How To Bust Out Of Mediocrity: A UDub Sympathy Post

While some Dorrell apologists say wanting KD fired is bad form … check out one of the Washington Husky fan sites and the invective hurled at Ty Willingham, UDub 2nd year head coach, after a loss to winless Stanford at home and a second awful losing season in the Ty era. There is one post in that epic thread that is instructive for us in our efforts to get our football program back from the grip of mediocrity. It comes from a Notre Dame fan, and in his post he describes the miserable years of mediocrity they went through with Ty Willingham, and what they had to do and endure to get rid of him. Their situation sounds in many ways similar to ours with Karl Dorrell (although we don't think KD is a slacker). What worked for Notre Dame? A Petition!! Read the post in its entirety, its pretty illuminating. Here it is: Let me offer an insight from painful experience. What is happening to you is what happened to Notre Dame. Your current coach wants you to believe that you are not that pretty, that other guys don't like you, that he is the best you can do and you are lucky to have him. In this way, he ensures a nice set-up for himself as you pay him millions, he golfs a lot, the program rots (not his fault, Washington isn't what it used to be) and the players he is supposed to care for have their college football experience ruined as a once-proud program becomes a laughingstock while the national media blames not the coach, but the school because it just "isn't that great a job." All a carbon copy of what he did to Notre Dame. Nonsense.

The University of Washington is one of the top 25 programs in the history of the game in terms of winning percentage. They have won many major bowls, produced lots of NFLers, won a national championship and have a beautiful campus and area in which to live. But here's the rub. Your current coach views those who cherish and remember a proud tradition of winning at Washington as his enemies. Those people must be snickered at and run down with his friends in the media as "living in the past" and "unrealistic." Because if those people are right, Ty is a rotten coach.

Likewise, your administrators, anxious to eliminate the notion that you are a football factory want to keep a man like Ty because he has such "integrity" according to the national media. (I thought integrity consisted of working your ass off for an employer who plays you millions and not blaming your failures on your players, but I digress). Your administrators also have a vested interest — as ours did — in keeping Ty so as not to admit they made a disastrous mistake and so as to avoid the backlash from a media which will criticize you for firing such an articulate role model who happens to be an African American. You will need to blast the adminsitration from its current posture with dynamite. The dynamite used at Notre Dame was a letter signed by thousands of alums and a threat of contribution withholding.

Let me also mention one group that deserves the most sympathy. It is the players who your current coach always throws under the bus in the face of defeat. I defy anyone to find one time at Notre Dame or Washington when Ty blamed anything on his own gameplanning or mistakes. Ty wants you to believe that your players have no talent. That is a shame and shows a lack of integriTY. Three of the classes in your team were top thirty Scout classes coming in I believ. They are good athletes and should not lose to Stanford. Imagine how they feel hearing their coach — who everyone tells them is "a good man" — saying basically that they are no good and that is why they are losing. Your team as ours did is now dividing among the players on the team who have self-respect and are on to the fraud and those brainwashed into Ty's deadening, bland cult of personality. The rift will grow. In closing, let me tell you, you ARE NOT some run-of-the-mill program and you deserve better. I know what you are going through and feel for you. But Washington alumni and fans are going to have to make this happen for themselves. Good luck.

Wow!!

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