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Notre Dame's coach-Fired

WWJD

Hall of Fame
Coach Willingham was fired today by Notre Dame. It is unclear whether he will coach at their bowl game this year. Utah's head coach is the leading candidate to become ND's new coach.
 

WWJD

Hall of Fame
I was just reading that he is a leading candidate at one of the Washington schools. He'll get another job soon. I think he's a good coach. I'm a bit surprised they fired him myself. I thought the Irish had a fairly decent season.
 

texasguy346

Mod Squad
Wow that's a bit surprising. I heard on PTI that Notre Dame has a history of honoring their coaches contracts, and haven't fired a coach with years remaining on his contract. He seemed to be making good progress there, but I guess it wasn't enough for the ND faithful. Tyrone had to get the right players to play his WCO, much like Callahan will have to get the right players at Nebraska. Quinn seemed to be maturing nicely at the QB, and their defense played pretty good most of the year. Good luck to the next coach of ND because expecations are obviously very high there.
 

Tulip

Veteran
I just can't agree with firing a coach until he gets his own recruits in place. I didn't like it when they did it at UH a couple of years ago.

If Notre Dame continues all of the blame on their coaches, they are going to be in for endless disappointing seasons.
 

Vinny

shiny happy fan
I wonder when their contract with NBC runs out. They may be more impatient due to devilish forces like millions of dollars of TV exposure. Somebody is selling out on some level here.
 

Vinny

shiny happy fan
They have a ton of pressure to win. This contract means big money to them. It's their cash cow.
...Television ratings for Notre Dame home games have steadily declined in recent years. In 1993, when Notre Dame last seriously contended for a national championship, 6.2 million households watched Notre Dame football games, according to data provided by Nielsen Media Research. But that number dropped to 2.6 million in 2003.

The number of people who watch the Irish play on NBC appears to be tied to Notre Dame's success. In the last six years, the Irish have had just three winning seasons. In those years - 1998, 2000 and 2002 - an estimated average of 3.1 million households watched NBC games. When Notre Dame has had a losing season, however, an average of just 2.6 million households have tuned in annually...

...The revenue from the television deal has been one major reason why Notre Dame says it is able to meet 100 percent of the financial needs of its students, Heisler said. "That's a huge and underpublicized achievement," Heisler said. "For the people in admissions and financial aid, that's a big deal."
 

cuppacoffee

Resident Grouch
Inconsistency was one of the biggest complaints.
How do you defeat Michigan, Michigan State, and Tennessee, and lose to BYU, Boston College and Pittsburgh in the same season. :hmmm:
I think most domers are expecting Urban Meyer from Utah to be the next coach but this ND fan would prefer Dan Hawkins from Boise State or Charlie Weiss the NE Offensive Coordinator.

cac :coffee:
 

dan7

Waterboy
What annoys me about this firing was that all other Notre Dame Head Coaches (no matter how poorly they performed) were allowed to retain their jobs for the duration of their contract.

This sets a bad precedent; if I had any say in the matter then Willingham would have been allowed to remain at ND until his contract ran out.
 

cuppacoffee

Resident Grouch
dan7 said:
What annoys me about this firing was that all other Notre Dame Head Coaches (no matter how poorly they performed) were allowed to retain their jobs for the duration of their contract.

This sets a bad precedent; if I had any say in the matter then Willingham would have been allowed to remain at ND until his contract ran out.
I don't know if there is any truth to it, but there are rumors circulating that Willinghams 'people' had contacted Washington to see if they had any interest in Willingham before the firing, this causing the emergency board meeting at ND.
Then again the fact that Willingham was NDs second choice as a coach when he was hired demonstrates that he wasn't their highest regarded coach at the time. I sickens me that people play the race card in all this because of all the hundred or so division one colleges ND was one of only three schools that hired a minority coach.
Instead of people piling on ND for firing a minority coach why not pile on the Longhorns or Aggies for never hiring one. There is probably more to this story than any of us outsiders will know any time soon.
Just my rant, I'm not accusing dan7 of piling on. Carry on.

cac :coffee:
 

texasguy346

Mod Squad
ESPN News is citing several reports indicating that Utah head coach Urban Meyer will accept the Florida job. If so this would mean that Notre Dame will have to look elsewhere to find their head coach.
 
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