Charlie or Ty?

The national debate ended awhile back as the country fell in love with a chunky offensive guru. No one cared anymore whether the African-American successful college coach had been wrongly let go. All was good again at good old Notre Dame because the Fighting Irish posted a 9-3 season followed by a 10-3 campaign.

All hail Charlie Weis.

Except for me.

Bob Davie posted a 21-16 record in his first three seasons and did not get fired. Tyrone Willingham went 21-15 in his first three seasons and lost his job. Davie is white. Willingham is black. Hmmm. I searched for more answers.

The big knock I repeatedly hear involves Willingham's ability to attract the top flight talent that Notre Dame needed to succeed. Interesting theory, but simply not true. According to scout.com, Coach Willingham posted the #13 overall class in the country in 2002 and the #5 overall class in 2003 while Coach Weis posted the #27 class in 2005 and the #5 class in 2006. The one class Willingham failed with was 2004 where they landed #30. He finished the year being fired. One poor recruiting class apparently gets you fired at Notre Dame. Some say that is fair. I say let's look closer.

The expected depth chart for this upcoming season (Weis' third with Notre Dame) will still have three offensive starters recruited by Willingham and six defensive starters. Last year's 10-3 squad that everyone raved about so much featured nine offensive starters recruited by Coach Ty and all eleven defensive starters. So he can't attract enough talent but his players can go 10-3 with another coach? This fails to include that fact that eleven other players left the Notre Dame program sinced Tyrone Willingham was fired on December 1, 2004, due to their loyalty to him.

This isn't too say that Weis cannot recruit as he certainly can. He had the #11 class in the country for 2007 and thus far has the best class of committs in 2008. But would Willingham have done any worse?

It was Willingham who recruited Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija, Darius Walker, Rhema McKnight, Anthony Fasano, Maurice Stovall, John Carlson, and Tom Zbikowski. That talent looks pretty good to me.

The other knock on Willingham involved his ability to win on Saturdays. Everyone loved him up until Saturday. Well in his three seasons, the Fighting Irish posted a 7-8 record against ranked opponents beating Michigan two out of three times. Under Weis, the Irish hold a 3-5 record against ranked teams (beating Pittsburgh, Michigan, and Penn State). Both coaches hold 0-2 records in bowls at Notre Dame.

I understand that 9-3 followed by 10-3 gives Weis an upper hand. But again he did it with Tyrone's players including Brady Quinn who Willingham never got to go the battle with as a starter. Tyrone went with Carlye Holliday and many other Bob Davie players.

Could Willingham have gone 10-3 with his players at Notre Dame last year? Unfortunately we will never know as the Irish administrators decided that Coach Willingham didn't "produce" enough. Wonder what they would have said if he was white.