Should Tyrone Willingam take out Grady Little and buy him a few "bibos"? It seems now that Grady Little was in the exact same spot this year as Willingham was in December of 04.
Tyrone Willingam was 21-16 in 3 years at ND. (So far Weis is 20-14 at ND for reference) Willingham was not given his full "cycle" of 4-5 years at ND in order to properly play and recruit his own players (Quinn was his recruit).
Willingham was fired not because of his poor performance or because of his race, but because a new hot coaching name came on the market. Coach Urban Meyer with his roots seeded deep within South Bend, having served as an assistant for Lou Holtz and receivers coach for Davie, was finished with his time at Utah and was looking to move up in the coaching world. ND promptly fired Willingham for the chance at Meyer. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for the Irish, but Ty was unjustly fired.
Did the same occurence just happen with Grady Little and Joe Torre? Grady Little, whose reputation is scarred thanks to Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, did a solid job with the Dodgers in LA. Did he win immediately? No, however he field a competitive team who was in contention until the final month of the year and the Dodgers did set the NL record for attendance this year. Grady Little was in the process of creating a solid squad in LA but was bit by the injury bug (recall the signing of Jason Schmidt who then subsequently blew out his arm).
Joe Torre was the hot new name on the market and while his reputation speaks for itself, Grady Little was fired without good reason. (some may say there was a mutual resignation, but we all know thats bunk)
So my argument is that Little and Willingham were both unjustly fired because a hot new coach came on the market. Is this fair to them? Should ND and the Dodgers be reprimanded for these quick decisions? Thoughts?
