General

You, Too, Can Fire Ty Willingham And Experience Wild Recruiting Success

Jun 11, 2009, 6:00 PM UTC

Ty Willingham may have the strangest and most disappointingâ†µcareer arc of any coach in recent memory. After takingâ†µStanford -- Stanford! -- to a Rose Bowl he proceeded to crater two traditionalâ†µpowers, the last failure coming last season with Washington’s spectacular 0-12 debacle.â†µâ†µFailure that epic encompasses every facet of your being. But amongstâ†µthe vast array of things Willingham failed at, recruiting was probablyâ†µthe most comprehensive. Bring him up to a Notre Dame fan and you’ll beâ†µtreated to an exegesis on his 2004â†µand 2005â†µrecruiting classes, which between them featured more two stars than fourâ†µstars and produced exactly one player -- David Bruton -- with any chance at anâ†µNFL career. When Notre Dame fans claimed Willingham was the man largelyâ†µresponsible for their 3-9 epic death season, they weren’t thatâ†µwrong. This at Notre Dame, a school that has Catholic high schoolsâ†µacross the country itching to send kids their way.â†µ

â†µâ†µLast year Willingham had racked up zeroâ†µrecruits by July, by which time every other Pac-10 school had atâ†µleast four, and a paltryâ†µfive by mid-October. That class, a combined Sarkisian-Willinghamâ†µeffort, had one guy with four stars, and that guy was a JUCO whoâ†µcommitted to Sarkisian on Signing Day. Yea, verily: where Willinghamâ†µgoes, high school recruits otherwise destined for the Sun Belt follow.â†µ

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â†µThe good news is that whenever Willingham leaves a place, theâ†µrecruiting bounce that follows is palpable. Despite seeming to be theâ†µmost unpleasant man in the universe, Charlie Weis has racked up classâ†µafter class of highly-touted recruits, and now Washington has acquiredâ†µquarterback Nick Montana, who, yes, is that Nick Montana.â†µWhile the younger Montana wasn't an epic recruit, he did have offersâ†µfrom Notre Dame, Ohio State, Georgia, and a wide variety of otherâ†µpower programs.â†µ

â†µâ†µHe picked 0-12 Washington. Which, in a TLA: WTF? North Texas shouldâ†µhire Willingham, fire him after one year, and see if they recruit likeâ†µUSC. It couldn’t hurt any more than being North Texas does right now,â†µright?â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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