Warm and fuzzy, Ty Willingham was not
Tyrone Willingham was asked if Washington’s game at California on Saturday – his last as coach of the Huskies – will be sentimental for him.
“It won’t,” he said Monday. “Not from me, it won’t. It’s always been about our football team and our football players, and hopefully never about me.”
The answer shouldn’t surprise anyone who has followed Willingham’s four seasons as UW coach.
Want warm and fuzzy? Get a cat.
Over the four seasons, Willingham has conducted himself as a man demanding respect but indifferent about being liked – at least by fans, boosters and media.
Willingham has always acknowledged that football coaches should mold student-atheltes and win. He treats the public relations part of the job like most of us view trips to the dentist: necessary, endurable, but not especially pleasant.
In the end, even a friendlier Willingham wouldn’t have survived an 11-36 record but it might have changed the eulogy a bit. A few more folks would have said, “What a shame it didn’t work out” – just as Washington State fans did a year ago while shoving nice-guy Bill Doba out the door.
Here’s a look back at 11 places where the marriage between UW and Willingham went wrong – one for each win along the road.
1. Taking names off of the jerseys: One of the first things Willingham did on arrival was remove the players’ names from the back of their jerseys – a symbol of teamwork over individuality. However, the move ignored the reality that names on jerseys are there for the convenience of fans, not the glory of players.
Certainly, most fans would have traded the names for wins – USC fans get by somehow. But UW fans got the worst of both worlds: no names and a 2-9 record in Willingham’s first season.
2. Closed practices: Willingham inherited a 1-10 team. So, as the Huskies began their first practices under their new coach, let’s just say plenty of good seats were available.
Open practices – at least through fall camp – could have restored a personal bond with fans hard-core enough to visit. Open practices also could have provided a stream of mostly upbeat preview stories to feed the more casual fans at home.
Instead, the team toiled in privacy, enthusiasm was muted, and an embarrassing crowd of 26,482 showed up at Qwest Field for the first game of the Willingham era.
3. Shielding his players: One solid reason for closing practices was to create mystery about what sort of schemes the new staff was installing.
However, it also seemed part of a more all-encompassing Willingham preference to protect his players from distraction. That wasn’t just media, but sometimes also parents and boosters. Suddenly, fans who were used to traveling with the team and rubbing shoulders with the players at the team hotel were made to feel like outsiders. Even learning the name of the team’s hotel became more difficult.
Many boosters – and let’s face it, the fans who travel with the team are not only the ones with the most passion but also with the most dollars to donate – felt unappreciated and unwanted. And as the losses piled up, some began to wonder: Why protect a team from distractions when college football games are full of distractions?
4. That opening loss: Opening days are always times of optimism – even after 1-10 seasons. And for much of the way, it seemed Willingham would open as a winner.
But then, Air Force – wishbone-running Air Force! – completed two late long passes over the UW secondary to start the Willingham era with a 20-17 loss.
5. That first Pac-10 win: Willingham’s first UW team stood at 1-8 overall and 0-6 in the Pacific-10 Conference when it went on the road to Arizona, and romped to a 38-14 victory.
Yet, when Willingham emerged from that smile-filled locker room, his first words to the press were: “Well, there’s not a lot to say about that one.”
Except there was. It was their first conference victory. And the game had turned on a jaw-dropping 69-yard pass from scrambling Isaiah Stanback to Craig Chambers on the last play of the first half. Fans were starved for good news, and Willingham’s reaction seemed to cloud a rare and precious moment of sunshine.
6. Upsetting non-upsets: In Willingham’s second season, the Huskies were still looking for a signature win.
They almost got two of them. Yet both got away, and got away so frustratingly that even signs of progress were lost amid controversy.
Trailing USC by six points, UW had one final shot at a game-winning touchdown deep in Trojans’ territory – except the Huskies botched the new clock-management rules and time ran out before that final chance.
Two weeks later, the Huskies cut California’s lead to one point with a wild touchdown on the final play of regulation. With momentum on their side in a superior opponent’s home stadium, many fans wanted a two-point conversion that would settle the issue on a single play. Instead, Willingham ordered a PAT kick – and his team lost in overtime.
7. Senior Day, 2006: Senior days are always emotional, but the emotion generally isn’t pure, seething anger.
However, that became part of the mix for the final home game of Willingham’s second season as several players with eligibility remaining were listed among the seniors and shoved down the tunnel and out the door into whatever future awaited them elsewhere.
Willingham rightly pointed out that scholarships are year-to-year deals, and he explained his belief that fifth seasons have to be earned. However, the philosophy was poorly announced and painfully executed.
8. Quarterback injuries: Willingham’s four UW teams haven’t had many personnel advantages.
However, the Huskies have had the blessing of two amazing game-changing quarterbacks: Stanback and Jake Locker. Unfortunately, injuries took each off the field at crucial times. Stanback went out with a broken foot in 2006, and a 4-2 start with him disintegrated into a 1-5 finish without him. Then, in this make-of-break season, Locker was lost to a season-ending thumb injury in Week Four.
9. The OSU halftime fiasco: Until hired, Willingham never wore purple. He grew up in the Southeast, played college ball in the Midwest, and coached at Stanford and Notre Dame. He regularly spoke glowingly of Husky tradition, but some actions didn’t match up.
For skeptical fans, the proof came during the Oregon State game this season when the 1978 Rose Bowl team was honored at halftime.
After the game, Willingham was asked if he had invited any of those proud old Huskies to speak to his team. He said he had not, explaining that he hadn’t been informed in time. And when asked how much notice he would have needed, he implied that he might have needed months.
10. Senior Day, 2008: Fans tend to like coaches who seem to care as much as they do.
Low-key coaches who win are forgiven; but most fans prefer a Jon Gruden or Bill Cowher. Willingham is far more professorial … and he didn’t win.
That deadly combination hit home for a lot of fans last month when seniors making their final appearance at Husky Stadium said they were warned by Willingham not to become too emotional. With that none-too-peppy pep talk ringing in their ears, the Huskies went out and lost to UCLA, 27-7. Excess emotion did not appear to be a significant problem.
11. This winless season: University president Mark Emmert allowed Willingham to serve the fourth season of his five-year contract with the clear understanding that wins would have to come.
Instead – no matter what happens against 33-point favorite Cal on Saturday – this will go down as the worst season in UW football history (the 0-1 season in 1889 notwithstanding).
And that reduced those first 10 issues above to mere footnotes. Willingham is 76-87-1 in his 14th season as a college head coach, 11-36 as coach of the Huskies, an unprecedented 0-11 this season, and an unprecedented 13 consecutive losses dating back to November 2007.
Given all that, nothing of the 11 reasons listed could have saved his job. Not names in blinking neon lights on the backs of the jerseys. Not inviting media to strap on helmets and participate in practices. Not self spontaneous combustion during a halftime speech that would have made Knute Rockne weep.
Those things might have made a difference in a close call, say a 6-6 season. When the road to even the most minor of bowls crumbled away, the rest became inevitable.
Don Ruiz: 253-597-8808
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