…Because this whole Journalism thing just isn’t working out.
Jon Wilner wouldn’t know a fact if it beat him within an inch of his life with a lead pipe. And as a result, he’s turned in this piece of detritus as his latest hack job. No link for Jon. The bold words are mine:
Why does Weis get a golden pass?
By Jon Wilner
Mercury News Staff Columnist
It has been more than a week since Notre Dame got hammered by Louisiana State in the Sugar Bowl, more than a month since it got whipped by USC, almost four months since it got waxed by Michigan and just over a year since it got thumped by Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
So why hasn’t Irish Coach Charlie Weis been fired?
Why, at the very least, isn’t his job in jeopardy?
After all, Tyrone Willingham’s poor performance in big games got him fired after three seasons in South Bend. Weis is 0-4 in big games in the past 54 weeks. Shouldn’t he be held to the same standard?
Because Willingham wasn’t fired for his losses in big games. Or, at least, not just for his big losses in big games. His losses to teams like Purdue, Boston College, BYU, etc… hurt Willingham more. The losses to elite teams hurt, but the losses to the supporting cast of characters on the stage of college football damn a program to irrelevance.
The Irish couldn’t possibly be treating the white coach differently . . .
Before we go there, let’s review the facts:
• Willingham became the first black coach in Notre Dame history in any sport when he left Stanford for South Bend after the 2001 season.
• Willingham was the first Notre Dame football coach to be fired before his first contract expired — in his case, after three years.
• Willingham was not fired because of the team’s off-field performance. The players stayed out of trouble and did well in the classroom.
• Willingham was not fired because of his record (21-15), which was better than the three-year marks of two predecessors, Gerry Faust and Bob Davie. Both of them were brought back for a fourth season — and a fifth.
Actually, Willingham was fired for his record. The bar isn’t set at Gerry Faust and Bob Davie. God help us if any program were to set the bar at Bob Davie. Willingham knew the score. And if he didn’t, that’s his fault. ND wasn’t just going to say, “ooh, that whole Bob Davie era? Forget it. We’ll just pretend it didn’t happen.” Willingham needed to win and win immediately and then keep on winning. He failed.
No, the Irish needed a reason they could justify, and it was this: Willingham’s teams were not competitive in big games.
According to who? What official announcement claims as much?
Notre Dame’s president and athletic director opposed the dismissal, but members of the board of trustees made it happen — perhaps because they didn’t like the performances in big games but more likely because Willingham wasn’t a Notre Dame guy and because Urban Meyer was available. (Yes, the same Urban Meyer who just won the national title with Florida.)
Now here we are, two years into Weis’ tenure. No question, he’s a terrific offensive coach, and he has a better record through two seasons (19-6) than Willingham (15-10). But again: Willingham, who’s now at Washington, wasn’t fired by Notre Dame because of his record. He was fired because of bad losses in big games.
You keep saying that, but I see you don’t use any supporting evidence.
Interesting that you bring up the 2-year records of Weis and Willingham. Weis has 19 victories in 25 games. How long did it take Willingham to garner 19 wins at ND? 31. It took 31 games for Willingham to win 19, and that’s after he won his first 10 in 12. So he only garnered 9 wins in the next 19.
Tell me, Jon, do you really think the comparison is apt considering Weis only needs 2 more wins to match Willinghams benchmark, and Weis has only coached for 2 seasons thus far? Further, do you really think Weis will enable you to compare records any more after next season? Even with the loss of so many “big names” after this past season, do you really think Weis will only win 2 games in his third season?
In the past 54 weeks, Weis has four of them:
• Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 20.
• Michigan 47, Notre Dame 21.
• USC 44, Notre Dame 24.
• LSU 41, Notre Dame 14.
I probably don’t need to point out to Jon that 2 of these “big games” were brought about by virtue of the fact that Weis got the team into 2 BCS games in his first two seasons. Even with the “hot start” that Willingham had, he didn’t reach a single BCS game. Didn’t even sniff one his 2nd and 3rd year.
Applying the same standard to Weis that was applied to Willingham, Weis’ job should be in jeopardy. Instead, he’s the golden boy under the Golden Dome, owner of a huge contract, beloved by fans and trustees alike.
But not, apparently, by a former Irish coach.
Warning: Wilner’s using Bob Davie to support his points. It’s sort of like using Attila the Hun to support Manifest Destiny.
“When you lose to Michigan, you lose to USC and you lose to LSU in a bowl game by a significant score, there will be ramifications from that for Charlie Weis,” Davie told ESPN radio, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“I think the shine is off, to be quite honest. I know going around the country talking to football coaches, particularly head coaches, I think a little bit of the mystique is definitely off.”
Pretty strong stuff. But Davie wasn’t finished.
“It’s hard to say Notre Dame improved this year with probably the No. 1 player in the NFL draft, (quarterback) Brady Quinn, with (receiver) Jeff Samardzija, with potentially five first-round NFL draft picks,” Davie said. “I don’t think they’re as good a team as they were last year. On defense they continued to go backwards.
“Notre Dame has had two successful seasons, two BCS bowl games in a row, but I think it’s hard to say that the program is really going in a positive direction right now.”
Everyone ok? Good. Moving on…
So, why isn’t Weis at least on the warm seat? Because, Notre Dame supporters say, he doesn’t have the players to compete with the USCs and LSUs — he still has Willingham’s recruits.
But that argument reeks of hypocrisy.
Actually, it’s because to any serious observer of the sport, it’s clear that Charlie Weis can and will do what’s necessary to win. Willingham wouldn’t know much about that. You don’t learn a lot about successful recruiting when you’re out on the golf course.
Further, time to let the “Willingham’s Players” myth die. It’s almost impossible to say Weis is winning with Willingham’s players on a metaphysical level. For one, there are almost no “Willingham Players” on the team. He did such a rotten job of recruiting not only quality, but simple quantity that his recruiting product is largely heavy with players from the Brady Quinn class. And heck, don’t even get me started with how Willingham recruited Quinn. He didn’t. Ndukwe’s father essentially recruited him. Shark was a largely unnoticed recruit from a town just down the road from ND. How hard could it have been to recruit him? And by the way, why didn’t Willingham ever play Shark? Was it a white/black thing?
The Irish didn’t cut Willingham any slack because he had Davie’s recruits. And the players Davie left for Willingham were not as good as the players Willingham left for Weis, starting with Quinn. We’ll see how the next few drafts turn out, but I’d bet the ‘06 Irish have more upperclass talent than the ‘04-05 Irish.
Only because Weis coached them up to their potential. Willingham wouldn’t have a clue about that. He wouldn’t have a clue about coaching anyone up to anything, really. Ever watch the guy at practice? He acts kind of like he acted in games, except he says less.
Why the apparent double-standard? I don’t think Willingham was treated differently by Notre Dame because he is black. I think he was treated differently by Notre Dame because he was different, and being black was not an insignificant part of that difference.
He was treated differently because ND’s supporters didn’t want to go thru 2 more years of mediocrity (to put it kindly). Granted, he paid for the sins of Davie, but he knew that going in, or he should have. Shame on him for his own naivety if he didn’t.
Willingham wasn’t a Notre Dame guy. He didn’t go to school there, had no ties to South Bend and, with his reserved personality, wasn’t the type to make boosters and trustees feel comfortable and important — to make them feel like the head coach was one of them.
Ask boosters and trustees how much time Weis spends hobnobbing. Answer: Very little. His job is to coach football. He understands that and so does ND. Willingham thought his job was to sneak onto the ND golf course without signing in so that his bosses would have no idea of all the time he spent working on his short game rather than recruiting.
Weis is one of them. He’s a white guy who went to Notre Dame.
You’re right. He’s white and he attended ND. Yay. What’s the point?
ND doesn’t demand that you attended ND in order to be part of the family. Ask the millions of Subway Alumni. You just have to be willing to be part of the family. Neither Willingham nor Davie were ever willing to do that.
Look, I’m not saying Weis should be fired this winter; he deserves another year. But if the Irish get pounded by Michigan and USC again next season and all is still swell with Weis, then Notre Dame could have an enormous public relations problem on its hands.
Only if you make it so, Jon. And if yo do, you’ll be setting your “cause” back yet again because you’re picking battles that just aren’t there. But seriously, consider trade school. I’m sure you have talents, but, like Willingham, you just haven’t figured out what they may be.
Further: The more I think about this, the more it ticks me off. The Civil Rights movement is far too important and far too valuable to this country to put up with some little snot like Jon Wilner and his efforts to trivialize it with straw-man arguments within the relatively unimportant context of college football. I do not know the history of Jon Wilner, and after today I don’t particularly care to know. However, I do know that Jon should really re-examine his life and his values. He took a precious piece of American history and made a mockery of it, especially in releasing this piece of trash on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Shame on him, and may karma and God judge him and treat him accordingly. It’s well within his rights as (I presume) an American citizen to act like a complete idiot for all the world to see, but it’s a measure of a man’s character in whether or not he chooses to do so.
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