Coach Tyrone Willingham was fired by Notre Dame on Tuesday after three seasons in which he failed to return one of the nation's most storied football programs to prominence.
Here's what I think: F*ck Notre Dame.
Every other coach ND has ever had was allowed to serve the term of his contract.
So why not Tyrone?
He had big wins this year against Michigan and Tennessee.
They're bowl-bound.
He had a winning record.
I guess the Golden Domers aren't holier than anyone else after all: they don't make the Top 10 for a year or two and panic sets in... because football is all that they have to give their school any sort of credibility.
Pathetic.
And isn't it ironic, in a Jim Crow kind of way, that the ND athletic director's name is Kevin White.
Of course, race played nothing in this, but the Black guy gets his contract clipped short by two full years.
Funny how that equal opportunity stuff works.
Enough said.
As a diehard Stanford alum, I say: let's bring Tyrone back to The Farm.
We brought Bill Walsh back, and he never had the same kind of success.
Willingham was the most successful recruiter we had in the last 25 years and at least half-a-dozen of his guys now play on Sundays.
All of his kids graduated on time.
He beat Notre Dame.
He got us to a Rose Bowl once.
He can do it again.
But at least we understand that these kids are student-athletes, and that some years will be great and some will be average or below.
We're not a football factory, we're a top-tier school, but we still compete with the best on the field too. Paging Stanford Athletic Dept.: you better call Tyrone.