Tyrone Willingham

Year	School	Record	Bowl
1995	Stanford	7-4-1	Liberty
1996	Stanford	7-5	Sun
1997	Stanford	5-6
1998	Stanford	3-8
1999	Stanford	8-4	Rose
2000	Stanford	5-6
2001	Stanford	9-3	Seattle
2002	Notre Dame	10-3	Gator
2003	Notre Dame	5-7
2004	Notre Dame	6-5	Insight
2005	Washington	2-9
2006	Washington	5-7
2007	Washington	4-9
Career		76-76-1	.497
	Washington	11-25	.306

2008 SCHEDULE

Date	Opponent	Location	2008 CHS Prediction
8/30/08	at Oregon	Eugene, OR	L
9/06/08	BYU	Seattle, WA	L
9/13/08	Oklahoma	Seattle, WA	L
9/27/08	Stanford	Seattle, WA	W
10/04/08	at Arizona	Tucson, AZ	W
10/18/08	Oregon State	Seattle, WA	W
10/25/08	Notre Dame	Seattle, WA	W
11/01/08	at USC	Los Angeles, CA	L
11/08/08	Arizona State	Seattle, WA	L
11/15/08	UCLA	Seattle, WA	W
11/22/08	Washington St.	Pullman, WA	W
12/06/08	at California	Berkeley, CA	L

	Coaches Hot Seat Prediction		6-6

Coaches Hot Seat Analysis

Wow! Talk about a tough football schedule, Washington starts with: at Oregon, BYU, and Oklahoma in 2008! Just when Ty Willingham needs a big season he is faced with one of the toughest starts to a football season that we have ever seen. The 2008 season for the Huskies will turn on three things:

1. The development of Jake Locker - To us Jake Locker looks like he can be better than Tim Tebow, if he can develop some passing and game management skills. Locker is not afraid of sticking his nose into anything on a football field and his task in the offseason will be to make his ability to throw the ball downfield a credible threat to opposing teams. If Locker can become a solid passer, and he will need the UW receivers to really step up their games, Washington will then have an offense that can put teams back on their heels, something that has not been seen from the Huskies in years.

2. Reestablish Husky Stadium dominance - Before you can go on the road and win big games you must prove you can win those games at home. Willingham is 6-13 in three seasons at Husky Stadium, and that record just does not feed the bulldog. With 7 homes games in 2008 a winning record among those games is a must, and there is no reason that UW shouldn't beat Stanford, Oregon State, Notre Dame, and UCLA at home. If Washington does have a losing record among its games at Husky Stadium, then the season and possibly Willingham's career will be lost.

3. UW must beat teams they are more talented than on the road - Washington plays 12 games in 2008 and they have as much or more talent than 6 of those teams, and wins on the road against Arizona and Washington State are a must to a successful '08. Mike Stoops is on his last legs in Tucson and the October 4 game between UW and Arizona will go a long ways in determining whether Stoops or Willingham will return for the 2009 season.

4. Beat Notre Dame - If there ever was a symbolic football game it is the October 25 Washington - Notre Dame game at Husky Stadium. In one fell swoop Willingham can both bury his experiences in South Bend and reestablish Washington as a serious football program. If Notre Dame can improve at all in '08 they will have a real chance to arrive at Husky Stadium undefeated and there would be no better time nor place for Willingham to prove once and for all that the Irish made a mistake by not giving Ty the opportunity to coach out his entire contract. Can Washington beat Notre Dame in 2008? Absolutely, and we believe they will.

5. Play defense - In football everything starts and ends with the ability to stop the other team, and for some reason playing defense has been a serious problem for Willingham at UW. Washington football is known for a lot of things, but anyone that has been paying attention over the last couple of decades knows that a tough, unrelenting, nasty, in your face, take no quarter defense is a trademark of the great Husky football teams. If you think the Southern Cal players will lay a lick on you, then you haven't seen Washington defenses in their glory days. Willingham and his new defensive staff must reacquire that toughness that has been a trademark of UW defenses, because there is only one way you are guaranteed of beating the other team: Making sure the other team doesn't score. We will all know early on if Washington has come to play football in 2008 when they face off against Oregon in the opener, because that is the time and place that Washington needs to lay down a marker that it is not going to put up with other football teams in the Pac-10 pushing them around anymore. If we see Oregon players confused and stunned with the intensity that UW has brought to that game, then Washington football will be on its way back. If Oregon rolls over Washington, then 2008 will be off to a disastrous start for the Huskies.

Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line

We are predicting a 6-6 record for Willingham and Washington in 2008. There are several keys games along the way, but defending Husky Stadium will be a must, along with beating with Washington State in the Apple Cup. If Willingham and UW are sitting with a record of at least 6-5 after winning the Apple Cup, with only a trip to Berkeley to play Cal, then Willingham will have certainly made a fairly large stride over his first 3 seasons in Seattle. With one of the toughest schedules in the country, a 6-6 or 7-5 record by UW, along with the first Washington bowl trip in years will be quite an accomplishment and we believe that will show enough improvement to UW President Emmert to allow Willingham to at least coach the full-length of his contract. The people that support Washington football are mightily proud of their grand football tradition, as they should be, and they rightly expect that UW football will consistently compete for the Pac-10 conference championship and will also be a perennial Top 25 football program. Ty Willingham must show that he is making progress in his rebuilding of the Washington football program and at least a .500 record will be the kind of step that will demonstrate that his style of football will have some staying power at the University of Washington. Anything less than a .500 record for UW in 2008, and there will be a new head coach on the sidelines for Washington in '09.

We couldn't find what we believe to be a Lou Holtz quote, but we think Coach Holtz said something like, "On every play you either are going to hit someone or they are going to hit you. Resolve that on every play you are going to be the person that is doing the hitting." If Washington starts really hitting people, and we mean slobber-knocker type hits, Washington has an opportunity to make 2008 a year of rebirth for its football program in the grand city of Seattle.

2008 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction: 6-6

Will Willingham be back for the 2009 season? YES