Willingham ouster part of needed change for Huskies

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A man losing his job is rarely a festive occasion, but the news that Tyrone Willingham wouldn't return as the Washington football coach in 2009 produced a sigh of relief Monday more than another bad-vibe event. Press conferences convened to announce a college coach's firing typically begin with a university spokesman reading a statement; the coach who's been shown the door, as often as not, already has left the building. Willingham delivered the news on his own. In a solemn tone, he spoke softly, measuring his words carefully.In other words, Willingham was his usual self.And he'll be able to remain his usual self for the next six weeks, which will give him a chance to experience his first victory of 2008 and his last victory on the Huskies' sideline. The milestones might even occur on different Saturdays. Whatever happens, the worst is over. Sure, another chain-saw massacre seminar awaits this Halloween weekend at Southern California, where the Huskies have been installed as 43-point underdogs. The Trojans could start their second-team defense and beat Washington by 43 points.But nothing will compare to last Saturday, when Willingham was at a loss to explain his offense's comprehensive inability to compete. Nothing will equal the sheer depravity of 30,000 empty seats during the third quarter, of a nationally televised game, against Notre Dame.Some 40 hours later, we learned that the debacle was Willingham's final game as the Huskies' full-time coach. It's sad to see a principled person fall victim to an impersonal standard -- too few victories and too many defeats -- but while the announcement put a desperate coach out of his misery, it gave everybody else reason to remember that sunny skies eventually follow storms. Athletic director Scott Woodward stressed that his reluctance to make a wholesale coaching change in the middle of a season was steeped in respect for the players."I did not want the team," he put it, "to be orphaned."Then again, by making a coaching change -- but delaying the actual change for several weeks -- it frees Woodward and UW president Mark Emmert to conduct a search for a successor, and conduct it without trepidation."One of the advantages of making this official," Emmert said, "is that it gives us the liberty to begin conversations with potential candidates and their representatives. Scott and I are really committed to not doing things behind people's backs."If we were going to explore coaches, we sure didn't want to do that without Tyrone knowing his situation."Aside from avoiding the guilt trip, there's a practical component in getting a head start: There are some candidates who are not employed, available on a first-offer, first-serve basis.Former Raiders coach Lane Kiffin, for instance. He's a former Southern California offensive coordinator who once was in charge of recruiting West Coast prospects to play for Trojans' coach Pete Carroll. Not the most demanding gig, to be sure, but he did it, and he did it well. As for the pursuit of employed candidates, that's delicate terrain. There's something smarmy about a school, with no possibility of a bowl, throwing a job opportunity at the head coach of a bowl-bound team. It's legal, and it's commonplace, but still quite smarmy.Assistant coaches? That's something else. For one, they'd be ascending the ladder, instead of moving laterally for a lucky-for-life jackpot. There's nothing untoward about the notion of extending a head-coaching offer in the Northwest to an assistant coach in the Midwest. Expect Woodward to contact Missouri offensive coordinator Dave Christensen, a UW product who grew up in Everett, Wash. and has football ties throughout his native state. Christensen is the architect of Mizzou's explosive spread offense, though it must be noted that in football, as in business, there's a difference between the architect and a CEO. Texas' defensive coordinator Will Muschamp is everything Willingham isn't: passionate, loud, sometimes profane, always electric. He's got no Washington connection -- given his Southern-centric resume -- but Muschamp, a former LSU assistant, is familiar with Woodward and Emmert from their days in Baton Rouge.Kiffin? Christensen? Muschamp? At least the vetting of the first wave of candidates won't have to be conducted overnight. If Woodward had waited until the season finale on Dec. 6 to release Willingham, overnight vetting would have been required. As for the Huskies players who've developed a history with Willingham, they sound resilient: down, but not out. "Change can be a good thing," injured quarterback Jake Locker said Monday, "or a bad thing." Uh, Jake? Your team is 0-7, about to be 0-8. It hasn't won a game in almost a year.If change from this trend is a bad thing, heaven help us all.(Contact John McGrath at john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)