There’s Nothing Special About Firing a Coach

Let there be no doubt that Notre Dame’s decision to fire Tyrone Willingham this week was all about race.

Skin color, however, was not the driving force.

The race of which we speak is ... well, pick one:

* Rat race.

* Arms race.

* Recruiting race.

* National title race.

The reason Willingham’s firing after three years stunned followers of the sport was only because Notre Dame did it.

Everyone presumed Notre Dame was different in every decent sense of the word because, for years, Notre Dame espoused these notions.

In the spring of 1984, Father Edmund Joyce, the Notre Dame president, summoned Coach Gerry Faust to his office for a meeting.

Faust had completed his third year in South Bend and sat before Joyce with an almost unspeakable record of 18-15-1.

According to Faust’s book, “The Golden Dream,” Joyce said, “a lot of people are starting to question our decision to hire you.”

Joyce, though, did not fire Faust -- he coached two more years.

Faust writes that Joyce told him: “I think we’re the only college in the country that hasn’t gotten rid of a coach or bought out his contract. They’ve even done it at Stanford. They’ve done it at every college I know of. After a couple of years, if a coach hasn’t been successful, they get rid of him. They’re ruthless.”

They’re ruthless.

Twenty years later, at approximately 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Notre Dame became one of them.

At other institutions of higher football learning, whacking a coach to find a better one is standard operating procedure.

Most schools competing at the highest level don’t bother waiting until the end of the regular season to do the dirty deed.

This year, for example, Florida axed Ron Zook early just so he didn’t get any crazy ideas about trying to save his job with a strong finish (good move because Zook won three of his last four, including a victory at Florida State).

Last year, Auburn officials trekked by private jet to offer Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino its head coaching position -- never mind Auburn had a coach, Tommy Tuberville, who was still under contract.

Notre Dame this week made a cold, calculated, business decision to swim with the sharks.

As much as being magnanimous counts, winning counts more.

The dawning of a new era?

“I think if it says anything, it’s an underscore of the notion that football is very important at Notre Dame, and the competitive expectations, again, are not downwardly negotiable ... “ Athletic Director Kevin White said.

From where we sit, the Irish saw a golden opportunity to strike and could not pass it up.

The school was willing to take the public relations hit for firing a black coach because it couldn’t live with the consequences of not firing him.

Urban Meyer, a former Irish assistant, is sitting in Utah with an 11-0 record and the world at his feet. Meyer is never going to be a hotter coaching candidate than he is now and probably would not be able to wait around for Notre Dame, his dream job, to open up.

If Notre Dame didn’t act fast, Meyer might have gone to Florida and been locked up for years.

So, Notre Dame acted.

It’s something any self-respecting, booster-driven school in the Southeastern Conference would have done.

The sad part for Willingham, his family, and members of the African American community who were hoping a black coach at Notre Dame would serve as a beacon for coaching opportunities, is that all this could have been avoided.

Three years ago, before Notre Dame hired George O’Leary (oops), and then Willingham, Meyer was available. He had just completed his first year at Bowling Green, leading the Falcons to their first winning season since 1994.

Meyer then might have been considered too much of a “risk” hire.

Tuesday, though, Notre Dame unveiled its shiny new “proactive” mode and announced it is back in serious football business.

One more thing: The notion Notre Dame can’t be Notre Dame again is just a lazy, lame excuse for accepting mediocrity.

All it will take in South Bend is the right coach punching the right buttons.

People said USC couldn’t win anymore because of inadequate practice facilities when all it took was Pete Carroll.

Oklahoma was Joke-lahoma in the 1990s -- until the school hired Bob Stoops.

Sometimes, all it takes at the highest levels of major college football is the wisdom to hire the right coach and the nerve to fire the wrong one.

Bill Parcells has a favorite saying: You are what you are.

And, as of right now, Notre Dame is what it is.

Rocky Road

Who could have imagined last spring that Willingham would not have a job this week and Gary Barnett would?

Colorado’s march to Saturday’s Big 12 championship game at Kansas City, Mo., has to rate as one of the season’s biggest surprises.

Barnett not only survived a scandal last spring that nearly cost him his job, he was named Big 12 coach of the year this week by Associated Press.

Granted, at face, going 7-4 and winning the watered-down Big 12 North Division is no great accomplishment. Yet it is when you consider Barnett spent last winter and spring on administrative leave while the school investigated charges Colorado used sex and alcohol to lure recruits to the football program.

Colorado can win a trip to the Fiesta Bowl if it can pull off a major upset against No. 2 Oklahoma.

Barnett survived an ugly investigation and was cleared of any direct involvement. Somewhat remarkably, the football team did not implode while Barnett was away from February to May.

Junior quarterback Joel Klatt said the team started to bond last spring “once the media horde left and the rallies ended.”

Klatt said the Colorado captains and veterans kept the young players in line.

“Obviously, there were a few grumblings,” Klatt said this week. “A few guys actually left and the older guys on the team kind of brought the team together and said, ‘Listen, if you want to transfer, fine, please do, but if you don’t we’re going to be a fantastic football team. We’re going to win some football games. So if you stay this is what’s going to happen.’ ”

Klatt said the taunts against Colorado players ended when the Buffaloes got off to a 3-0 start.

Klatt: “Wins cure just about everything.”

Hurry-Up Offense

Scenario Central: OK, so what happens if ... ?

If USC, Oklahoma and Auburn all win Saturday and California beats Southern Mississippi and stays at No. 4 in the bowl championship series, USC and Oklahoma are probably headed to the Orange Bowl, Auburn lands in the Sugar and Cal will go to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1959.

But that’s a big “if.”

Cal leads Texas by .0013 in the BCS standings. If Texas jumps Cal for that spot, the Rose Bowl would not be able to take Cal or Texas.

Two years ago, after the Rose Bowl lost Iowa to the Orange Bowl, the BCS implemented new rules to help protect schools and their “anchor” ties.

This rule may come back to bite the Rose Bowl.

If Texas is No. 4, it would go to the Fiesta Bowl because the school is traditionally tied to that bowl. In this scenario, the Rose Bowl probably would have to take 11-0 Utah to pair against Big Ten champion Michigan.

How about Utah vs. Auburn in a battle of unbeaten teams in the Sugar Bowl?

It sounds great. In fact, there’s a clause in the contract that allows BCS commissioners, in consultation with ABC, to adjust the pairings in the interest of creating “the most exciting and interesting postseason matchups possible.”

However, BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg said this week that probably wouldn’t happen.

“I think it would be very unusual to have pairings altered unless there was some compelling reason to do so,” Weiberg said.

The problem with the Utah-Auburn scenario is that it would leave the Fiesta Bowl with a highly mundane matchup of multi-loss Big East and ACC champions.

If Cal ends up in the Rose Bowl, Utah is a natural geographic fit for Tempe, Ariz., and the Fiesta Bowl would not give that up.

Why Weiberg is choosing his words very carefully these days: He is serving dual roles as BCS coordinator and Big 12 commissioner. One of his teams, Texas, is in a fight with Cal for a BCS at-large bid.

There is nothing sinister going on here. The job of BCS coordinator is rotated from conference to conference every few years.

Weiberg, though, knows that tensions are high regarding the Cal-Texas scenario.

Some in the Big 12 might wonder why he is not fighting harder for Texas.

“I’m not wavering at all in my support of our Big 12 teams,” Weiberg said. “But obviously, in my bowl championship series coordinator role, I need to speak generally and more broadly about the bowl championship series and how it works and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

*

That was then department: After Notre Dame upset Tennessee in Knoxville on Nov. 6, Irish Athletic Director White told one reporter he fully supported Coach Willingham.

So what happened in three weeks? “Let me just say this,” White said Tuesday. “I’m going to be behind every one of our coaches until they’re no longer our coaches. That’s the way it needs to be done.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Unemployment Line

NCAA Division I-A coaching changes:

* BRIGHAM YOUNG...Gary Crowton (resigned)

* EAST CAROLINA...John Thompson (resigned)

* FLORIDA...Ron Zook (fired)

* ILLINOIS...Ron Turner (fired)

* INDIANA...Gerry DiNardo (fired)

* MISSISSIPPI...David Cutcliffe (fired)

* NEW MEXICO STATE...Tony Samuel (fired)

* NOTRE DAME...Tyrone Willingham (fired)

* OHIO...Brian Knorr (fired)

* SAN JOSE STATE...Fitz Hill (resigned)

* SOUTH CAROLINA...Lou Holtz (retired)

* STANFORD...Buddy Teevens (fired)

* NEVADA LAS VEGAS...John Robinson (retired)

* UTAH STATE...Mick Dennehy (fired)

* WASHINGTON...Keith Gilbertson (resigned)

* WESTERN MICHIGAN...Gary Darnell (fired)