Ty Willingham Survives a Last-Place Finish

Despite a Pac-10 cellar finish for the Washington Huskies, despite an underwhelming 11-25 record over the last three seasons, and despite a ton of fan angst openly wishing for former Atlanta coach Jim Mora, it appears Tyrone Willingham has survived. Washington has announced a 2 PM PST press conference today to confirm that Tyrone Willingham will in fact remain as the head coach of the Huskies.

While there is no immediate word, there is speculation that UW will "clean house" in regards to the defensive coaching staff. That would include the ouster of longtime Willingham defensive coordinator Kent Baer among others. The Husky defense was not only one of the worst in the conference and the nation in 2007, but it was the worst in school history in terms of yards allowed.

Why keep a coach who has gone 11-25 and finished at the bottom of the conference? Why not make a change when you've just seen Willingham become the first coach in school history to roll out three consecutive losing seasons? There are a few reasons. Mainly three million of them, as in the amount of money it would take to buy out Willingham's remaining two years on his original five-year contract. There's Jake Locker, the redshirt frosh who burst onto the scene to become the conference's Freshman of the Year, a rising star in the Tim Tebow mold. The idea to shake things up at this point might hurt Locker's development. And, on the plus side of the ledger, Willingham has really done well this year in recruiting, especially the last few weeks. Washington has been securing some of the top recruits in the state, and currently project to have the 18th ranked class in the nation this year. Even better, there are more verbal commitments rumored to be on the way over the next few days. So in the end, UW President Mark Emmert and athletic director Todd Turner decided to keep things as they are. Will it pay off as UW tries to return to national relevance? Much to the chagrin of many Husky fans, we'll have to wait at least through the 2008 season to know the answer.