You, Too, Can Fire Ty Willingham And Experience Wild Recruiting Success

Ty Willingham may have the strangest and most disappointing career arc of any coach in recent memory. After taking Stanford -- Stanford! -- to a Rose Bowl he proceeded to crater two traditional powers, the last failure coming last season with Washington's spectacular 0-12 debacle.

Failure that epic encompasses every facet of your being. But amongst the vast array of things Willingham failed at, recruiting was probably the most comprehensive. Bring him up to a Notre Dame fan and you'll be treated to an exegesis on his 2004 and 2005 recruiting classes, which between them featured more two stars than four stars and produced exactly one player -- David Bruton -- with any chance at an NFL career. When Notre Dame fans claimed Willingham was the man largely responsible for their 3-9 epic death season, they weren't that wrong. This at Notre Dame, a school that has Catholic high schools across the country itching to send kids their way.

Last year Willingham had racked up zero recruits by July, by which time every other Pac-10 school had at least four, and a paltry five by mid-October. That class, a combined Sarkisian-Willingham effort, had one guy with four stars, and that guy was a JUCO who committed to Sarkisian on Signing Day. Yea, verily: where Willingham goes, high school recruits otherwise destined for the Sun Belt follow.

The good news is that whenever Willingham leaves a place, the recruiting bounce that follows is palpable. Despite seeming to be the most unpleasant man in the universe, Charlie Weis has racked up class after class of highly-touted recruits, and now Washington has acquired quarterback Nick Montana, who, yes, is that Nick Montana. While the younger Montana wasn't an epic recruit, he did have offers from Notre Dame, Ohio State, Georgia, and a wide variety of other power programs.

He picked 0-12 Washington. Which, in a TLA: WTF? North Texas should hire Willingham, fire him after one year, and see if they recruit like USC. It couldn't hurt any more than being North Texas does right now, right?

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.