As for the whole Ty situation, the early rumblings of fans at UW are enough to confirm that what we felt about Ty’s quality of work was correct. Hopefully when Washington fires Ty, the whole ‘ND is racist’ should go away because, clearly, the University of Washington will be the ones that are racist.

I think the hysterics that the kool-aid drinkers fall into when the issue is raised because raising the issue is calling Notre Dame the institution racist. And there are few things uglier than a racist taint. Not protesting would be seen as a tacit admission of guilt by those members of the media with an agenda.

When Ty was winning (Back in his first year), we cheered him on. When ty had a rough 2nd year, many of us stuck by him. By his 3rd year, things were horrid. He wasn’t recruiting at all. And it was just a continuation of 8 bad years started with Davie.

The only “differnce” in the way Ty was treated had nothing to do with race. It had to do with timing. We weren’t going to accept more losing after losing with Davie. Davie had the luxury of following a legend. Big shoes to fill, but at least he didn’t have a fan-base of people already hurting like Ty did. It’s hysterical that a columnist use Davie in some way to defend Ty, when so much of what Davie did during his time at ND didn’t help at all.

There are people of all races and backgrounds who are part of the ND family. All that we ask is that you respect the history, tradition, and weight of ND. Neither Ty nor Davie did so, and as such were no welcome. Don’t go parsing words when there’s nothing to parse.

Ty was treated poorly because he was not part of the “family” – nice code word guys.

The hysterics the ND Kool-Aid drinkers go into when this issue is raised suggests that they know Ty was treated VERY differently for reasons society as a whole is still struggling to address.

Once you’ve caught your breath from you smart little assault of statistical massaging, why don’t you look at Bad Kermits comments and tell us how many 12-men on the field penalties Ty had vs. Weis. Or how many times did Ty mismanaged a clock while Weis and his team seemed to have mastered it, even with the idiotic rules.

After that, tell me how often you figure people saw Ty out on the golf course when he could have been recruiting. Then do the same for Weis. And then remind me how highly ranked each of the recruiting classes hauled in by Ty were after the class that included Quinn. Then let me know what Weis’ first 2 full classes look like.  Oh, can you recall how many offensive linemen Ty recruited in his last 2 years?
Once you’re done with that, remind me how many 30 point losses Ty suffered. How many times was he shut out? Then tell me the same for Weis.

How many times did Ty’s teams play the “team of the century” down to the wire?

How many times did a ND team have big comebacks when under the command of Ty? How about Weis?

After all of that, go and read past transcripts of press conferences by Ty and Charlie. Charlie finds 10-3 to be unacceptable. I seem to recall Ty bragging about having won “6 of the last 8” when taking into account games from the previous season. Remind me how often Ty lead by example for the young men commited to ND by not accepting mediocrity. Go out and find me a direct quote.

Remind me how many 4-year seniors and juniors will be playing for ND next year thanks to Ty’s recruiting efforts.

Remind me of how Ty refused to leave a top recruit’s home to the point of creeping out the recruit’s family b/c he allowed his golf habit to ruin his recruiting to a point of desperation.

Remind me again how weak a schedule we had in 2006 considering our first 5 opponents were undefeated heading into our games.

Remind me how many times the molder of men innovated or even adjusted on offense beyond the bubble screen.

Remind me again how we lost to BYU in Ty’s last year, only to discover that we could beat Michigan the next with some unknown frosh running back that we didn’t even have on the plane for BYU.

Hey, how many times has Weis been blown out by the likes of Purdue?

Chicks don’t dig stupidity, TGS.

In 2004 ND played one of the toughest schedules in the country, in which 8 of 12 teams were ranked at some point during the season including 5 of the top 25 in the final polls. This team beat two teams that finished ranked in the top 15. In 2006 ND played one of the weakest schedules it’s had in recent memory with only 5 of 13 opponents ranked at any time, and only 4 in the final rankings. This team beat no teams finished in the top 20

In 2004 Notre Dame gave up 41 points and 490 yards of total offense to undefeated National Champion USC, lead by the Heisman Trophy winning Quarterback. In 2006 Notre Dame gave up 44 points and 410 yards of total offense to the youngest USC team in over a decade lead by a first year starter and who lost to TWO unranked teams.

Willingham’s last season had three losses (two of them to ranked teams) by 3 points or less that could have changed on a broken play or missed tackle on the last possession. This year Weiss had 3 wins (none of which to ranked teams) by 4 points or less that could have changed without broken play a missed tackle on the last possession.

Any combination of three of these six games breaking the other way would give Willingham’s 2004 season, and Weiss’s 2006 season the same number of losses, and probably the same final ranking in the national polls. One hypothesis is that Wiess’s leadership makes all the difference, another is that natural maturing of young stars is worth a field goal a game. Consider:

The team leader in rushing, touchdown receptions, and passing for Willingham in 2004 were a young and still learning Brady Quinn, Rhema McNight and Darius Walker. The team leader in rushing, touchdown receptions, and passing for Weiss this year are very experienced Brady Quinn, Rhema McNight and Darius Walker. Also Willingham had to start true sophomore Ryan Harris at left tackle protecting Quinn, while Weiss has 4 year starter all-American Ryan Harris at left tackle protecting Quinn.

Willingham’s first two full recruiting classes were ranked in the top 10 and top 5 respectively, and Weiss’s first full recruiting class was in the top 10, and is on track to have a second one in the top 5.

Going into the 2004 season (his third recruiting) class ND publicly refused to extend his contract and there were rumors swirling that the Board of Trustees wanted him out. Going into the 2006 season Weiss got a 10 year extension to help with recruiting, has vastly better facilities to help with recruiting, way higher salaries for his assistant coaches, and more leeway on getting fifth year eligibility for players (recall you didn’t used to get a red-shirt for purely football reasons).

After the 2004 season Willingham was fired. After the 2006 season Weiss has total job security, and next year is going to make 4 times more than Willingham was ever given.

So in conclusion I’m pretty much back on the “Ty got Screwed” bandwagon.

Oh yeah, only 1 nd player was taken in the first 4 rounds of the NFL draft after the 2004 season, whereas Weiss could be losing as many as 6 taken in the first three this year.