- Florida has had four (4) players transfer this season: backup quarterback Bryan Waggener, sophomore receiver Jarred Fayson, freshman running back Bo Williams and sophomore defensive end Trent Pupello. Did you see this headline on any sports sites? Probably not. When Notre Dame had a few transfers early in the year (so that players didn't have to lose a year of eligibility), the sporting world gushed of turmoil within the program.
- UCLA recently fired head coach Karl Dorrell after a 5-year record of 35-27 (.565). I guess the difference between classless, irrelevant bigotry and business as usual is 2 years.
- Nebraska recently fired head coach Bill Callahan after a 4-year record of 27-22 (.551). No comments here about Callahan not getting a fair shake by Nebraska. If you were to read the articles, you'd be led to believe Callahan had been eating babies over in Lincoln.
I guess another way of looking at this is that Notre Dame is held to a different, higher standard than everyone else. And although this can be annoying at times, I guess at the end of the day it's what everyone should want for their alma mater and what every other university in the land is desperately aspiring to be...
1 comment:
I am on board 100% with Ian's comments. I will take it a step further. How many hatchet jobs did you read this year or hear discussed on TV comparing Weis's 1st 3 years to Ty's? They were running ongoing stats from Game 1 throughout the season to compare!
Whether or not you want to talk about Willingham, EVERYBODY ELSE CONTINUES TO USE IT AGAINST NOTRE DAME. Unfortunately, the undercurrent of all this discussion is that Notre Dame fired Willingham because he is black. I don't know about you, but I will defend my Alma Mater vigorously!
I don't know if he will get fired, but it appears Jim Mora Jr. is waiting in the wings - literally, as he already lives in Seattle. If that happens, then I will watch the media reaction with GREAT INTEREST.
As an aside, I feel that 3 years has granted a bit of perspective to the whole Willingham/Meyer/Weis debacle. My current feelings about the situation is that ND was generally unhappy with the performance of the team under Willingham, and was extremely concerned about the future given the poor recruiting results of the previous 2 years. When I say ND, I mean the rich alumni and the new administration that was just taking over (remember Jenkins wasn't even the official president yet). Then, it appeared that Urban Meyer was available. He was a former ND coach, catholic, and his star was on the rise after an amazing season at Utah State. He seemed like a sure thing (which he has turned out to be at Florida)! He also seemed like a perfect fit for ND. In an attempt to get this "perfect fit", ND fired Willingham prematurely. It had nothing to do with race. It was all about trying to get a hot coach that ND coveted. He blew us off for a number of reasons (poor recruiting, meddling by Davie, requests for JUCOs, commitment to Florida) and we got Weis. I really think that's all there is to it. If Meyer had not been available, Willingham would have been coach in 2005, and maybe beyond. People can make it as complicated as they want, but I think it's all about Urban Meyer.
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