Ara's record while at Northwestern. He comes from a fellow high academic school and had some success and experience at that type of enviroment. He more than met thee criteria that the ND folks established as a guideline for hiring. The "black thang" is more of an issue with the ND alums, they would make the typical southern white male proud. I made no excuses when ND and Malloy picked O'Leary as a gesture to appease the old school gray haired alums that feared a TW hire. This IMO makes up for a good fit hire that took race into consideration, O'Leary's hire. The ole anybody but a black Willingham knee jerk reaction hire. Fate bit ND in the ass, and the right man was finally hired.
3rd, the talent at Stanford when comparing and averaging incoming frosh class over his days at Stanford rank in the mid 50's nationally. This up from an avg in the 70's according to a ND press article i read about Willingham. That in comparison to a ND program that has undoubtedly under achieved with at least an avg 0f top 15 talent. The one thing all the San Francisco press and the Stanford officials say about TW is that Stanford is better off having had TW as a HC than they were before his hire.
If Willingham is indeed going to get 2-3 million per year then this hire is a complete joke. ND could and should have gotten a much bigger name for that type of money. He's probably a pretty good coach which in turn should make pretty good money. Does anyone belive he should be the highest paid coach in the nation? That's pretty comical.
PV, if ND has such high academic standards (which they do), how can a PQ be based on the schools standards and not the NCAA's? A PQ is an athlete that meets enough NCAA rules to get into school, ect, but cannot participate his/her first year on campus.
The term "partial qualifier" is solely based on NCAA standards. Maybe ND uses that term for their own interpretation--you tell me.
PV, surely you realize the world of college football is a different animal than it was back in the day of Ara P. Heck, Ara could bring in as many kids as he wanted--no scholly limits, but TW will be doing it by signing 25 just like everybody else. Don't get me wrong, TW may do a great job at ND. Previous experience & winning % doesn't always tell the tale--see Coach K at Duke.
However, if I were an Irish fan I'd be only slightly more excited about this hire than O'Leary's & NO WAY would I want this cat paid $2-3 million.
Just like I said in my earlier post, EVEN Notre Dame is all about the money!
If I have read the e-mails correct(I think I have) the ND definition of a PQ is substandard for admittance at ND but above the NCAA standard for admission. My understanding ND only requires an 800 SAT for admittance, but the GPA is the stumbling block. In the past ND has allowed admittance based on a sliding scale of GPA vs SAT scores. But it is my understanding that in the neatr future the sliding scale will not apply to athletes and those who meet one requirement can be waived on the other deficient score or GPA. FL has a similar system and has a admittance committe decide if a player can be admitted example Travis Henry who the FL admittance committe would not allow to be offered a scholly or admitance.
I understand that Monk and the BOT's want to require a redshirt year for those admitted under these conditions. BUT if you look at the number of recruits this opens the door to it is significant. Still restrictive and upper end of NCAA admitting standards but still allows flexability. Like I said this is all just a story floating around SB and Chicago
