When Instant Gratification Goes Too Far

Tyrone Willingham has been fired. Notre Dame will now be looking for it's third new head coach in as many years. I'm no fan of Notre Dame, but you have to give people a chance to succeed. The amount of money that is pouring into college athletics these days is just not allowing any time for a program to develop. You basically have one season to "right the ship" and not much of a chance to have a bad season after that. Willingham actually had it pretty lucky his first year by inheriting a team determined to erase the memories of a very bad season with former head coach Bob Davie. That coupled with the embarrassment of hiring George O'Leary who resigned five days later over a forged resume, fired the team up and got them to a BCS game in 2002. Now, two years later, Willingham hasn't even seen his recruits get into the starting lineup and he is being kicked out the door.

Of course now the rumors of who will replace him are flying. It was only a matter of time before the name Urban Meyer came up but the man of the hour had little to say:

Meyer wouldn't say Tuesday whether he'd be interested if Notre Dame called, but he did acknowledge the clause in his Utah contract that allows him to leave Utah without penalty if he is named head coach at Michigan, Ohio State or Notre Dame. The clause was included in the contract extension he signed last summer.

A similar clause was cited when Texas A&M hired Dennis Franchione away from Alabama, but I always assumed it was just an Urban legend (pun fully intended!). In any event, when the Aggies played the Utah Utes for the first time last year, I knew that Urban Meyer would be coaching at one of the big programs in a matter of time. He had already turned around Bowling Green in two short years and at the time coached a hell of a game at Kyle Field in College Station. This year has only reinforced that he is "ready for primetime" as some would say. I'm just glad there are no coaching openings in the Big XII (yet!). We already have it too hard as it is.

Only time will tell how this story will shake out, but it has become evident that if you take the head coaching job at a "prestige program," there is a target on your back from day one. You better win and win big right away. Otherwise, it won't be long until you are back waiting for another coach to learn what you already know.