Willingham Points Finger at Himself

Tyrone Willingham blamed himself Wednesday for his firing as Notre Dame coach, saying he failed to meet the school’s expectations of producing an elite football team.

“When you don’t meet your own expectations, you make yourself vulnerable to the will of others,” he said.

But Willingham, whose three-year tenure was the shortest of any non-interim coach at the school in 70 years, wouldn’t say whether he was given enough time to turn the storied program back into a power.

“I don’t get into what’s fair and what’s not fair. I am an optimist by nature, but I am also a realist, and that makes you deal with the events as they occur,” he said.

Willingham knew discussions about his job were underway Sunday but said he was surprised by the firing. Willingham was asked whether he had any thoughts on the number of African American head coaches in Division I-A being reduced from five to two. “Plenty, but none of them will be discussed now,” he said.

Willingham said he had informal contact with Washington about its coaching vacancy. The Notre Dame players voted Wednesday to play in the Insight Bowl at Phoenix on Dec. 28 with defensive coordinator Kent Baer as interim coach.