Tyrone Willingham and UW Football

Last week at the Sundance Film Festival we met up with an old high school friend (and UW alum) for dinner. We discussed, among other things, the current state of University of Washington football. We both agreed that we liked Tyrone Willingham and hoped the fans, boosters, and university would give him enough time to succeed.

Winning shouldn't be everything, though sometimes some decisions are made as though that were the case. Some UW fans wish for the good old days of Rick Neuheisel, who, incidentally, was recently hired by UCLA to be their head coach.

In case they forgot what winning at any cost actually costs, the Seattle Times recently published a tremendous special report about the costs of UW's 2001 Rose Bowl winning team. Among the highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be) were rape by the start tight end, armed robbery by a linebacker, and a felon/safety. These were the most notorious among a team with numerous arrests.

Victory & Ruins - Overview
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Jerramy Stevens
Chapter 2 - Jeremiah Pharms
Chapter 3 - Curtis Williams
Chapter 4 - Anthony Kelley
Epilogue - Win, and win properly

We hope this series of articles will remind the aforementioned people--fans, boosters, administrators--that sometimes the cost of winning is too high. And that as they remember that, they will give Ty Willingham enough time to continue the turnaround of the program and prove he can win.


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