SEATTLE - The other day, I asked Tyrone Willingham if he was paying attention to the recent Notre Dame football scores. You know, the ones that, through three games, show the defense outscoring the offense.
He smiled. Now, the Washington football coach has a certain smile he displays for the media when they're digging for answers to their questions and he's just as determined not to provide them.
This didn't look like one of those smiles. I'm going to infer it was a smile that fronted an uproarious laugh track playing deep within him - though, for the record, he said Tuesday on the Pac-10 conference call, "Why would one get a kick out of somebody else's misery?"
The Willingham/Charlie Weis debate has flared anew, with Notre Dame having begun the 2007 season playing like Wabash Community College. They're waking the echoes, all right - the ones ringing faintly from 1963, when the Irish last put together a similar season. That year, they were 2-7 under an interim coach named Hugh Devore, who happens to be the last Notre Dame alum before Weis to coach the team.
These Irish are plumbing depths unheard of in South Bend. Understand, Gerry Faust, the ridiculed 1980s coach, never won fewer than five games. This team could play until St. Patrick's Day and not get to five.
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Notre Dame has rushed for minus-14 yards and allowed opponents 712. It has surrendered 23 sacks, putting it on pace for 92.
So who gets the blame, Weis or Willingham?
Inevitably, these are circular controversies, leading to not much of anywhere. When Rick Neuheisel, a lightning rod like no other, came to Washington and Colorado successor Gary Barnett went 7-5 and 3-8 in his first two years, Neuheisel's supporters said, "Dude got everything out of what he had." His detractors said, "He got out of Dodge and left nothing behind."
Then when Barnett went 10-3 and won a Big 12 title in his third year, he was either (a) capitalizing on Neuheisel's remaining recruits, or (b) proving he was a superior coach.
Weis and Willingham share some culpability in the fall of the Irish.
